5-Step Path to Becoming a Professional Trader

Becoming a Professional Trader is the dream of many, especially those who are tired of the traditional job and intend to focus exclusively on themselves, perhaps to achieve the much-coveted financial freedom. Certainly, it is not an easy dream to realize, particularly when considering the complexity of the market, the pitfalls, and the risks of an ultra-competitive activity like online trading. Achieving the status of a professional trader is more manageable if you know how to proceed and undertake a linear and well-established path. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for every situation. However, we can offer a general path, articulated in a few but significant steps.

Theoretical Study

Before starting a trading career, it is necessary to study, and study a lot. This is regardless of one's educational background, especially since little to nothing learned in school or university can be useful for a trader. Certainly, having a degree, perhaps in economics and finance, allows you to quickly understand certain dynamics, but the real market, as seen through the eyes of a trader, is a whole different story. The discourse is even more true, of course, for those who approach this activity without even a basic understanding. In this case, the theoretical study phase will need to be longer and more in-depth. The main question concerns what and where. What to study? With what materials? The layman, or rather the aspiring trader, is faced with an extraordinary offer, which can easily lead to a certain disorientation. The advice is... To get advice. That is, to engage a trader with some experience as a mentor and accept their indications about the material to study. Generally, it is always better to initially focus on the great classics, which are available in paper format, then move on to multimedia content (courses, webinars), and finally integrate everything with ebooks, blogs, forums, etc.

Specialized Study

Once the theoretical and consequently general study phase has been completed, the aspiring trader faces a crossroads. They must decide which path to take, that is, what type of trading they want to practice and the reference assets. To be clear, especially with regard to assets, it is still possible to keep options open, focusing on a basket of assets rather than just one. There will be time, even during the activity, to further specialize. This first selection must be made, and if possible, as quickly as possible. This is because if a decision is not made in this regard, there is a strong risk of ending up with only superficial knowledge, which is essentially unusable for trading purposes. Once you have decided what type of trading to practice and which assets, and completed your theoretical training, introduce the specialized element. That is, perfect yourself exactly in that type of trading and in that type of asset. The reason for this is simple: the world of trading is characterized by an enormous level of complexity, and like all highly complex contexts, it requires precise specialization to master it.

Practice

Theory is only one side of the coin. The other is practice. As with any complex activity, to make the leap in quality from an informational point of view and consider your learning path complete, it is necessary to practice. Yes, but how? Some professions, even highly specialized ones, have safe and institutional channels. By default, however, trading does not offer many possibilities in this regard. You study, learn, and practice directly in the market. A very risky approach, since money is at stake, managed by force and at least in the initial stages, by novices. Fortunately, in recent years, this approach can be easily avoided. The vast majority of brokers, in fact, allow you to practice without risks. They do this through a particular type of account that can simulate the real market, but without losing (or winning) anything: the money is fake. It's the Demo, a very useful tool, indeed fundamental for the educational path of the aspiring trader. Each broker diversifies its offer in this regard: some demos are free, others require the opening of a normal account; some are time-limited, others have no constraints of this type. To be honest, demos have only one flaw: they don't teach anything about emotional management. It's an ontological limit, insurmountable. If there is no risk of losing money, the psychological pressure almost zeroes out, so there is no emotional upheaval typical of real trading activity. Unfortunately, at least from this point of view, the aspiring trader is forced to learn in the field. After all, it is precisely on this element that novices fall, and fall hard: emotional management.

Strategy

This, in reality, is a step that can occur concurrently with practice, or even before. It depends a bit on the needs of the individual trader and the roadmap that each one develops for themselves. Certainly, if you intend to debut in the market in a short time, it is good to anticipate the timing a bit and assign the development of the strategy to a phase slightly preceding the use of the demo. In this way, the demo can be used for hands-on practice, but also to test the strategy. Regardless of the timing, however, strategy is a fundamental element for a trader, from novice to expert. It gives a certain rationality and scientific approach to trading. Moreover, it allows for a more serene management of emotions. Those who use a strategy have an instruction manual at their disposal to pull out during operations. They know exactly what to do and when to do it. Now, it so happens that psychological pressure is exerted precisely during operations, but if decisions have been made beforehand, it is evident that such pressure will have no effect, or will have a lesser effect. The simplest approach consists of adopting a strategy created by others. Quick, but not painless. The strategy, in fact, must adapt to those who use it, so it must be almost personal. It is also true that creating a strategy from scratch is really complicated, and even more so before becoming a professional trader. The advice, which is then a middle ground, is to acquire a strategy written by others and modify it to adapt it to your own trading style.

Performance Monitoring

The last step consists of acquiring a "smart" approach to trading activity, which consists of making the best of one's mistakes. In simple terms, monitoring everything that happens, studying numbers, expectations and results, identifying errors and correcting them. Obviously, this approach presupposes a certain maturity, that is, the ability to take responsibility for one's actions (without looking for external culprits) and to question one's ideas, regardless of the data that can be drawn from them in terms of "self-esteem".