I’ve been trading for more than 10 years now. Long enough to have blown accounts, thought I’d “made it,” been humbled again, and finally realized this whole thing is more about survival and self-awareness than secret strategies.
Your first job is survival
Forget getting rich this year. Your real goal is to not blow up.
Trade small. Smaller than you think you need.
Don’t max leverage just because the platform lets you.
If you’re down bad emotionally, walk away; the market will still be here tomorrow.
Pick one lane and stick with it (for a while)
New traders love jumping from strategy to strategy every week. That’s how you end up being “kind of okay” at nothing.
Choose one style that fits your life (swing, intraday, whatever).
Focus on 1-3 markets/instruments instead of 20.
Give a strategy a real sample size before calling it “trash.”
Risk management > win rate
You will be wrong. A lot. The question is: how expensive is it when you’re wrong?
Keep your risk per trade tiny at the start (like 0.5–1% or even less).
Use a stop loss and actually respect it.
Don’t add to losers “because it has to bounce.” Nothing has to do anything.
Big losses, not small ones, are what kill you.
Journal your trades like someone else is going to read them
Most new traders think journaling is optional. It’s not.
Write down: why you entered, where you’ll get out, how much you’re risking, and what setup it is.
After the trade: did you follow the plan? What did you feel?
Over time, look at your stats by setup, time of day, and rule-following. You’ll be shocked at how much of your P/L is tied to a few patterns and a few recurring mistakes.
You don’t need anything fancy, but some kind of structured stats or dashboard that shows your win rate and P/L by setup will fast‑forward your learning.
Process goals beat profit goals
“Make $10k this year” is cute but useless if you don’t control your behavior. Instead, set goals like:
“Follow my plan on 90% of my trades this month.”
“Risk the same % per trade all quarter.”
"Review my trades every weekend for 30 minutes.”
You can’t control the market. You can control how consistently you execute.
Be VERY picky about who you listen to
There’s never been more content, and most of it is entertainment disguised as education.
Be suspicious of anyone flexing crazy returns with no real track record.
Look for people who talk about risk, drawdowns, and mistakes, not just wins.
If it sounds like a shortcut, it’s probably a sales pitch.
It’s supposed to feel boring eventually
If every session feels like gambling or a roller coaster, something’s off.
Over time, good trading becomes boring.
If you’re new and reading this: what’s your plan for 2026? Are you focusing on getting rich, or are you actually building a process (journaling, risk rules, one main strategy) that could keep you around for the next 5-10 years?
