Q/A - What strategy is best to use to become a consistent profitable trader?

A: You may be surprised by the answer I give.

The answer is NO one strategy is going to make you a consistent profitable trader. Many traders hate to hear this answer and I hope I do not disappoint you. The only thing that will enable you to consistently pull money out of the markets is YOU. One does need to use a strategy that demonstrates a profitable tendency. If it was all about the strategy, then trading would not be so difficult. We would buy a program to run the strategy and hold our bag open for the money to drop in it. YOU must have discipline, learn to control losses, and YOU must be able to take your profits. YOU must eliminate fear to trade, the fear to lose, and the fear of missing a move. You must be able to control the emotional and psychological problems that prevent success in trading. This is the difficult part of trading. Most learn chart reading and analyzing markets, but most never master the psychological aspects of trading. That will be your biggest challenge in learning how to trade with any strategy. Rather than guessing what you will do with a strategy, know what to do and then act. Right or Wrong, you will not know this until after the fact.

As a personal example, I have traded the strategy I use today for many years. A few tweaks here and there but the core basic strategy has remained. The first few years I lost at trading this strategy and most any other strategy I attempted. The major change was me and how I controlled my impulsive trades, contained my losses and captured the profits when I had them. This will be true no matter what strategy or style of trading you use. Market conditions change and run in cycles, not all strategies work in all conditions. The most difficult lesson was to learn when NOT to trade.

My personal system is set up in a way that tells me when to trade and what strategies to focus on. If I have no strategy for the current condition it is up to me NOT trade.