Professional traders use various strategies to enhance performance. They review past trades, set clear objectives, and closely track progress. Adapting position sizes to market conditions and risk tolerance is key. Explore how discipline, structure, and continuous evaluation help to achieve consistent improvement and long-term success in trading.
- Financial markets are one of the few places where beginners can meet the best of the industry; hence, learning from what experts do can help you to get to the next level in your trading.
- Taking steps to have the right mindset, engaging in continuous practice, and adapting to new market conditions are essential to trading like a pro.
The world of trading: Where the beginners can face the pros
Financial markets are unique: everyone, regardless of the size of their portfolio, has the opportunity to influence them.
A small-sized trader can have a significant impact on prices and charts, and can even generate more profit and loss (P&L) than institutional traders.
A retail trader can get access to the big league at any time and face the best of the best.
The big league
As a trader, you have to assume that you are competing against the best of the industry.
Market-makers, banks, hedge funds, and individuals are all attempting to generate profits by taking risks in the market. And no one wants to give away their hard-earned funds.
In that aspect, everyone who trades is a professional and must behave like one to not only survive, but to thrive.
Talking about the big league, think of your trading as if you were competing in a professional sports league like the NBA, the Champions League in Football, or Roland-Garros in tennis – keep this analogy in mind as you progress through this article to give yourself perspective on how treating yourself like a pro can help you exceed the learning curve and elevate your trading.
The best athletes are those who continually improve their game, learn as they progress, innovate, create, follow effective strategies, and adapt to new conditions and rules.
Trading like a pro requires very similar steps. Let’s discover them and see how to adapt them to your own trading game plan.
What professional traders do to improve
Each trader will have their own tips, rules, and secrets to perform at their best. Still, we will tackle the everyday basics that allow the best to handle stress when losing and winning, avoid losing their composure, and capture opportunities.
Keeping a clear mind
The best traders always ensure they enter their session with a sharp and focused mind.
A good night's sleep, for example, helps you stay sharp, maintain stable emotions, and react faster to opportunities that arise.
This is particularly important when losing trades, as it is common to be on edge when you are tired and frustrated from losses, and this phenomenon can only exacerbate a rough stretch.
Even something as minute as having a rested mind can help to elevate your game.
Everyone has weak spots and can make simple mistakes when their minds are not in the right place. What makes the difference is what the pros do when they identify that they are not at 100%.
Knowing when to take the foot off the pedal
When professional traders feel that they are losing focus, it is common for them to take a break.
Recharging your batteries by stepping away from your screen can help you gain a better view of the ongoing price action when you return, and can also help you avoid common trading mistakes like overtrading.
Review their performance
Professional traders will often review their daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly performances to identify where they exceeded, lagged, and what to avoid.
Keeping notes on your trades, entry, exits, and how you behaved during the trade requires time and discipline.
Nevertheless, the best traders will religiously keep notes of their trading, as it allows them to pinpoint any weaknesses and train against that weakness, much like a karate champion.
Adapt their trading size
Professional traders tend to adapt their trading size according to the product they trade, market conditions, volatility, their previous performance, and mental state.
Like anything in life, traders have their own strengths and weaknesses. Hence, identifying which product, trending environment, and time of the day fits you the best helps determine if you can reduce or add to your usual trading size.
This is how professional traders leverage their best trades, while limiting the impact of their weakest trades.
Tweaking their trading system
Changing rules and entries is something that traders do at their discretion.
Nevertheless, market conditions are dynamic, and as time passes, banks, algorithms, and traders continually adjust their behavior. Therefore, reviewing and adapting trading systems is something that professional traders tend to do regularly, notably when their efficiency decreases.
Using creativity and knowledge to find new techniques
Particularly when performing exceptionally well or poorly, professional traders tend to experiment in an attempt to find new strategies and trading setups to find original solutions.
Like research and development for a tech company, taking the time and opportunity to explore new markets and products can offer new perspectives and serve to stand out from traders who fail to do the same.
Seizing the opportunity correctly
Professional traders, having trained extensively, develop a pre-planned strategy for navigating frequently occurring market patterns.
When these opportunities arise, they set aside personal thoughts and hesitation, executing their practiced plan to align their actions with the market flow.
If they fail to trade their favorite setups successfully, they would take notes on how to optimize their execution for the next occurrence.
A continuous learning mindset
Even the most experienced and legendary traders recognize that they do not possess complete market knowledge.
Because the trading world is constantly evolving with a steady stream of new information, variations, and possibilities, the best in the industry continuously question their current understanding.
This open-minded approach is crucial; it allows traders to discover unforeseen analytical methods, adopt new perspectives, and — most importantly — ensure they are constantly absorbing new information while trading.
Conclusive lines
Professional traders approach the market with the discipline and structure of a top-tier athlete, recognizing that continuous improvement is the only path to sustained success. This starts with maintaining a clear and rested mind to ensure stable emotions, sharp focus, and faster reaction times, especially when facing losses. To refine their edge, they religiously review their performance, tracking every trade to pinpoint and train weaknesses. They strategically adapt their trading size based on market conditions and volatility to limit the impact of poor trades while maximizing success on their best ones. Finally, the most successful traders maintain a continuous learning mindset, regularly tweaking their systems and experimenting with new techniques to stay ahead of the ever-evolving financial markets.
You, too, can trade like a professional.
This article is for general information purposes only, not to be considered a recommendation or financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell instruments.
Opinions are the authors; not necessarily those of OANDA Corporation or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors.
Leveraged trading in foreign currency contracts or other off-exchange products on margin carries a high level of risk and is not suitable for everyone. We advise you to carefully consider whether trading is appropriate for you in light of your personal circumstances. You may lose more than you invest. We recommend that you seek independent financial advice and ensure you fully understand the risks involved before trading. Trading through an online platform carries additional risks. Losses can exceed deposits.
