Principles of a successful trader from my personal experience
1. Having Rationale
You've heard this countless times but still never learn. Have a logical reason for taking a trade. It just needs to be a reason/confluence that you find to make sense, that is replicable and can be fine tuned over time. This replication and fine tuning creates your personal trading strategy and keeps you consistent.
It doesn't have to be complicated especially at the beginning. If you are a mean reversion trader, how far is the current price from your 25 MA for example. If you are a breakout trader, which key support and resistance levels are you looking at?
I also see people getting stuck on certain coins and refusing to trade their bullish/bearish views on established coins where their rate of success is much higher at no added cost. Think about your choices.
2. Patience and timing
Another principle we are all familiar with but let me put it to you slightly differently. You want to short ETH from 2700 resistance level for example, but you see the market move down slightly so you decide since your view is short, might as well enter earlier and not miss out.
Boom ETH rises against you and depending on your position set up, puts you in a drawdown. Imagine you entered in at 2580 and it pumps to 2700 before falling to 2600. You would've made money had you stuck to the original plan.
If the market continued moving downwards however, would you have made money? Of course! If it didn't would you have lost any waiting for 2700? No.
Have rationale, and have the patience to stick it out. Remember, no trade, no loss. Don't take trades you have little confidence in.
3. Discipline is KING
All of the above means nothing if you can't stick to it. Be disciplined and follow through. Not in line with your trading plan? Don't trade. Use a stop loss don't cope with praying for blessings. Have conviction but be logical.
If you find yourself overtrading, close the charts, read a book, go for a walk. SIT on your hands as I love to say. You can forget the rest but not discipline.
#tradesafe