ZF Capital

Traders are often surprised when I tell them that the single most important factor in their success or failure is the quality of their records. The records you keep have a greater impact on your performance than any indicator, system, or service.

Good records allow you to learn from your wins and losses, identify problem areas, and correct mistakes before they damage your account. Traders who keep bad records tend to be chronic losers, while successful professionals have good records.

– Alexander Elder

The trouble with self-fulfillment is that many people have a self-destructive streak. Accident-prone drivers keep destroying their cars, and self-destructive traders keep destroying their accounts. Markets offer unlimited opportunities for self-sabotage, as well as for self-fulfillment. Acting out your internal conflicts in the marketplace is a very expensive proposition.

Traders who are not at peace with themselves often try to fulfill their contradictory wishes in the market. If you do not know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere you never wanted to be.

– Alexander Elder, Trading for a Living

Trading is so exciting that it often makes amateurs feel high. A trade for them is like a ticket to a movie or a professional ballgame. Trading is a much more expensive entertainment than the cinema.

Nobody can get high and make money at the same time. Emotional trading is the enemy of success. Greed and fear are bound to destroy a trader. You need to use your intellect instead of trading on gut feeling.

A trader who gets giddy from profits is like a lawyer who starts counting cash in the middle of a trial. A trader who gets upset at losses is like a surgeon who faints at the sight of blood. A real professional does not get too excited about wins or losses.

The goal of a successful professional in any field is to reach his personal best — to become the best doctor, the best lawyer, or the best trader. Money flows to them almost as an afterthought. You need to concentrate on trading right —and not on the money. Each trade has to be handled like a surgical procedure —seriously, soberly, without sloppiness or shortcuts.

– Alexander Elder, Trading for a Living

To be a good trader, you need to trade with your eyes open, recognize real trends and turns, and not waste time or energy on regrets and wishful thinking.

– Alexander Elder, Trading For A Living