Why Else Would I Trade?

Why else would I trade? We are all in it for the money! Aren’t we?

One concept I have a tough time with is the phrase “trading for the money or outcomes vs. fill in the blank. Why else would we trade? I think the subconscious mind and the conscious mind is looking for a paycheck. Just like when we go to work for most people and most jobs it is for the money. If your job is a trader, winning trades are your payment.”

I don’t agree with this statement.

My beliefs and philosophies are different. However I understand them because when I started trading, I was in it for the money. So there was a time that I believed this to be true as well.

The reality is that the majority of people, including myself, tend to be attracted to trading because it appears to be an easy way to make money.

Your job as a trader however is not to make money on every trade.

Your job as a trader is to follow a process that will result in making money over time.

There is a very big difference between those two statements about a trader’s intentions.

In trading you don’t have control over your outcome as you might in some other jobs. Your short term outcome is very highly dependent on luck.

Luck isn’t a good long-term wealth building plan.

You will do well as a trader if you develop and follow processes that keep you in the situation where you balance your risk, reward, and probabilities. Always making sure to keep that ratio in your favor for the given market situation.

If we remain fully focused on the processes that are giving us the best risk, reward, and probability cases for your trading, you will make money as a trader.

You have some influence, but you do not have control, over the result of a trade. The result of any individual trade is going to be highly dependent on luck.

If traders judge their performance solely on shorter term results. It isn’t a fair way to judge the performance of the trader nor the trading strategy.

When you congratulate yourself for winning a trade when you did not follow your process or you did something risky, your mind says, “I’m going to do that again! Maybe I will make more next time!”

This type of behavior increases confidence in a process that the trader didn’t even follow, which encourages the trader to really crank up the capital in the trade. Can you guess what happens next?