When you’re climbing the learning ladder to success (see our last post), that last step is a huge leap! You may find yourself at the conscious competence level for a very long time before everything becomes so practiced and so ingrained that you reach unconscious competence and start trading in the zone as a master trader. Even when you’re in the groove and really working it, it takes time and practice, practice, practice before your routine and technique click to autopilot and using your system becomes automatic and effortless.
Making Loss Work For You As A Futures Trader
If you learn to make your losses work for you, they can become your ally, not your enemy. Last time we talked about loss and how it can galvanize you to refine your system and improve your approach, setting you up for success as a futures trader. It’s like they say in sports, “No pain, no gain.” Loss motivates you to learn.
How Successful Futures Traders Handle Loss
If you are a futures trader, you’ve already learned that losing is part of the game. How you handle loss emotionally will determine whether you succeed or fail as a futures trader. You cannot allow yourself to become emotionally incapacitated by loss. Like the song goes: You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.
The Importance Of Loss In Achieving Futures Trading Success
Whenever my team lost, the coach would tell us, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” Over the years I’ve learned there’s truth to that statement but that, personally, I’d rather win. I’ve also learned the power of loss. My dad used to say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Good words to remember for a futures trader. It’s from the small losses that you learn how to win.

