“We do not rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the levels of our systems” – James Clear

Let’s face it, when we first start out trading, we flat out SUCK. Our trading “mentors” are usually the ones we find shilling shitcoins on twitter, our trend lines are off, we forget to set 2FA security on our exchanges and after a few decent losses on trades, we do what most people do… we give up.

It doesn’t have to be this way though and for a lot of us traders, we tend to overcomplicate things and ironically enough one of the best thing we can do to boost our trading success Is often the opposite.. Keep it simple.

So how do we do that? Well, for starters we need to get our mind right and before we work on getting any of our indicators or trend lines down pat is the work on the most powerful trading tool available, our psychology.

In this guide, we’re going to share with you the 5 Biggest psychological mistakes 99% of new traders make and what YOU can do to avoid making them in your next trades.

1/ Not Sticking to (Or Creating) a Trade Plan

This is a critical mistake we see in almost ALL of our beginner students make and is one that WILL LOSE YOU MONEY. There is not two ways about it and as the old saying goes “If you faily to plan, you plan to fail” and this could not ring truer when it comes to sticking to a trade plan, which will:

• Keep you accountable
• Help you to identify potential trade entries and exits
• Remind you of the trusted indicators you use and stick to
• Stops you from investing more money than you can afford to lose

That’s sounds good and all, we can hear you saying “but I don’t know where to start when making my own trade plan”. Well, we’ve got you covered and in the spirit of keeping things simple, you can download you very own 1-Page Trade Plan Template right now, which is the simplest way to keep yourself accountable and reminded of how you’ll be trading from here on in.

Fig – Free 1 Page Trade Plan Template By UTG

2/ Thinking You Need To Use 20 Indicators At Once

Ever heard the term “paralysis by analysis”, well the same applies to trading and if you’re the kind of trader that needs 15 different indicators to confirm your trading bias, slap yourself right now… we’ll wait.

Ok, now that you’ve slapped some sense into yourself and you’ve reset your tradingview account, we can get down to mastering just a few indicators and taking most of the confusion out of your charts. In fact, ask a number of experienced traders and they’ll tell you that they use only their few trusted indicators and not much more. 

Here is a list of our favourite indicators:

• MACD
• Fibonacci
• RSI (CCI For spotting Divergence)
• Ichimoku Clouds
• Moving Averages
• Bollinger Bands

Inside our private training groups, these are the indicators that we teach to all of our members because they are effective, easy to understand and are all available inside tradingview.

(Note:) Although these indicators work for us, you should always use and adapt trading strategies you find work well for others, for yourself and your own trades. You are an individual and your trade plans represent how YOU like to trade and what works best for YOU.

3/ FOMO’ing Into a Trade (Fear Of Missing Out)

Uh-Oh, this is something that we think ALL traders have done at some point in time, you’ve seen something on a run, there’s a tonne of hype on facebook and twitter and without doing any research of TA for yourself, you buy in.

Don’t be this person anymore. Understand that there will ALWAYS be another trade opportunity and by looking for these potential runs ahead of time and setting your trades up, you will let the trade come to YOU instead of chasing the trade after the fact.

• IF you missed it… you missed it. Get over it, move on and find the next one.

Wiating to buy the dip…

4/ Following Everything You See On Twitter

Something else most beginner traders do is log into twitter, follow 50 different trading “Guru’s” and believe everything they say, trade everything they recommend and lose along with everyone else that did the same thing.

In fact now, the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission) is now fining and even taking companies to court they paid celebrities to promote their products without informing the public and these celebrities are now also facing fines or jail time for doing the same thing.

Just because someone famous or well known is promoting something, that does NOT mean that the project is solid.

If you do choose to follow well known traders on twitter, that’s fine, but we would suggest following those with a solid track record, that provide explanations for why they follow or trade something and give honest public feedback when they make a mistake.

Crypto Twitter is full of scams and people looking to make a quick buck – follow with caution

5/ Thinking You Can Learn All There Is to Know

This level of thinking couldn’t be anymore wrong. Consider yourself a life long student of trading and if this is something that you truly want to make a potential income from, then you should throw yourself head first into everything you can to increase your trading success and profits

• Looking at all trading markets to find similarities or opportunities
• Read and learn 1 new piece of trading information every day
• Look for what successful traders have done and explore what they’ve done
• Join groups, ask questions and be involved
• Set Trading or learning goals every week, month or year

Never assume your learning is done

This level of thinking couldn’t be anymore wrong. Consider yourself a life long student of trading and if this is something that you truly want to make a potential income from, then you should throw yourself head first into everything you can to increase your trading success and profits

Just like the best sportsman practice and refine their craft every day, we as traders should be doing the same thing with the goal to become the best trader we can because without continuous learning, we still stagnate and miss opportunities to maximize our profits in the future.

These are the things that separate good traders from great traders.. which one do you want to be?

* 2018 Unity Trading Group PTY LTD. The information on this website has been created by Unity Trading Group (ABN: 630163343) for general information and educational purposes only and is not to be constructed as personal or financial advice. All forms of trading carry a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. Before deciding to trade any market reported on by Unity Trading Group you should carefully consider your objectives, financial situation, needs, and level of experience. By trading, you could sustain a loss in excess of your deposited funds. Before trading ASX/FX/Cryptocurrency markets you should be aware of all the risks associated with trading. Unity Trading Group recommends you seek advice from a separate financial advisor before making any decisions based on the general information given on this website or affiliated platforms.