"The goal of any trader is to turn profits on a regular basis, yet so few people ever really make consistent money as traders. What accounts for the small percentage of traders who are consistently successful? To me, the determining factor is psychological – the consistent winners think differently from everyone else."
The defining characteristic that separates the consistent winners from everyone else is this: The winners have attained a mind-set – a unique set of attitudes – that allows them to remain disciplined, focused, and, above all, confident in spite of the adverse conditions. As a result, they are no longer susceptible to the common fears and trading errors that plague everyone else.
Financial and emotional disaster are common among traders because many perspectives, attitudes, and principles that would otherwise make perfect sense and work quite well in our daily lives have the opposite effect in the trading environment. They just don’t work.