Dec. 29 at 1:51 AM
$AAPL $MSFT $NVDA $AMZN $NFLX
YEAR END MUSINGS
As I sit and prepare for the final week of trading in 2025, I wanted to share a few thoughts that I believe are critical to our journeys to becoming advanced traders.
For me, 2025 was a year of confirmation. It was a year where I was able to significantly outperform the market. However, that outperformance was NOT a result of any superior intellect or my ability to read technical indicators. I can assure you, I am NOT some genius or market prodigy.
I was able to significantly outperform the market because of my ability to follow the rules I established for myself during times when I was able to reflect on my own personal strengths and weaknesses. In fact, my performance, while somewhat exceptional in an objective sense, could have been even better if I had faithfully followed my system in every instance and not think there were times when I was smarter than the rules I had established for my personal trading.
It was only when I broke my rules (and I did break them) that I found myself in a position of weakness.
To clarify further, let me share a few additional thoughts:
1) Success in trading is NOT the result of being able to predict market events. Success comes from the ability to MASTER YOURSELF and having the patience and discipline to manage our emotions and follow a proven system.
2) A trader's edge is not established in the markets or with charts or indicators. The trader's edge is established in the mind.
3) The market owes you nothing and it doesn't care about your goals, your trades, your performance or your financial condition. It is a mirror that shows you who you are and rewards only those who have developed the ability to shatter their ego and consistently work to put probabilities in their favor and quickly admit when they are wrong.
To illustrate further, developing self-mastery means:
- You are willing to sit and DO NOTHING at times if that is what market conditions dictate.
- Not chasing meme stocks or the latest "pump and dump" stock that is going parabolic because you know that, even if a particular trade pays you, it will establish a poor habit that is going to compromise your discipline and cost you in the long run.
- Not worrying about what others are doing or listening to market "gurus" who like to post their winning trades on social media and like to make you think they never get it wrong because you know we all get trades wrong at times.
- You see losing trades as opportunities to learn something about yourself and you are not negatively affected emotionally when a trade goes sideways.
- Being calm when others are panicking because you have created parameters that will prevent your losses from becoming catastrophic.
- Not feeling compelled to take a risky trade because you know that trade isn't right for you, even if others feel comfortable taking it.
You see...the journey to becoming a successful trader isn't about finding the next best indicator, the "perfect" set-up or the best training course. The journey to becoming a successful trader comes from the countless hours of learning to master your yourself and having the discipline to follow the rules you have established during times when your emotions were not the deciding factor.
I hope everyone has the opportunity to think about these things in the coming week when the markets will likely be a little less hectic. And, I hope, as the market will inevitably do, this community will also assist you in looking further into yourself so you can grow into someone who operates from a positon of strength and not a person who gets tossed about by market girations and eventually becomes one of the 93% of people who fail to consistently make money as a trader.
Warmly,
DC77
