Show me the money! In a nutshell that’s the goal of futures trading: to make money. Charts track money. They peel away the rumors and the news reports, the CEO’s prognostications and your neighbor’s hot tip. They show us what master day trader Oliver Velez terms the footprints of money (ref. Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader by Oliver Velez and Greg Capra).
The Education Of A Successful Futures Trader
Becoming a successful futures trader doesn’t happen overnight. You don’t read a book and Voila! another successful futures trader dazzles Wall Street. It would be nice, but it’s just not going to happen. Once you decide to become a futures trader there’s a lot of hard work ahead.
Climbing The Learning Ladder To Trading Success
Loss is the futures trader’s bugaboo, that annoying little wisp of fear in the back of your subconscious that keeps you from pulling the trigger and achieving success. To succeed as a futures trader you have to squelch thoughts of previous failures and concentrate on learning the new skills that will lead you to success.
Shortcuts To Trading Success
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.

