I am writing this because I see so many that want to be successful on whatever they are going for. In this case I am referring to being a profitable trader or at least a trader that sees their future on the rise. When you are first starting out learning how to trade. You are full of confidence and optimism. So of course you start studying and learning how to read candle patterns as well as chart patterns. You go through hours of videos and webinars to ensure you are getting all the education you need to ensure that you will make money in the market. With light still in your eyes and anxious to see your future unfold. You are getting ready to make your first trade.

Now your fear is starting to set in and you are starting to think, “Am I ready?”. The answer to that is in the actions you take, unfortunately. Now, you have found the stock you are looking to buy and make a 2 to 1 win. You buy and you sit and wait to see what the price action does. Starts off at $2.34 buy in on stock symbol $STT for $100 shares. It’s going up as per your thesis has predicted. $stt hit’s your price target at $4.15 and you exit out of the trade because that is what your lessons has taught you. Yay, say’s you and crazy excited that your learnings is paying off. Your confidence builds and the fear drops a bit because you took on a win on your first trade.

This goes on for a while and you have built a level of confidence that feels like it can’t be shook. You started off with $2,000 in your account and now after 3 months of trading you have a win to lose ratio of 5 to 3 and your account is now up by $1,500. Feeling good and willing to take on more risk because you feel like you have it down and you are beating the market like a screen door in a wind storm. So you do your research and searching through a lot of stocks trying to find the best presentable stock that is showing great potential and price action. OoOo, you found the one. It is not only going up, but it keeps breaking highs and has healthy S curves. You also notice that it gapped up in the morning pre-market, has great news, and the volume has spiked.

I am so ready, you say. This is it!! You are going to take on higher risk because it seems like the stars have aligned for this. Your feeling like, “all my training and trading has lead me to this moment!”. So you have your account ready and your position to take once the market opens. Of course you know to wait for your buy in trigger, but you notice it’s going up still and not letting up. You starting thinking to yourself “I don’t want to miss out on the money I make, but I gotta hold strong.” The market opens, and off the stock goes. 

The stock closed on the previous day at $1.42. Went up to $1.89 in post-market. Then it gapped up to $2.15 in pre-market. The Market opens, The stock already made it to $2.45. You hold strong and itching to get in on that morning spike but you notice it drops back down to $2.30. Which is where your buy in is, based on your thesis. You buy in at $2.30 for 1,521 shares. That’s your entire account!. The stock moves back up with your thoughts saying, “perfect dip buy in the S curve”. The stock touches $2.45, breaks through with a vengeance. Your yelling “YES!!!”, Your celebrating but during your celebration you see that it is dropping down for what is possibly another S curve. It didn’t drop low enough to feel the trend changing so you don’t get to concerned. 

Then all of a sudden around 9:52.43am. You see your account drop so fast you can’t get out. You went from starting off with $2,000 to have earned $3,500, now your account is down $3,000 dollars. Finally you was able you got out as fast as you can to salvage what’s left of your account. Distraught and broken hearted is where you are. All the confidence went out of you faster then a blown tire going down the interstate. You are shaken to your core and you don’t know if you can ever recover. You try to pick yourself back up by taking on small trades. However that lose has shaken you so bad, that you are not trading like you first started. Before the over position and over 

confident trade you made. Every little trade you made just wasn’t doing it. You account falls further, little by little until it is now at $150. Now you are doubting that you even knew what you was doing, and figured that maybe it was all just luck and never really any skill. You shut down your computer, logged out of your trading account. Because you are now doubting that you even had a chance of being successful at trading. You are thinking to yourself. “This was all a big fluke and a big lie”. Thinking that the market is against you and the universe just said “NO”, and slaps you back down to reality.

Your trading account sits for a while and you go about your day feeling bad about the lose. This seems to last for a couple of weeks. Now, you are over thinking on what went wrong and how you could have done different. Worse yet, the “what IF’s” starts really coming in and then your imagination runs away with you after that. Time ticks on and you are slowly starting to feel better. One day you decide to see what’s doing in the market. You even go back to square one by revisiting your educational materials. That’s when it clicked. The only thing that went wrong is you. Two of the worse things that could happen in trading for anyone. Over confident and over positioned.

With only $150 in your account you see that only trading 10% of that would not amount to squat. But you do notice that your $150 account turned into $205 after a few small trades over the course of a couple of months. Of course this isn’t life changing money. But it is a life changing trend. You keep telling yourself that slow and steady wins the race on every trade you make. A few months pasts by and your account is now up to $1,500. Holly biscuit nipples!, you say. “My account is up again, Thank god!”. Yes, the doubt is still there. Also thinking that one trade is lurking somewhere trying to take your money again. However, this time you KNOW you will not make the same mistake twice. Years passes by and you never stopped trading. Pushing through your fears and doubt by doing the same thing every time. Taking on small positions and letting your account grow over time instead of forcing the growth by high risk. America once was a dream and now a reality. However, risk and a lot pain to make that dream come true. It also didn’t happen over night. It took time, patients and a hell of a lot of mistakes.

I hope this story will inspire you and show you that we all go through this. You will always have doubt when it comes to trading and placing your money at risk to gain more. You just have to protect it by only taking a small risks and reminding yourself.

          -SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM-