15 Tips for Better Trading

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While success is never a guarantee in the trading business, these 15 tips for better trading will help improve your decision making when it comes to forex trading, stock trading, and crypto trading. If you’re looking to improve your daily trading process, see more profitable returns from your trading, and take one step closer to being a more consistent trader then this blog is for you.

When Austin and Rylee sat down to do film the original video here, they originally had 10 tips, but they had to add 5 more.

Ok, let’s get into the 15 tips!

1. Go all in: For challenging careers, you have to go all in. How many doctors half-ass their work and their education? None. Rylee was asked what she’s gone all-in on. Her answer? “All in on myself. Understanding myself – what makes me happy, what makes me cringe, etc.” Austin asked, “What else other than yourself have you gone all-in on?“Rylee went all-in on Austin (awwww) and ASFX instead of a 9-5 job with a salary and benefits. Austin did the same and together, they tackled ASFX as a power couple completely devoted to starting and growing the business.

2. Managing Risk: Every great trader is always thinking in terms of risk and not of reward. Rylee refers to Austin as the Master of Risk. He is so aware of the risk-reward ratio that it even filters into his everyday life. In real life, everything he does needs to be a plan so he can see risk and figure out how to minimize it.

3. Humility: Great traders aren’t afraid of being wrong. They really are unemotional, and they don’t care if they take a loss. More importantly, they don’t carry that loss into their next trade.

4. Respond Don’t React: All great traders respond, they don’t react and they don’t forecast. Responses require thought, some planning and maybe even an “if-then” statement in their planning.

5. Trading Plan: They have a trading plan and they follow it like the Bible. It must be a detailed trading plan. Some traders have incredibly detailed plans and read it to themselves every day. Ground yourself in your trading plan. Tape it above your desk or have it near you. It is so important to have it tangibly in front of you because, as traders, you are so into the screen that the action of placing trades and managing them almost doesn’t seem real.

6. Risk Management Pt. 2: Great traders cut losses quickly and hold their winners until the market tells them it’s time to get out. This is a part of risk management that a lot of traders overlook. This is why Austin moves his stop loss as he gets into profit.

7. Always use a Stop Loss: Forex is much too volatile of a market to have a mental stop. There needs to be an actual stop put in place. If you trade without a stop loss, it’s like being a football player without a helmet. If you do incur a loss, you should love your losses because they should teach you something.

8. Have a Grading System: This could be 3 different grades or 5 depending on what best fits your personality. ASFX has the grading system of A, B and C. Your system does not have to be the ASFX system, but having a grading system helps you understand how you are going to respond as a trader.

9. Probability: Great traders know which trades are best and more probable and trade accordingly.

10. Have a Mentor or Coach: Every great trader has at least 1 mentor or 1 coach. It is so important in life let alone in your career. Who is Austin’s coach? The old school stock market guys: Stephen Burns, Tom Basso, Peter Brant, etc. but he also likes to look to himself, which sounds weird but he knows what he needs to do to hold himself accountable to grow. Rylee is the same way and looks to herself as a coach because she was raised that way – she is her own inner compass. Overall, books are Rylee’s mentor and where she spends a lot of her time.

11. Be Selective: Great traders do not trade every trade they see. Selectivity is KEY. This is saying, hey, now that you can read that this trade isn’t as probable, don’t put money into it. Mark it up as an idea and learn from it. Even if you don’t take the trade, mark up your charts and learn from your ideas. Then, if your backtesting proves a profitable strategy, you can put money into it.

12. Get off the Screens: Great traders take time to get off the desk every day and reset. Exercise, do some yoga, boxing, reading, meditate, work on a side project or whatever you need to reset.

13. Study: The best traders spend more time studying and analyzing than they actually do trading. Getting in and out of a trade doesn’t take that much time. How many hours do athletes put into training for a 9-second sprint? Think about that. It’s important to put in the time to master your craft and succeed.

14. Self-development: Great traders love self-development and want to grow from within. Trading is 90% mental. You learn the technical aspect of it and you get it and understand it, but then there takes a lot of mental strength needed once you’re in your trade.

15. Tune Others Out: The best traders do not allow social media, group chats, Twitter threads etc. to impact their trading decisions. They know when to shut them off and stick to their trading plan and when to go back to it. Who is the one trading? You or other people on social media. Self-sufficiency is very important.

So, there you have it. A valuable list of 15 tips compiled by Austin and Rylee and years of experience. Read it, bookmark it, save it, study it and implement it.

Good luck and happy trading!

Psssst… check out our new ASFX Trading Journal here: https://asfx.biz/journal (FREE SHIPPING for US traders)