Learning to trade, and especially learning to trade on your own can be a daunting task. You might feel lost and you don't know where to start. In this article, we're going to go over how you could learn to trade on your own, and give you some great tips on what you need to be aware of. So can you learn to trade on your own, without lessons?
Yes, you can learn to trade on your own, without lessons, if you are patient and understand that it will take a long time! Commerce is a competitive industry, and in order to be successful you will need to pave the way for your own success. However, those who would like to accelerate their success will find that investing in a good trading course will pay off many times over!
Learning to trade on your own is difficult, but not impossible. It requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to learn by failing and starting over. In fact, at the start of your business career, you will probably be doing most things the wrong way. However, over time you will learn from your mistakes and gradually gain more and more knowledge.
It is very important to understand that you are going to face enormous challenges, many of which will feel overwhelming. You might even consider giving up because there never seems to be an end to your problems!
You can be sure that every successful self-taught trader has felt the same! Trading is VERY frustrating. The markets are ruthless, and those who don't obey its rules, or try to impose their own views on how it should work, will not succeed.
If you were limited to remembering just one thing from reading this article, it should be keeping your mind open. As a newbie, most of the views you have on the market are not true, and as such blindly following them and trying to impose your views on the markets will never make you money. !
Tips for learning to trade on your own
So, let's get down to some great tips that we know will come in handy if you are going out of your way to learn how to trade on your own!
Being humble is essential to becoming a successful trader. As we mentioned before, trying to impose your views on the market will NEVER work. In fact, it is one of the few certainties that exist in commerce. The market behaves as it does regardless of what you believe and why you believe it.
Make sure you always validate your beliefs through retrospective testing or forward testing!
Don't follow the crowd
The point is, most traders lose traders. As such, following the advice that a majority of traders follow, will not take you long. Most specific advice on how indicators should be used, or which chart patterns that work best won't be of any value to you, because it doesn't!
It is certainly tempting to believe the things people say, especially when it's so much easier than coming up with ideas and concepts on your own. However, in testing most of the things that is out there on historical data, we are comfortable arguing that most of the information is wrong and doesn't work!
Get up again
Being a successful trader means doing things that most others don't. As such, you are making your way into uncharted territory, and you are bound to make mistakes, some bigger than others. In fact, making mistakes and recognizing them is one more step in the right direction.
Don't use real money at the start
The hard truth is that everyone makes mistakes early on when learning to trade. It is not uncommon for new traders to trade long before they manage to achieve consistent returns!
Don't trade for real money at the start. Instead, trade paper or open a mock account until you feel ready!
Don't underestimate the psychological pressure!
One of the main reasons that trading is so difficult is because it is so psychologically demanding. Loss aversion is deeply rooted in us and becomes an obstacle to profitable trading, since you cannot make a profit without losing every now and then.
In fact, with some trading systems, often trending following the following, you could have a payout percentage as low as 25%, which is all offset by the huge size difference between losing and winning trades!
Still, loss aversion is just one of the psychological challenges you'll face, so be sure to read more on this topic. Van Tharp is a good source if you want to learn more about business psychology!
Finding good information
Knowing what is good information when it comes to negotiating is not easy. The internet is littered with bogus trading vendors and 'trading gurus' who promise to get you rich quick.
If we had to recommend one source you could review, this would be the 'Best System Trader Podcast'. This is one of the few online resources that features good and valuable trading information that really works!
By the way, if you want some tips on other podcasts that you might find useful, we recommend you take a look at our article on the 20 best podcasts for traders and investors!
Make risk management your priority
When it comes to risk management, there is a crucial difference in the approach of an experienced trader versus that of a novice trader.
While the novice trader is focused on the returns he will get, the experienced trader is more concerned with risk. True, the experienced trader also wants to maximize his returns, but they came to a very wise conclusion:
If you ever lose all of your trading capital, it's over.
Securing your trading capital and making sure you will be there next year to profit in the markets is one of the most important things you can do!
How long does it take to learn trading?
Learn to trade on your own
Of course, it's impossible to say how long it will take for a person to learn to trade, as it depends on a variety of factors. However, what you can tell is that it is probably going to take somewhere between 1-5 years.
So what can you do to really speed up your learning? Well, there is one thing that will save you a lot of time, and that is to be impartial!
As we have already mentioned earlier in this article, many aspiring traders come up with false beliefs and expectations. Those who manage to remain unbiased while exploring the trade will certainly learn much faster, as they will be much more open to taking it as it is!
Still, there is a way to learn to trade even faster!
Why a trading course might be a good idea
If you really want to speed up your learning, there really is nothing better than taking a trading course! While learning on your own means constantly making mistakes and learning from them, a trading course saves you from making many of those mistakes.
In fact, getting to know a solid methodology that has been proven to work for many people will save you more money in the long run than the trading course cost you initially! Therefore, you should not view the cost as an expense but rather an investment.
However, as with most things in trading, it's hard to know what is worth your time and what isn't. Be careful when choosing a course, and look for proof that the educator actually trades. Never sign up for a course that promises quick success with little or no work. Such a trade simply does not exist!
Conclusion
You can indeed learn to trade on your own, but it can take you many years of hard work, and even then success is not guaranteed!
However, by being persistent and following the tips in this article, you increase your chances of success. Still, nothing beats signing up for an appropriate business course!