Do Your Trading Records Reveal Your Chances of Success?

It’s a sad fact that most traders are going to become extinct over time, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Now, I’m here at the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument, in East Oregon, and we’re here completely by accident because we just happened to be driving in this direction and we googled what could we do between Boise and Cradle Lake, and John Day Fossil Bed Monument came up. And so we’re here learning about fossils and ancient life, plants and animals in the region… and I am here thinking about what useful stock trading tips I can share with you based on what I am learning here with the family. And what’s amazing is in this very small region, there’s a huge diversity of fossils, over many tens of millions of years. And so it’s fascinating learning about, and the kids are doing their Junior Ranger badges right now. They’re going through the workbooks. But, when I was watching the video and the induction into the area, what I realized was that most plants and animals, most of the species that have existed over time, have died out. And very few remain.

And of the plants and animals that live today, very few will remain in another few hundred million years. Things change, right? Things evolve, and what’s interesting is you can learn so much about what’s happened in the past by studying fossils.

Now, as a trading coach, if I looked at your trading records, your fossilized remains if you like, which, hopefully you’re keeping track of all of your trades. If I looked at your trading diary, and your trading plan, and a record of all the trades you’ve made, what would I learn about your trading, and what would that predict about your trading future? You see, the vast majority of traders fail, and the reason they fail is because they’re not well adapted to the current market environment, or they don’t do the things that are required for long-term survival. There’s some species in here, in this National Monument, where they’ve dug up, and you look at the animal, and how they lived, and the structures of their body and you think, well, it’s no wonder they’re extinct now, right? Because they were so specialized, or so maladapted to the modern world.

Now, if I, again, if I look at your trading record, would I find evidence of trades that were prepared for survival? You know, where you managed your risk, where you followed a strategy that worked, a proven trading strategy? Or, would they be all sorts of weird and wonderful trades that would be very hard to place in the hierarchy of trading strategies that work? You see, there’s general categories of trading strategies that work. There’s trend-following, there’s swing trading, there’s mean reversion, and various other short-term strategies. But if you’re taking trades that don’t fit into a category that has stood the test of time, then chances are, as a trader, you’re going to become extinct too.

And so, sitting here, or standing here at the John Day National Monument, waiting for my kids to do their Junior Ranger badges on paleontology, which is pretty cool, I’m thinking about your trading. And what I want to challenge you to do, is look at your trading history. Look at the reasons you’ve taken your trades, and validate whether or not those reasons are part of a strategy that has stood the test of time. Because if they’re not, if you’re taking trades for all sorts of weird and wonderful reasons, when you step back and look at it objectively, then you are not going to succeed as a trader in the long run. You are going to become yet another extinct variety of trader, and that’s not what I want for you. What I want is for you to succeed and survive for the next 20, 30, 40 years in the markets.

In order to do that, you need a strategy that works, and if you’ve got a trading system, then that’s one of the things that’s going to keep you on the straight and narrow. It’s going to keep you within the bounds of the approaches that work. Because when you’ve got a trading system that guides you, you’re going to follow the same rules, each trade, and over time that’s going to produce profits in your account. So, have a good, honest, hard look at your trading. Evaluate it like you’re a scientist looking at your trading history, and really step back and ask yourself, “Am I following a trading strategy that’s stood the test of time, or that will stand the test of time? Or am I dabbling in lots of different weird and wonderful techniques, and losing money, and risking extinction as a result?”

That’s what you need to do. If you’re not yet making the money that you want, chances are you don’t have a strategy that has stood the test of time, and you’re not following a system. And if that sounds like you, and if you want to make the transition to surviving as a trader, then click the link below and download my trading system confidence cheat sheet, because that gives you the tools that you need to test and evaluate your approach, to give you the confidence that it will survive.

You will survive as a trader, and stand the test of time, and keep making money for the next three, four, five decades of your trading career. My name’s Adrian Reid. This is Enlightened Stock Trading, coming to you from John Day, East Oregon, from the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument. See you in the next video. Click the link below. Download the trading system confidence cheat sheet, and don’t forget to subscribe to this channel. I’ll see you in the next video. Bye for now.