Lessons I learned from Trader Mike

When I started daytrading, I spent countless hours trying to find and learn from successful traders. I would search the internet and scour the forums to find experienced traders who have gone through the ups and downs of trading and were willing and humble enough to share those experiences with other traders. Of course, such magnificent traders are a dime a dozen on Stocktwits today. But a few years ago, one had to dig a little harder to find these traders.

One such trader was Trader Mike who has an excellent blog. It used to be a daily routine to visit his site, where I learned quite a bit about trading, Psychology, other traders (like Maoxian), keeping good records, self-analysis and keeping things simple. I also learned that many successful traders (if not all) follow quite similar paths of mistakes, experience and eventual success. One of my favorite posts is How I Became Such a Great Trader where he shares some valuable insight on his past experiences and some of the things he does to stay sharp.

Another lesson I learned is that while it is critical to focus on the technical and physical aspects of trading (trading plan, setups, charts, etc.), it is also very important to focus on the emotional aspects such as Psychology and self-affirmations. Now what's that you may ask? Trader Mike was not shy to share that he listens to a trade affirmations CD to make sure his mind stays 'right'. After purchasing the CD and listening to it, I understood why. I have converted the CD to MP3 and I listen to it as often as I can (on my iPod or PC). Here is a clip below: