I want to talk to you about a very important set of phases that you have to go through in order to become a successful live trader. Now I talk with a lot of people on the phone and via the internet who have been trading for a month or two, or they may have been trading for up to two or three years. But in most cases, in fact in all these cases they don’t understand the true sequence of all phases that each trader has to go through in order to become a successful trader. They don’t understand the true expectations, and the reasons for them because they simply tend to trust the brokers in the market who are telling them what they should expect.

If you trust a broker, and I mean a retail broker, a retail broker is not going to give you a realistic perspective on what it’s going to take to become a successful live trader. Because they are making money when you’re losing. You may not be aware of that. Go read another one of my hubs on the retail market makers and you’ll learn more about that. Just understand that when you’re trading in the market there’s a certain set of phases that you go through that are three steps. And I’m going to outline these very briefly.

FIRST: You must have a proper combination of education. Not just any education will do to make you a successful trader. Certainly not the education that is handed out like candy, free candy, by brokers out there who all want you to set up a live account as soon as possible. They want you to set up a live account as soon as possible because that’s how they make money. They’re not going to make money as long as you’re practicing. First before you start trading live with any broker, no matter who the broker is, you have got to have the proper education, and the proper combination of education, and tools and strategies before you’re going to be a successful trader. That’s the first step.

SECOND: You need to master in a demo account, which is a practice account the things you’ve learned in your education. You should never trade live unless you have mastered first at a practice account the strategies you’ve been taught. And when I say master it, the way you measure that mastery is when you have learned to double, triple, and quadruple a demo account. Then you can think about being prepared to start learning how to trade in the third phase.

THIRD: Becoming a live trader with real money. That’s a whole other quantum leap in your progress to become a successful trader. The third phase requires that you learn to face yourself. You will not face yourself as a demo trader and you certainly won’t face your real self while you’re getting educated. But when you start trading real money something happens in the mind of a trader that comes from the most deeply rooted belief systems that developed ever since you were a child.

These belief systems will govern fear, greed, competition, and even revenge. They govern whether you feel over confident or under confident, it will determine whether you hesitate when you shouldn’t or if you get out of a trade too soon. This is what you’re going to face as a live trader and you must learn to discipline yourself to the strategy you perfected and mastered as a demo trader when you’re trading real money. That takes time and patience, and it’s a normal and necessary part of the process. A lot of traders want to beat themselves up because they get so frustrated when they can’t do what they did as a demo trader now that they’re trading real live money.

It is important that you be patient with yourself. It’s important that you don’t beat yourself up when you lose your first account because you probably will. The vast majority of traders do. It’s ok, take it with a grain of salt, and chalk it up to education. Use it as a way of growing because as you learn to trade live money you’re going to face all your weaknesses.

That may sound scary to some people ok? Like, what are my weaknesses? I’ll tell you right now, you will not realize what your weaknesses are, you will think that you overcame these weaknesses long ago … but I guarantee you, you have not. Until you face yourself in a live trading scenario and begin to take losses you won’t know what weaknesses still creep and crawl under your skin. That sounds funny, but many think of these weaknesses as enemies. They’re not your enemies. Weaknesses help you to be humble. And if you’re not humble as a trader, the market will humble you. I guarantee it will humble you until you respect it. When you learn to respect the market and then learn to see your weaknesses as stepping-stones to becoming a greater person, a greater trader then you’ll start seeing those weaknesses as tools. They’re little red flags that help you learn what you have to work on next in order to become a successful trader.

I hope you have enjoyed this hub. Check out all of my tips on trading at www.ForexCoachingPros.com , and good luck with your trades!