Alexander The Trader

Forcing trades is a sign of lacking clarity in your edge. Any trader who can consistently execute their plan can do so because they know, inside & out, how their edge works. They know exactly what they're looking for. Anything less and they can comfortably let it go.

Before I became consistent, I thought my trading rules were already clear, but I underestimated what clear actually meant. The amount of detail I have in my trading playbook now is on a whole other level. I know exactly what to do depending on the variant of setup I get.

Once you become a profitable trader, you begin to see markets differently. It's no longer ambiguous. You know exactly what you want to see and anything that doesnt fit wont interest you. Trading becomes a series of repeating patterns you execute the same way over and over.

Time to take off risk soon. My first full risk trade in a couple months, been spending a lot of time refining my strategy and only now am I ready to go back to full size.

I hate it when traders say an individual trade is just noise, that you need to be detached and think in probabilities. These two things are not the same. Every trade you take contains immense value & information. You must learn much from every trade, even the ones that you almost took but didn’t. No trade is just noise. Every single position is valuable information to help you improve. Only after you think this way should you remind yourself that just because you lost 1 trade, doesn’t mean your strategy sucks. Trading is a probabilities game, but every single trade will teach you if you let it.

Never underestimate a 50% win rate with 2:1 RR when you've got 100 trades backing up these numbers. The above is *always* better than an 80% win rate with 2:1 RR but you only have 10 data points for it.

There are many details a trader needs to uncover when learning a new setup. It always seems simple at first, but don't be fooled. Keep finding more data points in your backtest until you have at least 50, ideally closer to 100. Only then will you find the details, and performance is always living in the details.

The 3 non-negotiables of trading success: 1. Have a source of income/savings as you learn how to trade. Never start your journey when financial pressure is high, I guarantee you will fail. 2. Learn and do the right things. You can work harder than anyone else and still fail if you're learning from bad sources or doing things wrong. Don't spend an entire year consuming content without actually going deep on your own trading journal to see what you're doing wrong. 3. Become a specialist. You must know your chosen market's ins & outs instead of knowing general concepts. This requires deep work, so go deep.

Intelligence is the ability to get out of your own head. Your mind is a maze, if you cant navigate it, it will control you. You become a slave to your mind and have no agency over your own life. But if you can find a way through, you will have control over your mind, and your reality.

A true master is an eternal student. Even as I approach 7 years trading financial markets, I am still learning new lessons every day. For those who are intellectually curious, you will find fulfillment pursuing a trading career. I can honestly say this is one of the best careers for people who love to grow, to overcome challenges, to look attractive the abyss of their own flaws and face them head on all in the name of evolution.

It's much better to skip an ambiguous trade than to take it. Your sole job as a trader is to replicate defined edges. So if you don't know, don't trade. Throw away the temptations of what ifs. That's gambling, not trading.

As a trader, our job is to ride variance. This is not what the human mind was built to do. We crave certainty and go to great lengths to obtain it, even when no certainty actually exists. We need to be strong in the face of the beast. Taking losses even after executing high quality trades is not an easy thing to go through. Going through drawdown will always be a part of our life. But this is the price we pay to break through, and eventually the profits will be so real you'll understand why you had to pay such a high price.

Trading requires a combination of discipline in following your rules and critical thinking to understand how the market is changing over time. The market is not a static thing, it changes. This is why sometimes we need to think holistically to evolve with the market, and that requires courage. If trading was as easy as following your plan all the time, many more people would succeed. But the truth is that your plan will lose its edge over time as markets change. It is in the adapting that most traders fail. This job is so much harder than it seems, but the good news is that it is possible, and that should be enough for anyone crazy enough to try their hand at this field.

Your mind is your prison when you focus on your fears. It can also be the very thing that changes your life if you focus on whatever is good. Start living from a place of hope instead of fear.

Your ability to recognize when you don't have an edge is just as important as your ability to pick out winning trades. When you don't understand what you're seeing on the charts, that is the time to step away. Unfortunately, most traders do the opposite because they feel like they have to make money. Truth is, it is not your decision when you get to make money. The market dictates that for all of us, we just have to be good at listening. Protect your capital when your edge is not present. Push the limit when your edge is present. That is the name of the game.