How long will it take me to become profitable?

If you have already traded for 10 years you should be there by now or soon after. Many traders take 5-6 years (myself included), most take as long as 10 years. Some never make it of course. It actually took Al 10 years due to the lack of good trading information at the time. Al spent lots of money, as we all can do, paying for useless courses and mentors.

Assuming you know how to place and manage trades well, I would suggest your problem may well be psychology. Even with the skills to trade, our psychology can really mess things up. If you do not do mindfulness meditation yet, I would suggest you look into it and make a start. You need to learn to be aware of your emotions kicking in and hijacking your brain! It takes time, maybe lots of time, to learn this. At the very least, take deep breaths every now and again to try and keep your heart rate down - especially before taking a trade! Stand up, walk around to break your state now and again.

I can recommend some books to help with your psychology, and the best starting point is an excellent (and cheap) book called "Mindfulness: An Eight-week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World" by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.

I have re-watched Brooks' YouTube response Video many times along my journey and will continue to revisit it when I get frustrated with some of my trading days. I've had many more up than down days this year, but still have a lot to work on. I have found it immensely helpful and hope you do as well.

@WannabeTrader

I would like to add to Richard's comment that I have found the work of Dr. Brett Steenbarger helpful. He has written a few books and has been publishing a blog for many years. http://traderfeed.blogspot.com

Just recently he started to post 3min Trading Coach videos on YT, which will give you an idea of the sort of things you can expect from his writings.

Of course the late Mark Douglas must be mentioned as well when it comes to trading psychology. I would consider his 2 books required reading for any serious trader.

Hi Richard, 

What are a few other books you would recommend for psychology and/or mindfulness? 

Thank you!

Richard - just wanted to follow up with you again. I read your book recommendation for mindfulness and loved it!

Was wondering if you had any other good recommendations for mindfulness meditation or psychology?

Thanks again! @BTC Admin

Hi Charlie,

First, apologies for the tardy response. I did write an email to you last weekend and not heard back. Anyway...

On the psychology topic I have found that "parts psychology" is most important. It can be a struggle to accept for some, but I am certainly quite sure our personalities are made up of multiple, independent parts, and have taken it as far as being trained in one of the parts therapies - Resource Therapy. I first came across parts when doing NLP practitioner training some years ago and was literally blown away with the "parts integration" that NLP includes.

If completely new to parts topic, and perhaps a little wary!, I would recommend looking into Internal Family Systems (IFS) as it is easy to understand and get into. Richard Schwartz, the founder of IFS, has a well-written book called "Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model". If you are already Ok with the multiple parts model, you can jump straight to his latest book "No Bad Parts". And if you really like topic and want to go deeper, literally, the "Internal Family Systems Therapy, 2nd Edition" book with Richard Schwartz and Martha Sweezy, has lots of in-depth study. You might even want to get trained up in future. IFS impacts our life overall, not just our trading. 

Related to IFS, but more broad-based psychology, you can check out Dr Joe Dispenza's book "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself (How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New one)". This book helps break down our thinking patterns that trap us into doing all sorts of stuff that we regret - especially in trading.

As for more typical trading books, most out there talk too much about the usual psychological biases that mess up trading. Without a recognition of parts, they are not much help. If I had one book, and I do have it of course, I would recommend Steve Ward's "TraderMind: Get a Mindful Edge in the Markets". This book has good applications of mindfulness.

Another good book is the popular Mark Douglas "Trading in the Zone" which despite its age is still valuable. However, I would suggest better to watch some YouTube videos based on the book with Mark himself plus a really good presentation by a UK outfit. Here are links:

Financial Wisdom presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1djMTkGE3Q

Mark Douglas - How to Think Like a Professional Trader Part 1 of 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaTlTfQnZI

Finally. Rande Howell is a trading coach who runs an excellent online course and personal services. I took his "Ignite Your Spark" individual package several years ago and found his work to reflect parts psychology quite well. I would suggest you go through his website articles (he has free ebook download of key articles), listen to his many videos to get a feel for his work, and if interested, the group online course sessions are best option. His book is Ok too, but you can get it all through his website and YouTube.

YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/igniteyourspark/

Website:
https://www.mytradersstateofmind.com/

Hope that helps and not too much to put you or anyone else off altogether. ; )

PS. On mindfulness, check out Loch Kelly here on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/c/LochKelly

His latest book on "The Way of Effortless Mindfulness" is a good follow up to earlier recommendation on topic.

Thanks for the information Ricardo.

Thank you for the resourceful response, Richard!

Charlie

In answer to your question about any other mindfulness resources - you could take up TM. It costs a bit, but is excellent. Its all about less thinking. I have practiced it for 32 years. Changed my life.

Hi Richard,

Thank you so much for the additional recommendations - I will definitely check all of those out!

I apologize for missing your email - it ended up in my Junk folder for some reason.

Again, I appreciate all of your help.

-Charlie 

Graeme

I'm assuming TM = Transcendental Meditation (per Google search)? If so, this seems a lot like Visappana Meditation - which I currently practice and find a great benefit in!

Hi Charlie

Yes its transcendental meditation. 20 mins, twice daily. In TM the awareness is on a mantra, as opposed to the breath (in Vissapana). Although i usually do slip into awareness of my breath.

Cheers

Another good resource I forgot to include above is the Sam Harris "Waking Up" Android & iOS app that includes an excellent meditation course plus a wide range of related Q&As, conversations, with alternative meditation approaches and philosophies. The Stoic Path series and David Whyte's poetry is particularly valuable in my experience. Loch Kelly also appears.

You can get more info and grab a free trial on the Sam Harris Waking Up App Page.