Thoughts From A Trading Coach – Why are you not in any trades?

As a trader and trading coach, it has been a fruitful year both trade wise and results wise.

However,  in recent weeks the markets have been very quiet for both myself and many of my swing traders.

Yesterday I got a message on social media from someone who follows us but doesn’t trade with us on this exact subject.

It simply said…………..

“Why are you not in any trades at the moment??”

Now to me the answer is obvious. But………..

When I thought about it as a trading coach, in relation to what I have been teaching our Professional Members this week,  it made total sense why a trader would ask this.

We all come to trading with different levels of skill, different previous experiences, different expectations and amongst other things these factors help to create specific biases that we all have towards what we trade, how we trade, how we interpret the markets and the results we end up with.

Very often what determines the traders success, is the reaction they have to those results.

As a trading coach, I will look at much more than simply if a traders greed or fear based, but for now let’s start there…………

The greed-based trader is going to want to be in the market and as a result is likely to “over trade” and “under analyse”.

So, his or her tendency when I am flat and in no positions, or if they are flat and in no positions, is to ask the question

“Why are you not in any trades?”

Or ask themselves….

“Why am I not in any trades?”

This comes from the predetermined expectation or bias that “you” or “I” as a trader “should be in the market” and that likely shows up in their decisions, actions and as a result their trade frequency.

They will then, via their filters, likely see and focus on others who are in positions, and as result want to be in trades themselves, even if those trades or possible trades don’t fit the strategy or are lower quality setups.

The simple answer to the questions of why I am not in any trades is…

“I don’t have any specific markets setting up with my strategy in the appropriate market conditions”

Trading however is simple but that doesn’t make it easy, and as a result, traders who “feel” they need to be in the market all the time will often question those that are not.

On the flip side………

Just as fear-based traders who tend to “over analyse” and “under trade”.

They will often be out of the market at the very time the trade is telling them to be in!

As a trading coach I work with new and experienced traders on how they deal with this on a more personal level, however you can start by following the steps below…….

1- Be wary of your biases and your emotional state at different times and during different market conditions.

2- If you don’t know what they are – get a trading coach to help highlight them and quantify the impact they have had on your trading.

3- Have the awareness to see them come up real time and get feedback from that trading coach to act on them correctly in accordance with your trading plan

Until the next time…….

Trade safe

Ali