Trading can feel incredibly challenging and frustrating, especially when you’re losing money or working with a small account that doesn’t seem to grow. You’re not alone—many successful traders, myself included, have experienced this struggle. The good news is that the biggest obstacles holding you back might not be as difficult to overcome as they seem.
The goal of this post is straightforward: to guide you in overcoming the barriers to profitable trading and help you gradually transform into a successful trader.
Step 1: Identify Why You’re Struggling to Make Money
There are a few common challenges that prevent most traders from achieving success in the market. The good news? Once you identify and address these issues, you’ll be on your way to turning things around.
Many traders tend to look outward for the reasons behind their losses instead of looking inward. Why? Because it’s easier to blame external factors than to admit that the root of the problem might lie within themselves. However, the truth is that the key to improving your trading results often starts with self-reflection.
The first step to understanding why you’re not making money is accepting that you may need to change certain aspects of your approach or mindset. None of us are perfect, and trading is as much about personal growth as it is about market strategies.
Take a moment to have an honest conversation with yourself. Why are you not seeing the results you want? To help you with this process, I’ve prepared a list of questions to guide your self-assessment. Be truthful in your answers—your honesty is essential for this step to have any meaningful impact. Write down your responses to these questions, along with any other thoughts that come to mind.
Questions to Help Identify Why You’re Not Yet a Successful Trader. Take some time to reflect on the following questions. These are designed to uncover the underlying reasons for your trading struggles. You may think of additional questions as you go along:
- Do I have a clear and effective trading strategy? Am I confident in my approach and know exactly what to look for when analyzing charts, or am I simply guessing and hoping for the best?
- Am I following my strategy consistently? Even if I have a solid trading strategy that I trust, am I actually waiting for the setups to appear and executing accordingly? Or am I ignoring my plan and taking impulsive trades because I feel the need to always be in the market?
- Do I have a structured daily trading routine? Can I confidently explain my routine to someone else in a way that demonstrates I know what I’m doing? Or would it sound unconvincing, as if I’m gambling my money rather than trading with purpose?
- Am I trading with the right type of money? Is the money I’m using in the market money I can afford to lose without emotional distress? Or is it “scared money”—funds I know I shouldn’t be risking?
- Do I have a clear risk management plan? Have I established a pre-determined dollar risk per trade that I’m emotionally comfortable with? Or do I adjust my risk randomly, letting emotions dictate how much I put on the line?
- Am I overly focused on low timeframes? Am I constantly glued to my charts, obsessing over the 5-minute or other low timeframe charts, instead of maintaining a broader perspective?
Now What? The six questions above are critical starting points for identifying why you may be struggling as a trader. Take the time to answer them honestly, and don’t shy away from hard truths. Your willingness to confront these issues head-on is the first step toward ending the cycle of losing and starting your journey to becoming a successful trader.
Step 2: Create a Plan to Address the Causes of Your Trading Failures
Once you’ve identified the reasons behind your trading struggles by answering the questions in Step 1, the next step is to create a plan to overcome those obstacles and start your transformation into a successful trader.
Every trader’s challenges will be unique, so your plan should focus specifically on the key issues that are holding you back. Be honest and realistic about these areas, and commit to making meaningful changes.
If you’ve completed the self-assessment in Step 1, you should now have a clear understanding of the primary factors that are preventing your success. Use this awareness as the foundation for your plan to move forward.
Examples of How to Address and Fix Common Trading Problems. Here are some practical approaches to solving common trading challenges based on the issues you may have identified:
Problem: You answered “No” to Question 2 because, while you have a solid trading strategy, you lack the discipline to stick to it.
Solution: Reflect on the consequences of undisciplined trading. Ask yourself, “Do I enjoy losing money?” If the answer is no, remind yourself that failing to follow your strategy guarantees ongoing losses. Set a rule to limit yourself to a maximum of three trades per week. Challenge yourself to stick to this rule for an entire month. Treat it as a personal dare and observe how it improves your results. Acknowledge that giving in to emotional impulses to overtrade will prevent you from ever becoming consistently profitable. The key is to focus on this issue relentlessly until you overcome it. Take control, show discipline, and prove to yourself that you’re capable of following your strategy.
Problem: You answered “No” to Question 3 because you lack a structured daily trading routine, and you suspect this is a major reason for your losses.
Solution: Create a daily trading routine by writing a “daily commentary” for your favorite markets. Do this once a day after the New York close, summarizing market movements, key levels, and potential setups. Over time, this practice will help you develop discipline, structure, and a deeper understanding of the markets.
Problem: You answered “Yes” to Question 6 because you’re constantly glued to your charts, addicted to low time frames, or obsessed with being in the market.
Solution: Educate yourself on the benefits of higher time frames like the 4-hour and daily charts. These offer more reliable signals and reduce the noise of lower time frames.
Commit to completely avoiding time frames under the 1-hour chart for at least one month. Treat this as an exercise in discipline. If you find it impossible to resist the urge to check lower time frames, reassess whether trading is the right path for you. Discipline is a non-negotiable skill for any trader.
The key to overcoming these problems is focused and sustained effort. Pinpoint your weaknesses, take actionable steps to address them, and stick to the process. By practicing discipline and consistency, you’ll gradually transform your trading results.
Step 3: Stay Committed to Your Plan
Imagine you’ve started exercising after a long break. You’ve been consistent for a couple of months—hitting the gym and eating healthy—when suddenly, you get knocked out of your routine by the flu or another setback. What happens next? How quickly you return to your routine is what separates those who succeed from those who fall off track.
Life is full of interruptions, whether in health, business, school, or trading. The key is not letting a single setback erase all the progress you’ve made. Resilience is what keeps you moving forward.
The same principle applies to trading. It’s not just about identifying why you’re losing money or creating a solid plan to fix it, as discussed earlier. The real determining factor is whether you stick to that plan, even after experiencing a few losing trades. Lack of follow-through is the reason many traders’ best intentions collapse, sending their efforts spiralling into the void of unfulfilled aspirations.
Success in trading—or anything, really—is built on habits. Ask yourself: Do I have the discipline and determination to overcome what’s holding me back? Am I willing to dig deeper, make the extra effort, and stay the course? The truth is, the reasons for failure are often predictable and fall into the same small set of issues discussed in Step 1. This highlights a critical point: the difference between successful traders and the majority who fail isn’t talent or luck—it’s perseverance. Successful traders are the ones who commit to fixing their problems, put in the extra effort, and refuse to give up.
The question is: Are you ready to stay the course and prove you have what it takes?
The Final Step: Commitment…
The ultimate step in your journey to becoming a successful trader is simple yet profound: commitment. Will you commit to making the necessary changes in how you trade?
This article provides you with a clear and effective blueprint for identifying and addressing your trading problems. The only thing left is for you to take action. If you find yourself hesitating, ask whether the root cause is a lack of motivation. If that’s the case, let this serve as a reminder: the drive to succeed comes from within, but it can be sparked by recognizing that you’re capable of transforming your trading and achieving your goals.
It’s now up to you. Are you ready to commit?