I am a self-taught trader and that SUCKED! Doing it all by myself, I was forced to learn a lot the hard way and through trial and error along the way and this is, in part, what inspired me to create the Tim Sykes Millionaire Challenge to be the mentor to people that I never had. I wish I knew the crucial steps to success, like I’ll provide for you below.
I didn’t have a mentor or a program like mine. But, in retrospect, I wish I had. I probably would have made money far quicker and not made so many bone-headed mistakes if I had.
But lamenting the past won’t change anything. Instead of complaining, I want to help you so that you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did! In addition to offering my Trading Challenge, here are seven pieces of advice that I’d like to offer new traders who are where I used to be.
1. Seek out an education. The idea of just jumping in and starting to trade penny stocks might be tempting. You’ll figure it out as you go, right? Not so fast.
I’m all for going for it, but take a step back before you do anything hasty. Remember, this is your money, and you don’t want to lose it. Before you trade, it’s smart to learn a bit about the process and theory behind trading so that you don’t lose your money in ways that could easily be avoided.
The Challenge was created for this exact reason. It is designed to educate the Tim Sykes Millionaire Challenge team on trading in an applicable, real-life way. We progress into real advice and methods that you can put to work. I don’t want you to wait years and years to make your first trade, but I do want you to have an idea of what you’re doing before you dive in.
2. Have a willingness to learn. It’s best that you learn this early on in your career: as a trader, the need to keep learning will never end. Seeking out an education, as discussed in the previous point, is partially so that you can make educated trades. But it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
But if you really want to be a longtime, successful trader, you’ll need to have a will and a desire to learn. This is something that you basically want to turn on and never turn off. Keep reading, learning about the philosophies and methods behind successful traders, and stay interested in the world, both in terms of business and at large.
3. Know what you’re working toward. If you’re not working toward something as a trader, then your career will have little direction. So what are you working toward with your trading? What are your goals?
When you’re new as a trader, you should have strong clarity on what it is that drew you to trading. Money, obviously. But, money for what? A better quality of life? Really dig deep and figure out exactly what it is that you want to buy with all that money you’ll make. Tattoo that desire in your brain and think of it with every trade you make. It will help you stay motivated, which makes you a better trader. Having goals to stay committed to will keep you going when things get tough.
4. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses. It’s important to be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses early on as a trader. Basically, the sooner you identify them, the sooner you can streamline your trading. By recognizing your strengths, you can play to them, and adjust your study and trading schedule to suit what works best for you…every trade and student is different as we all have different personalities so it’s important to recognize this and adapt to whatever works best FOR YOU!
By recognizing your weaknesses, you can either work around them, or make a decision to become stronger in those areas. This might involve studying harder in certain areas, or taking the steps to remove bad habits from your daily repertoire and replace them with good habits.
5. Let yourself improve over time. Patience is a virtue when it comes to trading. Don’t expect miracles (or millions) in your first week. It doesn’t have to take an incredible amount of time to start earning money, but don’t rush it. Let yourself discover what works and what doesn’t, and get your footing as a trader…read this blog post if you want to learn more about patience and perseverance.
Slow but steady wins the race when it comes to developing skills as a trader. Don’t try to jump ahead, because there’s so much that you can learn along the way that can help you later. Giving yourself the room to learn and improve over time will take a way a huge stressor from your trading career, and it will also make the journey more enjoyable.
6. Network, network, network. Creating a network is important for any entrepreneur, and traders are no different. Come to this meetup in a few months and meet all my top trading challenge students and I and trade live with us too! Making friends with other new traders can create a positive support network and help you stay inspired. Making friends with traders who are further along in their career than you can give you insight and allow you to emulate their success (without copying).
A mentor, too, should be part of your network; this is a trader who is further along in their career than you who takes it one level further and acts as your adviser. Meeting with a mentor on occasion can inform your career, give you ideas, and help you know what career pitfalls to avoid.
Moreover, creating a strong network is a great thing for new traders, as you never know what opportunities your connections might afford you in the future.
7. Learn to love trading. If you walk away with nothing else from this article, take this advice to heart. If you learn to love trading, then you’ll be doing yourself a great service as a trader…the process and the journey is actually even more enjoyable than the rewards…the rewards are nice, don’t get me wrong, but learning to be self-sufficient is priceless as even if I lost all my money tomorrow, I know EXACTLY what I must to do get it back so I’ll NEVER be down for very long, no matter what happens.
And remember, too many people suck at their jobs and don’t excel because they don’t truly enjoy it…doing things that you hate is no fun. It makes the time crawl by, and it does nothing to improve your quality of life so don’t make that your future.
However, doing things you love makes time fly by (in a good way) and makes you feel vital and excited about your day, and about life in general.
If trading can become one of those things that you love, then your career will seem effortless and success will come to you far more quickly and more naturally.
These seven pieces of advice are vital for new traders. I wish that I’d had them when I was a new trader! So go forth and don’t make the same mistakes I did.
Please leave a comment below with which of these points make the most sense to you, #1-7, you tell me!
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