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“Let’s face facts. Traders with huge trading fortunes only exist because they started doing small things. Once they got the little things right – they catapulted towards success.” – Caroline Stephen
Some decades ago, many people went to school to get knowledge. But nowadays, most people go to school so that they can get jobs when they graduate. Many people crave the white collar job in the corporate world – otherwise known as the rat race. One dictionary describes the rat race as ‘an exhausting routine that leaves no time for relaxation.’ Is that want you want? Please read a true life story below.
One high school student invested profitably in a market and tasted the pleasure of trading. He later went to a university and got a degree that was an equivalent of MBA. He was lucky enough to get a job at IBM and began to play the corporate game. While he was still relatively young, he’d gone very high on the corporate ladder. The career was successful: he flew across the world and rode in posh cars while on official assignments. He thought his own life was OK and that he’d retired wealthy.
In the midst of the apparent ostentation, the man felt like a slave. He was working from Monday to Saturday and for up to 12 hours per day. He seldom went home and if he did, he’d a few hours to rest. He got no time for himself and other important things in life – not to mention friends. He began to experience the dark side of the corporate world.
From the Corporate Job to the Real Financial Freedom
From the year 2000 things began to move from bad to worse, with increasing targets and shrinking income. IBM merged with another company and several thousands of jobs were cut. The economic outlook got bleak and many companies laid off their workers. If he waited any longer, he might also be laid off; and it was better to resign than to get retrenched. The man quickly made up his mind to go back to trading. He tendered his letter of resignation and quit the corporate world.
He wasn’t sure whether he’d make it as a trader or not. He just wanted to give it a try. After all, he’d enough money to survive for one year. He drastically changed his lifestyle and cut back his spending. He then left Germany and settled in the US. He purchased many trading courses and systems, but they didn’t work for him. However, with some of the systems, he’d make money and lose them alternatively. The forlorn man was moving towards the brink of penury.
On day, a trader friend invited him to a bar. They began to talk about trading, and he told his friend that he was tired of losing. His friend didn’t give him a strategy: he simply gave him a trading idea. That idea suddenly revolutionized his trading career. He tested it and saw that it worked best for him.
The man became so successful that he now lives a free and affluent life (a true hallmark of financial freedom). The man now lives in a very beautiful huge mansion on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. His compound is very big and there is large swimming pool in it. His children are enjoying their dad’s wealth, and life’s been really good to them.
Do you learn anything from this story? The name of the man is Markus Heitkoetter.*
The Best Job in the World
As you probably know, trading is the best job in the world. The best job, ironically, is also one of the most challenging. There’s no successful trader today who didn’t face challenges in the past. If you give up trading, you’ll have no testimony or encouragement you can give others. If you keep at it, you’ll soon attain your financial goals. You mayn’t be very wealthy, but you’ll be financially comfortable.
When starting out, it’s essential to ensure that your mistakes don’t have significant effects on you. It’s not possible for noobs to make permanent success right from the start, for there are lessons to make from one’s mistakes (which also involve pecuniary loss). You’ll also make some wise decisions as a noob; plus you’ll need to learn valuable lessons from all this. This is how you become a great trader eventually. The trading principles that worked more than a century ago can still work in today’s markets.
Conclusion: Personally, I can now better control the effect of negativity on my accounts. I know that I’ve no ability to force the markets to move in my favor, but I can control my approach to the markets. This reality has been mentioned in my past articles. When I constantly retain my sanity – even in the face of losing trades – I’ll not forget that I’ve been faithful to my entry criteria and I’ll be looking forward to new trading setups. We’ve absolute control on our reactions to the outcome of our trades. That’s what we need to do to keep on winning.
This piece is ended with a quote from Markus:
“I am fortunate to be friends with some of the most famous traders in the world. Sometimes we meet in Las Vegas, Chicago or New York to talk about trading and our ideas, and sometimes we just meet at our houses and barbeque together while talking about trading. It’s fun!” – Markus Heitkoetter
*This real life story is adapted from TRADERS’s magazine, December 2013. Source: www.tradersonline-mag.com
Source: Tallinex.com
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