As A Trader, You MUST Visualize Success... and here's how...

VISUALIZE SUCCESS

It's easy to visualize success when you know what
it looks like.

Better yet, you can really internalize - not just
visualize success - when you not only know what it
looks like but also what it feels like.

This is an important distinction.

Can you remember the first time you did a complete
summersault off the diving board?

It looks a lot different from the side of the pool
than seeing the sky and water swap places as you
put your faith in the mechanical outcome.

But once you know what it really looks and feels like,
you gain the confidence to know you can make it happen.

But just as the person who taught you how to defy the
pain and embarrassment of the panic stricken,
cowardly, flailing-arms belly flop, you did some
simulations by having a towel put around your waist
and being pivoted around the towel to simulate the
real look and feel of a summersault.

Similarly, a trader needs to take time to simulate
trading before taking the real plunge.

First, making a trade is a process with a well defined
methodology.

Once the methodology of analysis is established, and
then the trader enters the phase of setting profit
targets, establishing a stop-loss and making an entry
into the trade.

Once the trade has been placed, the trader must learn
to step back and let the system work.

After the trade has made money or been stopped out,
the trader then does a forensic analysis of the trade.

This entire process is called "trading".

It is a closely adhered-to process. No rolling the dice
or calling upon "gifted insight". It's a repetitive
and rather mechanical process.

It is not anything like the spontaneous roll of the
dice that most people ignorant of the real process
believe it to be.

The unknowing may see a trader as a gambler and not the
more accurate rubric of "bean counter".

So, back to the belly flop avoidance procedures.

Just like the towel around the waist summersault
simulation, a trader needs to practice and get a good
vision and feel of the actual task.

For the trader, the simulation is done with paper
trading or sometimes called "virtual trading". Once
the whole process has been developed, defined and
experienced, the trader begins to see patterns, which
may often lead to paper profits.

After many successful paper transactions, the trader
can fully understand the process from beginning to end.

Only then, can real visualization take place.

With the help of the post trade forensic analysis, a
trader gets the chance to relive the trade and make
mental adjustments, if needed, for the next trade.

This process of analysis helps define the vision of
what a successful trade is and it is a continual
process.

The trader's journal provides the repetition essential
for internalizing the process, the feel and the
expected outcome of the process.

But to balance out the positive visioning is the
experience of taking losses. Losing trades will happen
but a trader can choose which vision to "boot up" when
entering a trade.

If the trade gets stopped out, so be it. It's just
part of the probability, which will eventually work
in the traders favor.

After making a successful trade, a trader needs to take
the time to analyze and soak in the elements that made
a successful trade.

Remember how you felt before the trade.

Learn how to focus on the symptoms of how you respond
to victory and concentrate on those feelings before
entering a trade.

If you don't feel or see those symptoms, take a second
look and try to find out why you feel the way you do.
Perhaps your subconscious is tapping you on the shoulder
to point out a missed step in your trading system.

Visualizing success is the ability to see and feel what
a successful trade really is like. Try to remember all
of the details and concentrate on repeating the vision
and feeling the expectation that it will happen at least
75% of the time.

Do not focus on the losses.

They are just the chaos factor of probability and are
just part of the game - nothing more. However, never
lose sight of the need for analyzing losing trades.

Trading is a mental game based upon trust in yourself
and your system and this does not come from wishful
thinking but a process of experience and learning to
trust in the outcome over time.