Alright, so today I had the chance to talk with a friend who is new to trading and we probably spent an hour just talking about the trading platform. As I've gotten into the educational side of this business this is something that I see happening over and over where there is more time spent on learning the platform than their is on actually learning the trading system. Now learning the trading platform is not the only distraction as we have so much more out there that it makes it really tough at times to focus.
It's important to understand that there are many other money making business' in this business and one of them is the technology side. So when you start to use a new platform believe that the company behind that trading platform have a team that are full-time working on new gadgets and tools for that platform. Now I've seen this as of recent with the ThinkOrSwim trading platform with all these new and great tools they've rolled out with for their clients. For me, I need to keep it as SIMPLE as possible and that goes along with the system of trading I teach.
Jesse Livermore back in the day was able to become a really successful trader without any of the technology we have today and you still have non-profitable traders. While you could spend days speculating as to why this is we can all agree that the amount of noise and distraction today (think CNBC, Twitter) definitely adds to time wasted and loss of focus.
When you get off topic, and it will happen, you have to consider how much of that time spent is actually helping you to become a better trader and to make money. Now, I'm not at all saying that taking some time to familiarize yourself with the trading platform is a bad thing, but keep it simple. Use the indicators you know and make sure you have the basics down, tune out the rest.
This goes the same with getting into online reading, especially today, with all the doom and gloom articles out there. I can't begin to tell you how many texts from friends or posts I see on Facebook about the economy that are really just a bad use of time. Really, you should be trading it, it's that simple. If you're a technical trader (like I am) reading about the core fundamentals of how Apple iPhones are produced is not in my interest and that is not a bad thing! You don't have to be an Economist or an MBA to be in this business you just need to be focused, work hard and keep it simple. Your concern should not be researching a hedge fund managers beginnings or whether Roubini thinks the world is going to implode, your concern should be on trading.
Of course, this is different if you are a big time money manager or an analyst getting paid to do such work but if you're like me you're an independent trader that needs to just trade. I say all of this having done it myself but just have been reminded today about it so hopefully this is a refresher to all of you new and veteran traders out there. Providing useful tips, reviews, articles and writings on forex online.
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