Trading for a living is possible but it is like a dead end because more than 95% of traders in India lose money as mentioned by SEBI and those who make money out of it, incur between 15% to 50% of such profits as Transaction costs.

Don’t believe me, I was also at a loss in my first two years of trading (I will show the proof later in this article) – but believe the man who founded Zerodha, Nitin Kamath – who said, that trading actively is the toughest way to make easy money in life. The trick to being a successful trader is to survive the bad days.

Also, he earlier mentioned in a tweet that, only 1% of Active equity derivative traders on Kite make more than the normal Bank FD in a 3-year period, which means making money from Trading, especially the Derivative Segment, is relatively tough.

So, do you need to leave Trading?

No, that’s not, what I mean to say, but I wanna say that whyn’t you be in that 1% successful and Profitable Trader?

In my opinion, You are the one who could make your place in that 1 percent, so let’s get started.

First of all, Look at my first two years of trading and how I incur losses,

These are my First (where I didn’t take much trade) and third years (where I took more than 120 trade) P&L (Groww doesn’t show your P&L for the past 2 years – they send the report via Email, so I paste the previous year’s P&L only) – and you can see that I have also in a Loss for three years straight, but I managed to cover my losses and in the third year of trading, I am in profit but the charges took me into net Loss.

And, this year, I am to date profitable, where in 100 trades, I am profitable in 65 of them, and literally this year, my return is more than the FD – so for me – It took 3 Years to turn Profitable and become a Successful Trader.

Yeah, I am also not so consistent – because I also have to study for my CA along with my website – so it’s a lot of work to manage.

But for anyone who is committed to trading and seeking Trading as a Full-time career and wanna make a living out of it, then with proper Learning, consistency, Risk management, and a proper Risk Reward ratio – one can become a successful Trader in less than 2 Years.

So, now

Get into the Steps of Becoming a Successful Trader.

Now, you are on the verge of getting the Secret Tips of becoming a Successful Trader, but first, start with Questioning yourself.

– Am I built for Trading, Do I really enjoy looking at charts, Am I focused, Do I have the courage to exit a losing Trader – like this?

If you get positive answers, then nothing can stop you become a Successful Trader.

So get right into the steps.

1. Treat Trading like a Business not as a Hobby or for Entertainment Purposes

This is the key to success in almost every aspect of life, and so in Trading, so the first thing you need to do is “Treat Trading like a business” not as a hobby because if you treat it like a hobby or as a Timepass, you will easily get bored and distracted.

Just Treat it like a Business, either Part-time or Full-Time, and then only you can calculate your risks, expenses, and losses and from that, you will become more responsible towards Trading.

If you can’t treat it like a business then trading is not for you, because there is no real commitment toward learning new things and no learning means no advancement.

2. Always use a Trading Plan

A Trading Plan is a must for professional Trading because it makes you disciplined, and helps you specify a predefined Entry and Exits along with Risk Management – so that you know what to do next if the trade goes as you wanted or doesn’t go as your plan.

3. Learn from your Mistakes

Mistakes are your go-to teacher in the field of trading, as whenever you lose money in a trade, you will go for what you have done wrong in that particular trade and you will find that the mistake you made in this trade is mostly caused by yourself, either you don’t follow your plan, or didn’t exit when the stop loss hits.

So, every time you make a mistake you – review your trade carefully from start to finish – so that you can work on your mistakes and don’t make the same mistake again.

4. Get to learn more and more even if you know everything

Learning is the basic of evolution, and the same applies in Trading. Even if you know every aspect of trading, there is still something missing from your vision, and that is what you need to learn so that you will stay updated with the latest trends, regulatory changes, new strategies, new technologies, and other latest rules.

5. Protect your Trading Capital

Protecting your Trading capital doesn’t mean just saving money to trade – in fact, it means Protecting your capital from unnecessary risks and trades, so that you can survive long in this race.

But don’t get fear of losing trades – because every losing trade tends to teach you something new and all traders have losing trades – and this is a part of a successful Trading Journey.

“Never risk permanent loss of capital” – Warren Buffet

6. Risk Management is the key to success in Trading

Risk Management is what keeps you long in trading. This work can help reduce potential losses and increase potential gain, and in fact, most beginner traders run out of money or lose every penny in Trading because they don’t follow any risk management plan.

Risk Management is the art of balancing Profits and Losses while keeping losses lower along with an increase in the chance of profits – like putting a stop-loss, defining a Trading strategy, and maintaining a healthy risk-reward ratio.

7. Create your own Trading Strategy

Creating your own trading strategy helps you boost your confidence in trading as when you trade with your own strategy you will become a master in a specific kind of trading and most importantly it helps you gain psychological satisfaction.

But this takes time and effort as you need to do proper research, backtesting and so many other things to develop a profitable trading strategy, and believe me, your effort in creating your own trading strategy is worth millions.

8. Always Use a Stoploss

Stoploss can literally keep your account away from blowing, and if you follow a proper Stop Loss you will never run out of money in trading.

So, stop loss is basically the amount you are willing to lose or give the market with each trade.

A good trader is one who exits the trade when the stop-loss hits and literally, it helps you keep away from any unexpected losses – and keeping a stop loss is a must-do thing for traders, especially when trading derivatives.

Also, a stop loss helps you define your Target and not set any unrealistic goals.

9. A Professional Trader knows when to stop Trading

Yep, it’s correct – a professional trader knows when to stop trading because excessive trades can result in losses and frustration too.

So, when you need to stop trading,

• When you have enough profitable trades for the day
• When your trading plan is not working.
• When you are not in control of yourself.
• When the market is more volatile you know it’s difficult to predict it.
• You have already run out of today’s trading budget (which means you have incurred losses in previous trades and simply your plan is not working)

 A trader who’s not in their mental peace for trading should consider taking a break from trading, and once can return to trading after dealing with difficulties and challenges.

Now its upon you – how careful and in disciplined way you follow these tips to make the dream a reality.