Understanding Why Most Day Traders Fail

This is a continuation of my post about day trading competence, I want to elaborate a bit more as to why most day traders fail.  Click here to read the previous post.

Too many shortcuts are taken in the very beginning of trading careers which causes a rift in the clear understanding of market principles, indicators, and concepts.  This is when you first get started, I will be doing another post on why experienced day traders fail.

More time is spent re-reviewing and relearning concepts that should have been learned in the beginning

Most traders try to take the easy way out and look for trading software.  In order to learn a new skill, a good foundation has to be built, automated software is aimed at making everyone think that knowledge about the market isn’t needed.  It’s automatic! It works like magic!

A high rise condominium or office complex cannot be built without placing many pillars to hold up the entire complex.  What happens when one pillar is not given enough reinforcements?

The entire building could come crashing down because there isn’t enough support, building has to stop in order to go back and reinforce that one pillar.  The old adage is true, do something right the first time and you won’t have to do it ever again.

The beginning of the learning process is skipped by many day traders because of our culture. We want everything done quickly; dinner is served in 1 minute in the microwave, dollar menu from McDonald’s, everything you need is at Walmart, Starbucks drive-through,  and those delicious 1 lbs hot dogs with melted processed nacho cheese. No? I guess its only my vice. Our culture is about instead gratification.

We want everything yesterday.

Shortcuts cause a learning gap by not grasping the entirety of information needed to day trade.  I can compare this to driving without knowing where the breaks are, that would be pretty important to know.

I get questions all the time from people in my training program of how to do something when it was covered in the beginning of the curriculum.  The most successful day traders follow the learning process in its entirety and never take any shortcuts.

Shortcuts are for kids

Once everything is learned there are a completely different set of problems to consider but for the most part, most day traders problems stem from this first step. After developing a consistent understanding of the markets the biggest problem for traders are day trading companies. If you haven’t read my post on day trading companies I would highly recommend you do so.

Even if you have done everything right and have done every single exercise, there is no getting around a trading strategy that doesn’t work. There are no exceptions in the valuable learning concepts an experienced day trader can provide, trying to learn from someone that has never traded an account live undermine your trading career like the monster under the bed.

I stopped saying high to my monster years ago, why are you still saying high to yours?