A common question I am asked repeatedly is, "How much time does it take to become a successful trader?" Each time I give the same simple answer, "Do everything, which is needed to be successful that an unsuccessful person is not willing to do. You must strive to be the best you can be. You must create new ideas in order to be successful. You must have a burning desire to be successful. You must be persistent and never quit until you achieve the success you are looking for." Are you willing to do that?

In reviewing the past ten years that I have been mentoring traders, the majority of traders that do not have the success they have been striving for, come to me continuously to seek out new trading methods and new trading systems. Most traders think the answer is external. But the answer for the majority is an understanding of the way we think and act, an internal answer.

What they fail to realize is self analysis is just as important as technical analysis. Repeating patterns occur on the charts just as repeating patterns occur within us! The problem is most traders fail to pay attention to the most important part of being a successful trader, our thought process while we trade. How many times have you been in a trade, which was working in your favor and you heard an inner voice say, "Its not going to work." You get out of the trade only to see it do what you had expected it to do when you first put on the trade. Or you are in a trade that is not working quickly enough, the market is trading close to your protective stop out point and that inner voice appears again saying, "Its not going to work" and you exit the trade only to see the market move in the original direction you expected.

Trading can be frustrating, especially when you dont understand and recognize your own self-defeating patterns. Once you become cognizant of bad habits, you can start improving them and eventually get rid of them. The first step is to see those patterns is to document your thoughts on paper. For each trade, write out the reason youre placing the trade. Did it fit into your plans? Are you following your rules? Did you know ahead of time what your risk was? Did you know your exact protective stop out point? Did you have a profit point? Did you place your trade with confidence, or are you trading scared? Are you trading impulsively, or with discipline? Do you trade with patience, or consistently exit your trade before you give it a chance to work? The most important key of self analysis is writing your feelings at the time you place your trade.

These are questions you need answer. Becoming aware and understanding how you act while trading, is the key to successful trading. Mastering your emotions and learning to trade what you see and not what you believe is a key ingredient to any traders success. This is what trading in the zone is all about.

ARE YOU TRADING IN THE ZONE?

1. Be prepared! Know all key points ahead of time.

2. Be aware of Globex price action before day session opens.

3. Be aware of all news events ahead of open.

4. Be aware of all reports that will come out during the trading session.

5. Be aware of the current market trend.

6. Trade what you see, not what you believe.

7. Trade to win, not to lose.

Psychological components that need to be developed to be

Trading In the Zone

Goals: without goals you will be lost.

Daily Plan: without a daily plan of attack you are like a sailboat without a rudder in the ocean, you will just drift away.

Positive Attitude: you have to believe you can. You must have a positive attitude for everything you do. By having a positive attitude your productivity level increases.

Confidence: having a daily plan will help you become more confident. Take action expecting to succeed.

Action: without it nothing happens. Action creates confidence.

Control of the Mind: you must adjust to changing situations in which you have no control.

Wisdom: you must have wisdom and take action from what you have learned.

Risk: you must be willing to take on risk, manageable risk. Without risk there is no chance of gain.

Decisive: you must make decisions without questioning yourself. Make decisions with determination to get results.

Persistence: you must constantly work to achieve your goals, never quit and always try new angles for success.

Patience: you must be patient, wait for clear opportunities to arise. Be patient and wait to take action. By being patient you see things more clearly.

Discipline: you must be disciplined and consistently control your risk. You must consistently follow your daily plan of attack. By being disciplined you have total confidence and have control of your mind.

Desire: you must have a burning desire to succeed at what you do. A desire from that compels you to take the action needed to achieve your goals.

Excellence: Seek excellence, taking whatever time is needed to perfect what you are doing.

Auto-suggestion: Use auto-suggestion to create a positive attitude in your sub-conscious mind. You create feelings when using auto- suggestion, making your sub-conscious believe the thoughts, which in turn make you take action.

Success: Do everything which is needed to be successful that an unsuccessful person is not willing to do. Strive to be the best. Create new ideas to be successful. You must have a burning desire to be successful and be persistent, never quitting until you achieve success.

Work on the Psychological Components you need and the end result you are currently looking for will appear before you. You must master yourself before you can master the markets, by doing so you will then be Trading in the Zone.