How to become a professional trader

1. Stick to Your Discipline
   Discipline can’t be taught in a seminar or found in expensive trading software. Traders spend thousands of dollars trying to compensate for their lack of self-control but few realize that a long look in the mirror accomplishes the same task at a much lower price. The important lesson is that, once a trader has confidence in their trading plan, they must have the discipline to stay the course, even when there are the inevitable losing streaks.

. Lose the Crowd
Long-term profitability requires positioning ahead of or behind the crowd, but never in the crowd because that’s where predatory strategies target. Stay away from stock boards and chat rooms, where people are less than serious and many of them have ulterior motives.

1. Engage Your Trading Plan
   Update your trading plan weekly or monthly to include new ideas and eliminate bad ones. Go back and read the plan whenever you fall in a hole and are looking for a way to get out.

2. Don’t Cut Corners
   Your competition spends hundreds of hours perfecting strategies and you’re in for a rude awakening if you expect to throw a few darts and walk away with a profit. The only way to achieve long-term success is with hard work and discipline.

3. Avoid the Obvious
   Profits rarely come from following the majority or the crowd. When you see a perfect trade setup, it’s likely that everyone else sees it as well, planting you in the crowd, and setting you up for failure.

4. Don’t Break Your Rules
   You create trading rules to get you out of trouble when positions go badly. If you don’t allow them to do their job, you’ve lost your discipline and opened the door to even greater losses.

5. Avoid Market Gurus
   It’s your money at stake, not theirs. Keep in mind that the guru might be talking up their own positions, hoping the excited chatter will increase their profits, not yours.

6. Use Your Intuition
   Trading uses the mathematical and artistic sides of your brain so you need to cultivate both to succeed in the long run. Once you're comfortable with math, you might want to try to enhance results with meditation, a few yoga postures, or a quiet walk in the park.

7. Don’t Fall in Love
   If you're too in love with your trading vehicle or investment, you give way to flawed decision-making. It’s your job to capitalize on inefficiency, making money while everyone else is leaning the wrong way.

8. Organize Your Personal Life
   Whatever is wrong in your life will eventually carry over into your trading performance. This is especially dangerous if you haven’t made peace with money, wealth, and the magnetic polarity of abundance and scarcity. Keep your trading needs separate from your personal needs, and take care of both.