VCM Daily Trading Lessons

Secrets of the Master Trader (Lesson #9)

Today's Quote: “Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” Vince Lombardi.

There are several good books out there about trading that should be on every trader’s must read list. If you were forced to choose one and only one, the only possible pick would be “Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader”. We are going to run a series of excerpts from the best selling book for the next series of lessons. Now in the words of the master trader himself, Oliver L. Velez…

LESSON #9: WINNERS MAKE IT HAPPEN; LOSERS LET IT HAPPEN

It has always been my belief that a successful life is made, created, not found. So too do I believe that those who enjoy success in their trading life have, through their own work, struggle, and relentless effort, made it happen. The problem for many is that they think success is simply going to occur without really earning it. Somehow, they miss the point that winning is the end result of a long process of trying to make it happen. In short, "Winners make it happen; Losers let it happen." Take aspiring day traders who spend their whole day with the market between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. EST. Perhaps they trade with others in a trading office like ours, or they spend the trading day at home. During this time, they concentrate, focus, look continuously for plays, enter some trades, exit others, etc., and minutes, if not seconds, after 4:00 p.m. EST, they're gone. Poof! These want-to-be traders unfortunately think success in trading is just going to happen between 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. EST. They do nothing in between to make it happen. Yet they expect the wins to pour in just because they sit down at 9:29 a.m. EST (1 minute before the open) to trade. Life, particularly a successful one, does not work that way. In order to make success happen, traders must work, study, review, practice, analyze, dissect, ponder, think, write, memorize, categorize, and organize hours after the close or hours before the open. If success is truly what they want, traders must prepare for it in the cool of the evening and in the early hours of the morning when the world and the market are not yet watching. Then the wheels of progress will have already been set in motion, by the time 9:30 a.m. EST has rolled around. But many traders delude themselves. They think because they are with the market during trading hours that the market is with them. Wrong! The market is funny. It yields only to those who study and spend quality time with it outside of trading hours. That's how you make it happen. That's how you win.