Is it true that good things come to those who wait?
In the business of trading, yes, this is true. It is important to have patience long enough for the best trade set-ups to come to you, as opposed to trading everything that has even the slightest whiff of making money. Just sit on your hands and wait for the opportunity to present itself. Otherwise you’ll churn and burn.
However, when those perfect trade set-ups do come your way, you better throw patience out the window.
Among rookie traders, but also with some veteran traders alike, there exists a fear of being wrong. Because of this fear, inexperienced traders, and of course bad traders, wait for confirmation of their trade ideas before entering a trade. The fear of being wrong creates a hesitancy that causes many traders to miss a good entry or at times to miss a move entirely. Identifying a good set-up means nothing unless you get in the trade, and you better get in early.
This market doesn’t show money to those who wait.
Too many traders want to wait until they see what it is they’re looking for before making the decision to pull the trigger. This is not the way to make money. In fact it might as well be the exact opposite. It is the surest way to buy tops and sell bottoms. One cannot be timid and require reassurance. You must anticipate the impending move and act accordingly prior to it occurring. Confirmation must come AFTER you’ve entered the trade. This will allow you to let your winners run longer and provide you the ability to identify a losing trade much sooner.
Second-guessing and over-analyzing a good set-up while waiting for the confirmation of your idea will certainly cost you in the long-run. You must be confident about your trade idea early, get in, and let the price action affirm whether you are right or wrong. This eliminates the ‘coulda-woulda-shoulda’ mentality and leaves no room for hindsight. You’re either ahead of the move or you already missed it.
Do not concern yourself with missed trades that you have not been previously watching – they are a dime a dozen and it’s outside your control. Besides, plenty more opportunities are on the way. Do, however, take great concern with trades you HAVE been watching that you let slip away. Along with it will go potential profit, and also your potential as a trader.
That is some smart info there, bro. Oh so true.
Yeah, I learned early on to forget about what stocks did that I was not watching. I’ve been only watching one lately, but will hopefully increase that to 3 or so in the future.