The Secret To Making Trading Easy

Why Trading Is Far More Simple Than You Think..

It was a cold Novembers day back in 2020. I'd just started my new mentoring business and things were going great. Students flooding in the door and getting results, no complaining, no fuss. But one day, I got a customer who made me really think.

He had a simple task. A simple method and calculation to solve that could be done by a 6 Year Old. But, depsite his engineering degree and years of service, he just could not get the answer right. No matter which way he spun it, the web got more sticky and soon enough he found himself frustrated.  He was making things hard for himself by overcomplicating, although he just couldn't see it.

'But we have to do it this way!', he said, growing with frustration.

I told him in one breath, make it 'simple'.

Then one day, EUREKA!

He had solved the problem by removing all the useless information he was gathering to work out his answer.

The way I teach today in 2023 is no different and its exactly how trading needs to be learnt. It has to be made simple and it has to be uncomplicated. People naturally view trading as an extremely hard exercise with various hurdles and obstacles. They see it as something only direct relations of geniuses can figure out. When they look at charts, their brain is looking for reasons why something will happen and weighing the endless possibilities up because its 'supposed' to be hard. The price will go up 'because of this/that', or 'this reading of an indicator means XYZ'.

But, behind it all, there's a much easier way. A way to make things simple so anybody can understand trading and how it works..

That is simply done by seeing it as a game.

Games are easy and normally not difficult to play. They involve some kind of mission or task, followed by a caveat to make it playable. For example, Chess involves the mission of removing your opponents pieces before they remove yours and check-mating them. The caveat? Well there's an opponent who is competing against you. The task, or the goal, is still exactly the same. There are many strategies to playing chess, but ultimately there is only the same goal.

Trading is precisely the same. The game is to make money and continue to make money without your losses exceeding what you make in profits. It's as simple as that. The caveat in this instance is you do not control the market and there are opponents around the world trading with you and against you at all times. The reason for the price of any financial/tradeable asset falling is because sellers are taking it down. If you are a buyer, you've found your opponent in this game.

So now you know what the game is, how do you play it? How do you reach your mission and win the game without your opponent beating you? Well, there are many ways to do this, but the best ways are always to keep it simple. That does not involve 100 different parts to a strategy and immense complications in-between, it just involves the simple parts of a trading plan that make it work and that can be learnt as a skill that you pick up.

Over time, as you get used to trading and looking at charts your perception drastically changes. This is because you filter out what is not useful and you focus only on what is useful. You care less about the talk and more about the facts and the math logic. After all, all that matters is you have something repeatable that can be used daily in a consistent way. Fiction, is not consistent or repeatable and making decisions based on what you think, verses what you know, is a fast way to losing money.

These logical aspects are things such as tight risk-management and not over-leverage / over-trading, understanding what is a great place to get long or short when looking at any financial chart data and keeping your mind in check with set trade sizes and sentiment monitoring.

These are the tools which equip you in the game and make you able to succeed against your opponents. These tools are always repeatable and they are not overcomplicated because they have rules that do not change.

Price Action that you can see always means the same thing regardless of where you find it. Max Risk sizes tied to your equity that always stay the same, no matter what is happening. All of these things are what is simple, because they do not involve huge amounts of options or ways to do them.

Summarising your predicted price movement based on 30 different factors that you are looking for however, really does throw a spanner in the works. So, arm yourself with simple rules and methods and do not go into battle with confusion.

After all, it goes without saying that an unequipped chess player will suffer greatly in his/her endeavour against the experienced grand master. He has a simple, uncomplicated and rehearsed plan and knows his game inside out.

That, simply, is what makes them successful and consistent.

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Top TradingView Author And Multi Asset Day Trader From Suffolk UK.