Every trader, no matter how successful, loses money trading. There is no Holy Grail in futures trading, no perfect system that always wins. But there are tricks and techniques you can learn to keep your losses small. You can learn these tricks and techniques in my Futures Trading Secrets Study Course. You can spot a successful futures trader by the fact that his losses will be consistently minuscule. Novice traders give themselves away every time by the enormity of their losses. It takes practiced skill and discipline to maintain a consistent pattern of small losses. Success is not so much a matter of how much you win, but how well you manage your losses.

The hallmark of a successful futures trader is his ability to understand failure. He learns to read and understand the market through the small losses, the failures, it hands him. Whenever the market takes an unexpected turn up or down, doesn’t do what it should do, catches us unaware, it is giving us little warnings, usually by handing us a loss on a trade. Successful futures traders are able to tune into these warnings, to see the patterns in their losses and to incorporate that knowledge into their trading system.

If a reliable technique suddenly breaks down, the successful trader does not doubt the validity of technical analysis. If a proven strategy suddenly loses its accuracy, the successful trader does not abandon it. He looks beyond the individual event for the pattern it reveals. In every loss lies the path to success. The successful futures trader knows that loss cannot be avoided so he turns it to his advantage. The successful futures trader learns to listen to his losses, to embrace them and learn from them.

In futures trading every day is a new day. You must put the failures of yesterday, and particularly any feelings of disappointment and inadequacy they cause, behind you and focus on what is happening in the market today. Dwelling on your losses will only erode your self-confidence and cause you to start second guessing yourself, your system and your decisions. Start down this road and you might as well throw in the towel. Successful futures trading is 90% attitude. Learn from your losses and move on.

D.H. Lawrence wisely said: “If only one could have two lives: the first in which to make one’s mistakes, which seem as if they have to be made; and the second in which to profit by them.”

A futures trader must live both lives simultaneously. He must learn from today’s mistakes to profit tomorrow. Think of it this way: Each mistake, as long as you learn from it, is one less mistake you’ll make in the future. Since there are a limited number of ways you can lose on a trade, each loss becomes a building block toward solid future success. You’ll make mistakes and suffer losses as a futures trader, especially as you’re learning the ropes. But by discovering the lesson in each loss, you will increase your power as a trader. Each loss then becomes a brick in the growing pillar of your success.

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Get Your Head Into The Profit Zone

If you don’t BELIEVE you will succeed, you won’t. You have to believe in yourself and in your system or you’re dead in the water before you even start the engine! Proper trading psychology is the key to success as a futures trader. You have to realign yourself mentally and get your head into the profit zone.

Three basic emotions control the market: patience, fear and greed. If you’re going to be a successful futures trader, you can’t afford to let your emotions control you. YOU must always be in control.

• Don’t second guess yourself. Stop believing in your system, lose your PATIENCE and you’ll pull out too fast, losing the profit.
• Don’t wait for the perfect trade. The perfect trade is a myth. Don’t let FEAR put you on the sidelines. Stick with your system, believe in yourself and GET IN THE GAME!
• Don’t get greedy. Stop using your system, give in to GREED and you’ll hold on too long, losing the profit.

There many qualities that make a good trader. Do you have what it takes?

• Passion. You have to like the action. You have to live for the thrill and greet every Monday charged up and ready to play.
• Daring. You have to be willing to boldly go where no man has gone before. You can’t jump on the bandwagon or follow the crowd. You have to trust your system and forge your own way.
• Confidence. You have to have ATTITUDE, and lots of it. You can’t allow yourself be beaten down by losses. You have to be able to pull yourself back up and still BELIEVE in yourself and your system.
• Intelligence. You have to be willing to learn and have an aptitude for math.
• Discipline. You have to be able to stick with it, work hard, and tough it out. You have to have the discipline to stick with your system even when you lose.
• Humility. You have to be able to look past your pride and ego. You can’t afford to cling to a losing scenario because you’re too proud to admit a mistake. Take your lumps and learn from them.
• Stamina. Futures trading is a stressful occupation. It’s a roller coaster ride that taxes your brain and your body. You have to have the physical and mental stamina to stay on top of things.
• Professionalism. Futures trading is business. Follow your brain, not your heart. You have to detach your emotions or you’ll suck you into bad decisions.

Visit the Futures Trading Secrets website to find out how you can master the essential elements of futures trading and learn the expert secrets that will allow you to become a successful futures trader. Stay tuned. Next time: Technique

Readers of this blog can look forward to articles, trading tips and charts which show how to day trade futures, including futures trading strategies, systems and resources, as well as money management and trading psychology for successful traders. You will find that these strategies will work for Forex trading and day trading stocks as well as futures trading.