Knowing WHY you trade is the best thing you can if you are a trader. And the second best is to REMIND yourself of it when the luck is speeding away in the opposite direction.
When the chips are down, your WHY will help you re-focus on the success formula. It will also serve as a notice as to what you stand to lose if you give trading anything less than your best effort.
Trading is hard—just like anything in life that gives great returns. There are a thousand reasons to not do it and only a few to do it. How well you know and remember these few reasons will determine how you respond to and after a losing streak, against which you will surely find yourself every now and then, because that’s how trading is.
So that you don’t forget, here are top 8 reasons why trading is popular.
1. Financial Freedom
You’ve got enough money to pay your bills, for emergencies, and plus some more. You, however, still must clock 40 hours a week at work and stick to a schedule. Then, can you still say you have financial freedom?
Financial freedom is not just about having enough money to go comfortably through life; it also means the freedom of how you work, when you work, and how much you work. Trading gives you this. And this freedom is PRICELESS.
2. Step Out of the Crowd—And Stand Tall
Most people accept the 9-5 work grind, and that’s their choice—but some don’t. Trading is for these people.
It gives non-conformists a chance—and a great chance at that (especially if you are prepared to put in some hard work initially and stay astutely disciplined throughout)—to be your own boss, to do things your way, and to reap the benefits of your hard work, acumen, and discipline.
3. Escaping
Close your eyes and imagine the following scenario: you are sitting by the beach, under a shade, relaxing. For a few minutes, you open your laptop, and see if a there’s a high-quality price action signal. If it’s there, you trade. If not, you shut your laptop, and that’s it. Your work for the day is done. The next day, you do the same. And the day next it is the same story, so it is on every work day. Isn’t this great?
And you know what’s even better? You don’t have to report at work at the same time every day. There’s no one watching whether you are putting in your mandatory 40 hours a week. You don’t have to confine yourself into a windowless cubicle to earn for that many hours every week of every month of every year till you retire.
Without a doubt, working YOUR OWN way and still making the kind of money you need is anything but easy. But trading, at least, gives you a chance to do so.
4. Make Your Work Schedule
As a trader, you create your work schedule. You no longer have to conform to someone else’s rules. You can do things when you want to do them, not when your boss gives them you the permission to do them—and this is one of the most important benefits of trading.
5. More Time for Your Family
Traders don’t need to clock the required 40 hours. They work significantly fewer numbers of hours than those who work for someone else. Plus, traders don’t need to spend hours in commuting. All these hours saved can be spent with family.
In other words, when you choose trading, you also choose to trade the unproductive time spent in commuting, boring meetings and official lunches, and many other mindless activities with quality time spent with the family. For a family man with kids, this alone makes trading worth his while.
6. You are Your Own Boss
You, not someone else, call the shots—in work as well as in life. If you don’t feel like working one day, you simply don’t and instead do what you want to that day.
There can be no price too high for this freedom, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for all. Far from it, some require the imposed rules of entering and leaving the office at a particular hour. Such people often struggle with the freedom that comes with trading.
However, those who are self-disciplined, self-motivated, and like to be their own boss would love this freedom. These people usually excel at trading, simply because for them the biggest perk of trading—that is, being your own boss—is something they badly want and must have, and not something they can’t handle.
7. Equal Opportunity to All
Age, sex, or college degree doesn’t make someone a better trader. You can be a guy or girl, 18 years or 60 years old, a college degree holder or not, but still can become a successful trader. That’s because the playing field is equal for all; there’s absolutely no ‘prerequisite’ to start trading.
It just takes determination, persistence and most of all, discipline and patience. Trading is truly the most equal of all opportunities out there.
8. Giving Back
Becoming a successful trader puts you in a very unique position of being able to help other people. Not only can you help your friends and family financially (which is also really cool), you have the ability to pass on a skill to them. Something that they can then use to build their own true freedom like you did. This not only benefits them but also brings you great internal satisfaction.