If there's one thing I've learned clearly throughout all my years of trading in the markets, it's that "copying other traders" is useless.

It's true that we often try to find solutions to our problems by looking at successful traders, but without much success. Every trader has those small nuances that make the difference between them.

It's true that, generally speaking, trading is governed by principles common to everyone. That's the "trunk." But from that "trunk" branches out a different limb for each existing trader.

Small details, small differences in the way of trading that don't work for me but work for you, and vice versa.

If you know another trader, you can do a little experiment to confirm this:

For one week, list all the parameters that work for you when trading.

At the end of the week, compare and observe how you probably agree on the fundamentals, but the difference will be in the details.

This can be done with 10, 100, or 1000 traders, and none will match 100%.

Therefore, when you separate from the "trunk," the path to becoming a good trader is entirely up to you. No one has the winning formula. Every trader can become consistent through different paths.

And with this, I'm not saying you shouldn't follow or read other traders. There are many times when they give us new ideas or confirm our own, new points of view, though we will never achieve the same result by trying to trade like them. We must first personalize our trading, adapting those ideas to our own characteristics.

From there, a unique and unrepeatable style will emerge.

Trading is an art, and as such, it has no defined form or syllabus to follow like any other profession might.
#Trading_strategy

Warren Buffet's investment system relies on a broad defense strategy or stop-loss mechanism, primarily focused on investing in companies with a significant margin of safety. Investing with a large margin gives you the advantage of entering a company at a point where its stock price can’t drop much further, or if it does, it won't be by much.

Then, it’s just a matter of sitting back and waiting.

Of course, the difficulty lies in selecting those companies with a margin of safety and the right timing to invest in them.

The reality is that when you start in "this" trading business, you tend to avoid stop-losses.

_“If you wait long enough, the stock price always recovers.” This is the market rumor. But a quick look at the comments reveals many people trapped and waiting for the stock price to recover for years, precisely because they didn't use a margin of safety in their investments.

Following others' advice without verifying the saying, "You never lose in the long run," doesn't always work.

With this mindset, thousands of traders shift to forex, commodities, cryptocurrencies... through futures, CFDs... aiming to day trade and make a living.

But what usually happens? They enter the market, often with high leverage, and their account “flies” away in minutes.

Money management: NONE.

They continue trading without stop-losses due to that old belief that you never lose in the long run. But many day traders turn into long-term investors just because they don’t want to accept their losses.

If you don't use a stop, psychological factors will prevent you from closing a losing trade. The EGO doesn't like to lose. It's true; anyone can observe it when trading.

You always let losses run, hoping to recover them. And this happens often, reinforcing the idea of not using a stop-loss. But with just one trade where the price doesn’t recover, you can kiss all your account money goodbye.

Why? Because on top of letting losses run, you add more positions thinking it has dropped enough and can't drop further. This way, if it goes up, you'll recover the money faster. But it keeps dropping, and losses multiply until the Margin Call arrives.

As I said, it's a shame because we could avoid most losses and always come out victorious if not for that one trade that ruins the entire strategy.

Therefore, it is essential to use a stop, no matter what. One, to calm our psychological fears, and two, to avoid squandering all our money.

Not placing a stop on each of our trades has the following SIDE EFFECTS:

- Total account breakdown: Margin Call.
- No longer being able to trade because we’ve run out of money.
- Much more time than desired without trading, waiting for losses to recover. No liquidity.
- If we don't close the losses, we can't open a more advantageous position, recover those small initial losses, and come out with gains.

On the other hand, PSYCHOLOGICALLY, the effect can be disastrous:

- Nervousness - What do I do now if I don’t recover the lost money?
- Low self-esteem - I’m not cut out for this, I’m hopeless...
- Bad mood - Feeling like hitting everything around, snapping at family.
- Sense of helplessness - There’s no way to fix this unless losses recover.
- Physical pain - Headaches, stomach aches, nausea, sweating, lack of concentration...
- Desperation/fear - How to get more money to average the position or recover what I'm losing.
- Isolation - Glued to the screen, ignoring everyone, watching the position every moment, hoping it recovers.
- Insomnia - Checking the stock price at midnight on your phone. Staying awake thinking about the losses.

