As many of you may know, one of the reasons I got into trading was because of the freedom it can offer your life. I saw the possibilities that being successful with trading could bring to my life. What I see a lot of people make mistake with is he understanding of how you achieve this freedom. Most think they can get into trading and spend an hour every morning placing trades and hen spending the rest of their day with complete freedom. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When you think of trading bringing you freedom, think more along the lines of having the freedom to choose when and where you WORK from. Yes the key word here is work! Trading can bring you freedom from the corporate world, answering to a boss or clients but this freedom will only come if you can exercise discipline in your life through putting in the time and dedication required to make your trading work for you.
A few months ago I did a session with students were I spoke about how I work from my home and how it was always something I strived to achieve. Many think of this as a great thing because they could hang out at home and work when they felt like it and catch the latest game on tv whenever it was on etc., but the way I look at it is I have to work from home because I am constantly involved with my routines and my process of trading. It would be impossible to work away from home and commit so many moments throughout my day to work, so working from home is my only option.
With the discipline to do what I need to do comes the freedom in life that most would love, just as with trading, if you commit to being disciplined with taking the right trades based on your rules and taking them with the right risk management and not focusing on making money, then the outcome of your hard work will be great returns turning into great profits. Focusing too much on the freedom you have when you first start trading full time will lead to your inevitable failure. So the key here is stay focused on your work and on what you need to do every day and you will reap the rewards that come along with it, just don’t expect it anytime soon!
Kevin Araujo