How to Create a Profitable Trading Mindset

Dear TradeZella,

How can I shift my mindset towards profitable trading?

Profitable trading involves several different factors.

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The ability to manage risk.

The skill to recognize good setups.

The humility to adjust your psychology.

The patience to take the right setup.

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In this article, we’re going to talk about the last one. But for more on developing Trading Mindsets, check out our deep dive article: Keeping a Trading Mindset.

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In trading, we don’t seek out trades to place. We establish a plan and wait for the A+ opportunity to come to us. ✅

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Everything else is noise.

In order to reframe your mindset, think about trading this way...

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Say you’re attending a networking event. Your goal is to leave the event with one or two beneficial connections.

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There’s 10 people at this event.

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🔘 5 "drifters"

They're friendly, approachable, engaging in gossip, and eating all the refreshments.

They seem nice, but they don't offer a ton of value, so you’re not going to benefit from speaking to them.

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🔘 3 "hotshots"

These people won the lottery or became rich by a stroke of luck.

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They're showing off the latest flashy designer clothes and may have a high net worth, but deep down, haven't developed any real substance or skills.

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🔘2 "top dogs"

These two are intelligent, wealthy, wise, and have a positive attitude.

They have an abundance of friends, skills, and a network of good people surrounding them.

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They are extremely high quality.

Now, you have one hour to get involved with the folks at this event. ⏰

Who are you going to spend your time getting involved with?

The right people to get involved with are the 2 top dogs. You know that. 🤝

It might take some patience at the networking event for you to be able to chat with them.

In the meantime, are you spinning your wheels getting involved with the time-wasters?

If you do, you might lose the opportunity to be available to meet the top dogs.

Now coming back to trading...

Think of the top dogs as your key levels, your plan, or your A+ setups. ✅

💡It’s best to wait for these opportunities to show through, treat them as top priority, and ignore everything else.

Involvement with these key levels, setups, or plans can be the most beneficial to your trading performance. 📈

Think of the hotshots are those big green candles that take off out of nowhere that you’re feeling FOMO on.

They weren’t in your game plan, but they sure do look enticing. 😛

If you get involved with them, you MIGHT get lucky.

BUT, across 100 trades of the same nature, you're sure to lose in the long run.

Don't get fooled by the hot shots!

What about the drifters? They can't be THAT bad, right? Wrong.

Think of the drifters as the trades you get into that were just boredom trades, no real setup, they “looked good”, or chop.

For those who trade options, think of these drifters as the type of price action that chops you out of a trade and eats through your premium, just as these folks plow through all the refreshments.

The lesson here is…

💡You want to get involved with the A+ setups, or the "top dogs". Nothing else.

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Everything else is...

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A waste of time.

Waste of money.

Not good enough for you.

Not beneficial to you.

Not worth your attention.

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So next time you take a trade, ask yourself...🤔

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Is this an A+ setup?

Am I getting involved with the top dogs?

Am I getting faked out by those flashy green hot shot candles?

Am I getting involved with a wasteful trade?

Would I take this trade 100 times over again?

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Trading is about the opportunities you take, but also the events that you choose to pass up.

Have high standards for your trading, just as you would at the networking event.

After all, you deserve it. ❤️

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What's new?

New Dashboard, who dis?

If you haven't heard yet...

TradeZella loves you so much that we're launching a new Dashboard view especially for you. 😎

You'll be able to get a better picture of your P/L, trade expectancy, profit factor, and more.

Get a better sense of your strengths and weaknesses with Zella Score.

You'll be able to see what you need to work on and where you're excelling.

So much more to come as part of this launch, but for now here's your sneak peek.

You'll see it reflect to your account this Friday. 😎

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User Highlight

True dedication: trading after the night shift

This week we took a slightly different direction in our interviews and spoke with a relatively new trader.

You newer traders will relate to this.

And you seasoned traders will appreciate this.

Meet Andre. He's an options trader who's been documenting his journey to consistency since October of last year.

If you've peeked at his February recap on Twitter, (@Conway_Capital) you'd be impressed.

It's thorough, in-depth, and exactly what a monthly recap should look like.

Even though Andre's been involved with the markets since July of 2020, he's been buckling down on his trading for the last 5 months now. 💪

5 months may seem short to some of the more seasoned traders, but get a load of this...

Andre's a member of the Air Force and took the leap to get into trading when he was assigned to working night shifts. 🌚

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"I started working the night shift in October which gave me the perfect opportunity to start trading on my own every morning after my shift."

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Talk about dedication.

It's this kind of determination mindset that leads traders down a path of success.

There's always a reason you can come up with to not try something.

You're...

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"Too tired"

"Too busy"

"Don't want to risk losing money"

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The list goes on and on.

For Andre, not starting and not trying are not an option.

Seeing as he's a newer trader, we asked Andre what made him choose TradeZella as his journal. He said...

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"I chose TradeZella mostly because of its combined educational content as well as how easy it is to navigate. It is very user friendly and so much more efficient than using an excel sheet. The educational content is very informative especially for new traders."

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We're glad you got value out of Zella University, Andre! 📝

As far as getting into details about his journaling, he mentioned...

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"TradeZella gives me the ability to quickly organize my trades by set ups, position size, amount lost or gained, mistake made, etc. So I’m quickly able to recognize what mistakes I keep making and what setups are working vs not working."
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This is the exact reason why we journal.

To find our strengths and weaknesses, address them, and continue the process to improve.

As for the future, Andre mentioned that his goal is to be consistently profitable.

He's defined that as 3 green months with a win rate over 50%.

At the moment, he's zeroing in on:

Executing quality setups

Letting winners run

Cutting losses quickly

Trading only SPY with 2 contracts

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We can all agree these are excellent components to focus on. Can't wait to see the progress you make this year, Andre!

If you're thinking, "Hey, maybe I could benefit from a more thorough trade review process..."

Check out the link below to get your instant access code. 😎

Click here!

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