These 12 Insights Will Save You From a 4 Year Learning Curve

“What’s the biggest difference between a first-year trader and someone who’s survived 3-4 years in the game?”

A student asked me this last week, and it’s been stuck in my head.

Everyone wants to skip from rookie to expert, but real progress comes when you focus on closing the next gap. The one that separates beginners from battle-tested traders. That’s exactly what we’re diving into today.

BUTTT before I dive into the main topic today, I want to point something out super quick.

You’re not better at something just because you’ve been doing it for more time. Skill comes from evaluated experience and change.

I’d argue that most traders aren’t getting better after a certain point in their journey.

Why?

They stop learning. No, not that you need to be constantly searching for new technical analysis techniques or anything, but they’re not even learning more about themselves as traders.

It’s just doing the same thing over and over and over again without reflecting on any part of their process. Sounds crazy right?

This can be a whole different deep dive but I’ll leave it at this so we can continue, don’t confuse time with experience. Focus on evaluated experience.

Ok… let’s move on to the main topic!

The point of making this comparison is to create awareness for both freshman traders and 3-4 year traders. Of course, I’m going to be generalizing a bit since there’s always going to be traders that go above and beyond whether it’s because of their background, upbringing and/or just great mentorship.

This is taking in consideration, data from brokers, studies and my personal experience having hundreds of thousands of traders join my live sessions throughout the last 10 years. When I’ve done orientation trainings or Q&As with traders working with me for the first time, this is generally where they’re at in their process.

These are 12 main differences between traders in their first year and those 3-4 years into the trading game!

First Year Traders

1. Trade to make money

2. Set daily/weekly money goals

3. Hop strategies after losing a few trades with that strategy. The blame the strategy

4. Have 0 financial plan.

5. Want to make trading a full time income as soon as possible.

6. No risk management plan or blindly following someone else’s.

7. Naive expectations based from trading marketing.

8. No preparation, just hop on the charts to make moooolah!

9. Quickly lose motivation because they’re not making money fast enough or they’re losing trades and take it personally.

10. Constantly over-leveraging to make back their losses.

11. Blame the market or others for their shortcomings.

12. Still building belief whether it’s actually possible to make money as a trader.

3-4 Year Traders

1. Trade for money but more so are trying to catch up to their original expectations

2. Trading to have a good month

3. Narrowed down their entry strategy, may or may not have a complete trading system. Less jumpy with their approach.

4. More appropriate understanding of what can be made with trading based on the capital they’re working with.

5. Becoming more responsible financially

6. Have created a risk management plan. Still might not be the best fit but they’re sticking with something.

7. Less influenced by trading marketing

8. Approach the market aware of high impact news for the week and more mentally prepared.

9. Don’t take losses personally, they know its part of the game.

10. Don’t over-leverage often, however some still struggle with this because they feel like they’re behind in their journey despite their knowledge.

11. Take responsibility of their actions.

12. Full belief it’s possible to make money as a trader. Have first hand experience making money in the market, although it may have only been a small amount or infrequent. At this point, they’ve encountered (in person or online), real undeniable evidence of profitability in the market.

There you have it! Overall belief in yourself and what’s possible in the market emerges over time. Patience and structure with the trading process, which should be expected. Accountability becomes the foundation after a few years.

However, a different struggle can reveal itself though. The instant gratification has faded away , but the desire to catch up to self-created expectations can get stronger.

Use this comparison to skip years of mistakes and flawed thinking. Changing your beliefs and behaviors isn’t easy, but it’s non-negotiable. You will not make it if you don’t evolve.

Let’s prepare for an incredible trading week. Stay disciplined and I’ll catch you all on my YouTube streams during Monday asian session and Friday New York open.!

From Tradetopia,
Mike Navarrete 🧙🏽‍♂️