“The best loser is the long-term winner”

This famous quote by
“Phantom of the Pits” basically covers what trading is all about. The society trains
us from our childhood that we need to do everything right and that we can’t
make mistakes, but that doesn’t work in trading.

Trading is not
about being right, it’s about making money. Mistakes, losses, setbacks are all
part of the process. As traders we can try to minimise them, but we can’t
eliminate them completely from the equation.

You might have
heard another famous saying that goes like “cut your losses short and let your
profits run”. This is another way of saying that when you see that your trades
are not working out as expected, you should walk away from you positions fast.

Conversely, when you
really see the ball, when you know that you are right, you should maximise your
winners by letting your profits run and even increase the position.

Druckenmiller once
said that Soros was the best loss taker he’s ever seen. He didn’t care whether
he was winning or losing on a trade. If a trade didn’t work, he was confident
enough about his ability to win on other trades that he could easily walk away
from the positions. If you’re extremely confident in yourself, taking a loss
doesn’t bother you.

Being the best
loser is all about minimising the losses and deeply accept them as part of the process. This will also keep you in the game for longer and increase your chances of success. Don’t try to flip accounts or become rich quick because 99.99% of the time it ends up in blowups.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at www.forexlive.com.