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After university, I got a job offer in the Midlands and I had to relocate out of London. I also needed a car – which I searched high and low for one with a reasonable spec and price. In the end, I settled for a three-door Fiat Seicento (above). Mind you, that was also the very first time I heard of a Seicento. After living in the UK for 5 years (at that time), I felt I was pretty knowledgeable about cars so I said to the seller: “I have never seen or heard of a Fiat Seicento in the UK”. Guess what? After I bought the car, I realised that it was not an uncommon car. In fact, since then, I've been spotting the same car (model) nearly every month and, some times, even every week. Later on, I found out that the Seicento has been around the UK for several years and, just because I was not aware of it, I had never really paid attention to it. Does that sound somewhat familiar? I do hope so because the same thing applies for trading (and many other things in life). Often, traders tend to overlook good trades because they are either not looking for it properly or they are not aware of how it should be done. And that leads me to today’s topic - The Secrets to Finding the Trades You Want. 1. Do Not Think of a Pink Elephant  Let me guess, you are thinking of the Pink Elephant even though I’ve asked you not to? Ok, let’s try this one more time, do your best not to think about the Pink Elephant… Well, at this point in time, you are either still thinking about the Pink Elephant or you have managed to use up a lot of brain power (energy) trying to suppress the thought. It became even harder as I’ve said it twice, right? That’s really the point that I’m trying to make. As you can see, it is often easier to do what you don’t want to do. By asking you not to think about the Pink Elephant, your mind is fully focusing on the Pink Elephant. In fact, it is very challenging to remove the image of the Pink Elephant out of your head now. Do you realise the importance of NOT focusing on what you Do Not want? And, in case you don't realise, focusing on what you don’t want is a complete waste of time and effort. This is one of the most common mistakes that traders make and they do it without realising it. They make clear references in their daily routines to remind themselves that they will not take certain trades and, guess what, that is exactly what they do. They remind themselves not to close their trades when price is volatile... BUT they close their trades as soon as price gets volatile. And the list goes on. Instead of that, traders should focus on what they want to do. Just like how I changed the picture in your head to a White Elephant. 2. Be Specific Being a trader, is like being an archer, you need to be clear, concise and accurate. Have a think about it, as a trader you need to know exactly what you're looking for in the market place. When a trade sets up in front of you, you either take it or you don't. Also, you cannot afford to miss a good trade because you don’t know when a good one will come again. Some traders are not clear of what they look for and they end up scouting the market for hours and hours. In the end, missing many good trades but also getting frustrated about it, they then just take what ever that comes along the way. That trade could be a winner or it could be a loser but that's besides the point because you broke your rules and you have no idea why you took the trade. Being specific also requires you to trade in a timely manner. You cannot enter the trade too late because that will affect the return on your investment (assuming you enter at a less favorable price). Entering too early could mean that you might miss important information that could help seal the decision. And so on… Let’s face it, all these takes practice. However, you can only practice the right thing if you have been specific from the start. You can only bring your skills to perfection if you execute the same rules countless number of times. You can only make your trade analysis really good if you ask your coach the same question and having the coach explain the same answer from multiple perspectives. Do you see the benefits of being specific? It is a simple mechanism derived from the Law of Attraction that helps you find what you’re looking for very quickly if you are specific in your search. Google search engines work on the same principals and so does looking out for a Fiat Seicento. With that, I can guarantee that the same applies for trading. 3. Be Discipline  Now that you have stopped looking for what you don’t want and you are specific about what you want, you need to be discipline in your search. By that, I mean you need to have a good trading routine. Pending on your trading system and style, you need to be at your charts at a specific time of the day. Even the most boring traders who only spends 15 mins on the daily charts need to be discipline. In fact, as they only spend 15 mins a day, the window of opportunity becomes even more critical missing this 15 mins will have a huge knock-on effect which could easily cause them to miss a few trades. The same applies for news traders who are required to be diligent in identifying the time of the news and be at their charts when the news is released. Which ever trading system your implement, you need to know what is required from you to implement that system flawlessly and then you need to be discipline about it. Conclusion Some of you reading this article might think that this is too easy to be true. Ask and I shall receive? That's it? To be honest, it’s actually that simple. Search for the right think, be specific and keep doing it and those trade set ups that you want will eventually appear. While this is a simple task, many traders have not done all of the above all at once. Some will look for the right thing but become impatient easily and they’ll move on to try another system. Other traders are very discipline but are not specific enough in what they are looking for. And some are always doing what they plan out not wanting to do. Get it? I hope the article makes sense and that you find it useful. If you have any feedback or questions, please comment in the box below.
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