CURRENCYCOM:US30   Dow Jones Industrial Average Index
Take a look at this chart, or any chart of your choosing, and tell me what you see! Not just the technical terms and the direction of the market but explain what you are seeing, thinking and feeling as you read the market data from start to finish.

If you got the responses from twenty different people, you'd receive twenty different perspectives with twenty different interpretations. Some of them overlapping in their theories and explanations while others violently contradict and oppose each other. The beautiful thing about trading is that we all at one time or another are correct. "Correct" being that their was a legitimate opportunity to place a trade and make money based on your unique perspective of the information.

The difficult thing in trading is really understanding what we see and perceive in all of the market data. I want to emphasize... The difficult thing about trading is in truly understanding how we see and interpret market data in our own unique way. Some people see long, while others see short, and depending upon the system; on any particular trade, on any particular day, both sets of people are correct.

All systems have winners and losers, its an unavoidable fact. The acceptance of this fact will help you understand that you don't necessarily need to go searching for someone else's way of trading, you only to need gain a thorough understanding of how you view things. What resonates with you and your uniqueness? Maybe its moving averages and RSI, maybe its price action and support and resistance, or maybe its simply the day of the week at a specific time. When you start to unpack your way of making sense of the market you can find your unique way of operating in it.

If success in the market was primarily based on technical skills, and the use of tools, indicators, and spreadsheets. There would be a lot more profitable traders. Trading attracts some of the most brilliant minds, intellectual beasts, and academic rockstars, and yet over 90% of traders fail and are unsuccessful. You yourself, as you read this may realize you are a brilliant person yet you struggle to stay consistent with your trading. The answer to your problem is not solely in the technical skill, its likely hiding in the unexamined parts of your personality.

If you know this, then you also know that awareness and application are two totally different things. You can be aware that you have a personal problem with following a trading methodology but feel totally powerless in correcting it. My question to you would then be, how much time have you spent experiencing your own unique style of trading? Stop fighting your nature, and embrace your expression.

There are market fundamentals and market basics that every trader needs to understand.
  • Price Action
  • Structure
  • Trend
  • Risk

Beyond this your style of trading is likely a combination of many different skills that you've accumulated from various sources. The important thing for each trader is to understand which skills resonate most with them. Which skills fit your unique market perspective. Which skills can you use to build a system of trading that allows you to account for the mixture of wins and losses, while keeping you in an optimal mental space, so that you may execute on your level of understanding.

I think the challenge for every trader, is to take the time to identify a purpose in their trading. To understand why it is that you feel drawn to embark on such a challenging task. Those traders who stick with it, and generate some answers to these questions will have taken huge strides in understanding how the market serves as mirror. Reflecting back at you, the potential for you to fulfill your desires coupled with everything that you need to work on, and improve upon, on a very personal level.

If you don't come from a trading and investing background, either from family ties or academia, then all of this becomes even more important. Self- taught traders need to understand their uniqueness in the market. You are the most important part of your trading system. It would be crazy not to give yourself the time and attention you deserve.

Happy Trading!

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