The Power Of Consistency In Trading
In this article, we will discuss an important aspect of trading, consistency.
Consistency is fundamental to your success as a trader and without consistency, you will not be able to become a successful trader.
How important is consistency
You’ve probably read how important is consistency in all aspects of your personal and professional life. Consistently going to the gym will result in you being in better physical and mental shape. Consistently eating healthy foods will also result in you becoming a healthier person and examples can keep going, but I think you got the idea.
"Consistency is key to success in all aspects of your life"
Being consistent with your trades will give you some degree of predictability of returns, and perhaps more importantly, it will take emotions and second-guessing out of the equation.
Trading without consistency and switching between methods when your edge is not truly present hurts your trading results over the long-run.
Trading consistently helps you even if you are losing, because you can easily figure out what parts are working and what parts are not and change them.
"The first goal of any trader is not to become profitable but simply to become consistent."
How do I become consistent
The best way to be consistent is to develop a trading system and keep a trading journal.
A trading system is a systematic approach you use to find a trading opportunity, executing it and close it. Whether that's with profit, loss or break even.
You can read more on how to build a trading system in this article.
Having a trading system will allow you to repeat the same steps for every trade you make and will allow you to have consistent winnings.
A trading system will also help you to:
- Allocate a consistent time for analysis
- Know your criteria for a trade entry
- Always place a stop loss
- Be consistent in the percentage size of positions
- Know your criteria for the trade exit
Consistently executing an effective trading system with discipline, will eventually turn into proper trading habits which will then turn into making money consistently in the markets.
Having a trading journal will show you if you follow the system correctly and how profitable the system is.
Conclusion
I hope you understood the importance of consistency and next time you trade do it using a trading system.
Happy trading…
Do you want to be more consistent ? Start a trading journal and see how you improve every day.