To be a master trader, never stop gaining charting knowledge, continue to practice your craft and refine your art and never, ever give up.
Remember these four important words: 1. Knowledge, 2. Practice, 3. Refinement, 4. Persistence.
The greatest of these concepts is persistence and we will deal with it last.
1. Knowledge: “Study to show yourself approved.” — 2 Timothy 2:15
This quote is from the Apostle Paul. For us, this phrase illustrates the great need to understand basic trading and investing concepts and to ever be on guard against misapplying your knowledge. At the same time you must be working to improve your ability to follow price movement and predict changes in trends. Commit yourself, each and every day, to adding some kernel of knowledge, some nuggets of wisdom, to your skillset.
Look for lessons to learn and, as importantly, retain each day. You will retain this knowledge if you write it down in a journal and review the material often. The Internet is full of videos, blogs, articles and a plethora of information (and sometimes misinformation) about the market. Books, courses and trainings abound. Do not ever shy away from learning, relearning and refreshing your knowledge base. Keep in mind that the market is dynamic and constantly changing. What works today, may not work very well or at all tomorrow.
New techniques and refinements are always being developed, tested and accepted or rejected. Dare to be on the cutting edge. Studying to show yourself approved will keep you sharp, agile and ready to grasp any trading advantage offered up by the market. Plus, constant study will stave off boredom, myopic thinking and stillness of thought.
Don’t allow your training techniques to become dull, dust covered and out of date. The reason is obvious: you must always be on the forefront of accurate thinking so you can make the most successful investing/trading decisions possible.
2. Practice. “Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” — Anton Chekhov
Vast knowledge is of no use if you do not apply it. Our method of charting requires your daily practice. Without fail, each day the market is open, you are to spend time reviewing the charts, seeking to understand price movement and practice trading whenever possible.
This daily routine, encompassing 10 to 15 minutes of time, will be invaluable in helping you grasp the nuances of each stock/ETF you track, as well as understanding the trading cycle, various indicators and charting mechanisms. Your work is made easier by our daily market review, once-a-week review & forecast and the training videos we provide for free. However, you must go beyond simply being a spectator. You must fully commit yourself to the practice. It is necessary to set aside time each day to review your charts, fill out the daily, weekly and/or trade worksheets.
Look not only to learn by doing, but to hone your skills by becoming wise. Wisdom is born by seeking insight, by learning from past mistakes and applying lessons inculcated through trial and error. To this end, it is indispensable to have your own personal journal. List your gleaned nuggets of insight. Write down your mistakes, errors and faulty trades. Analyze in writing everything you are learning.
I cannot emphasize the importance of writing down what you learn, as well as how you learned it. There is something magical about putting pen to paper. It activates the conscious, as well as the subconscious mind. When you slow down your thoughts long enough to transmit them onto paper, you allow them to be held in reality for longer than a moment. You can draw on them, digest them and use the energy they provide to create solutions to current and future problems.
Writing things down in your personal journal also documents your lessons, learned through trial and error, for the future. I cannot encourage this practice enough. Besides simply documenting what you learn, it is important to save your notes and review them often. You will not believe how much you can forget. An intelligent person should only learn a lesson one time. Do not be a fool and be forced to learn the same lessons again and again!
Practice is cheap.
3. Refinement. “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.“ — Albert Einstein
The market is an ever evolving beast. The only constant it offers is change. A trading technique that works today may not work next year or even next month or next week, then it may work again six months later. The key is to do what works and to do it until it does not work. The only orthodoxy to which you should remain true is the one that provides you with success. When techniques stop working, move on. Your only goal in the market is to make money. You can only do so by using techniques that help you to accurately predict and follow price movement up or down.
Each day, strive to put into action what you learn. Never hesitate to experiment. Practice trading is free, except for your time commitment. Never experiment with real money. First, with all the trading platforms offering virtual trading or the ability to simply paper trade on your own, there is zero need to risk your limited capital. Second, you risk demotivating yourself by watching real cash disappear.
Do not hesitate to run experiments on new ways to more accurately predict and follow price movement. Always document your thought process. Write down what you were attempting to accomplish and why you did what you did. Regardless of the outcome, note what worked and why you think you succeeded. Also document what did not work and why you think you failed.
The more notes you make, the better. Even when you are not experimenting, write down every action you take and thoughts you have regarding your trades, the courses you take, the articles you read, the videos you watch and the insights you have. Make it a point to document everything you can. Note: you are not writing just to write. There is a goal to accomplish by documenting all your efforts.
Set aside time each week to review your documentation. This time is the most valuable part of all your work. During these few minutes you are to strive to convert your knowledge into understanding. Your goal is to refine your methods and improve your results. If you simply trade with the mentality that you “need to win more than you lose,” you are making a critical error. There are many times when you can learn more from a losing trade than from a successful one.
Instead of trying to ignore your losing trades, you must break them down, dissect them and understand what went wrong. Only then, when you understand the problem, can you diagnose and fix it. At this point you can truly grow, mature and prosper as a master of the charts.
There is no need to allocate large amounts of time to this weekly review, but you must do it. Otherwise, you may gain a great deal of knowledge, allowing you to sound like a seasoned stock market guru, but the lack of actual ability will disqualify you as a serious player.
4. Persistence. “Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.” — Paramahansa Yogananda
Continual daily practice and study cannot be overemphasized. If you are not willing, from the start, to commit yourself to mastering the charts, no matter how long it takes, do not start. You are wasting your time. If, however, you are willing to commit 10 to 15 minutes a day, each and every day, to make the time and follow the market, take notes and practice trade where opportunities present themselves, go for it!
You can do this. You can master charting. If you start with the mindset that you will trade and invest for the rest of your life, no matter what, you will achieve victory. If you were hoping to learn a couple of tricks and become a millionaire overnight, forget about it. Your mindset is all wrong. You are a gambler and, in the end, the house always wins. Instead, decide to be a professional who is committed to the craft. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Everything will come in good time just as it is supposed to come. There are so many great quotes to use here:
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
“It may seem difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first.”
“Don’t be afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.”
Commit to the journey and start today. Mastering the market is a daily battle. It is time to get to it. Start by subscribing to our daily email at ChartingWealth.com. You will receive the daily market review video. Listen to the review and complete the Daily Market Worksheet. On Fridays or over the weekend, complete the Weekly Market Worksheet. Note: PDFs of all the Market Worksheet‘s are linked in every email. Free training videos are included in the daily email. Watch them when you can do so. After a few weeks, begin to practice trade when opportunities present themselves.
Consider buying our book, Charting Your Way to Wealth. It can speed up the learning process. Keep with your efforts. Slowly, but inevitably, you will begin to understand the market and its mysteries will reveal themselves to you. Be an active participant by practice trading and being honest with yourself about your abilities. Document your experience in a personal journal and chart your success and your many failures. Do not get discouraged. Continue to do the work. Don’t give up.
Remember, it is the last key that opens the door!
DISCLAIMER: We offer NO advice and make NO claims to expertise of any kind. This site is dedicated to knowledge and education through our stock chart training, reviews and other information — nothing more.