All of the above escalates incredibly in proportion to the money “at stake.”
So, is it worth placing a stop-loss in every single trade or not?  
#Trading_strategy

A very bad habit of any self-respecting trader is trying to "catch" a move from its start.

It's extremely difficult to get in on a trend reversal and equally challenging to catch a move up or down right from its beginning.

In fact, I once heard a saying: “Trying to catch the first and last penny ends up being the two most expensive pennies in the world.” This is due to the difficulty of catching a move from the very start. You might manage it once in a while, but not always, which means you'll end up losing more money than you make.

So, let's think a bit:
Should you open positions when you think you see a market reversal, or would it be better to try to catch the primary trend, even if it takes several attempts?

Here's a hint: Traders with losing records tend to avoid entering a move once it has advanced more than they expected.

Another point: A primary trend only has two trend reversals, one bullish and one bearish. So, there are only two favorable moments to catch the move from its start. And remember, a primary trend can last weeks, months, or even years.

If you wait for those reversals, you might spend a lot of time out of the market, or worse, open many trades thinking that any bearish move (if the trend is up) or any bullish move (if the trend is down) is a reversal, leading to repeated frustration as your stops (if you use them; you should) get triggered over and over.

So if you've figured out the solution, remember that you should only aim to Break Even without attempting a Trailing-Stop to avoid being swept out of the market. Trailing-Stops should only be used when you're sure you want to close the position, but it should be the market that closes it, not you.

Alternatively, if you're looking for a quick move in a shitcoin, remember to set a Stop Gain quite far away to avoid the temptation of wanting more profits and ending up with minimal gains or none at all as the price retraces.

So, remember, instead of looking for a market reversal or entering at support or resistance, aim to enter during the course of the primary trend when it hasn't yet reached these points (whether you're going short or long).
#Trading_strategy

Every trader should have a personalized approach to trading. This means adapting the system to fit your unique personality.

We're all different, and trying to trade the same way is impossible and, above all, unproductive.

While all traders go through similar phases, there are subtle individual nuances that can make us better traders. It’s about finding a personalized approach that yields better results.

Let's avoid generalities that apply to everyone. As one of Murphy's Laws says: "If a sign says 'one size fits all,' it fits nobody."

The same goes for trading. You need to personalize your trading approach as much as possible, tailoring it to yourself like a custom suit.

Some traders keep a trading operations journal, which is very respectable. Supposedly, reviewing this journal will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, where you have potential, and what you need to work on the most.

Personally, I can't keep a trading operations journal for three reasons:

1. I’m not meticulous enough to carry out such a task. I know I’d do it for three days and then stop.

2. While it can be an important tool, I believe there are even more crucial tools. In trading, you must simplify everything to the maximum and prioritize the most important over the less important. For me, writing a trading journal is secondary and would bring more drawbacks than benefits.

3. I’m convinced that a trading journal can be entirely and more effectively replaced by practice. This practice transforms into experience thanks to our brain, much like AI. Due to its flexibility and adaptability, the brain learns quickly, identifying what's correct and what's not through continuous practice without needing a journal that would take up valuable time that could be spent trading.

This is regarding a trading operations journal. A trading journal, however, is different.

The goal of a trading journal, as opposed to an operations journal, is to capture the essence of trading through writing. It helps to retain this in your brain to aid in automating it.

I do this by writing articles. It's not about writing for others but for myself. It helps solidify my trading strategies, recall fundamental aspects from the past, and record valid data from my market research.

Every serious trader should do this, if not through a blog, then in a notebook.

You must remember that no matter how good you become, "Sometimes God places the solution in the hands of simple souls." Therefore, the first commandment of any trader should be humility. There will always be someone who knows more than you; count on it.

Moreover, this trading journal should be as accurate as possible because everything we write, our brain will believe. If we lie, it will negatively impact our market operations.

So, the more honest and detailed we are, the more benefits we will gain from this practice.

Start writing your trading journal, documenting all your experiences!