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Key Difference Between a Pro and an Amateur Trader

To be a professional trader you don’t need to have any extra facilities. A professional trader doesn’t have any superpower to be successful. There is neither magic nor luck that helps a professional trader to gain his position. A professional trader is called professional for his time management ability in trading. Also, he is hardworking, sincere, and knows where and how to invest his money.

An amateur trader can also be professional if he can follow the traits of a professional trader. We will now discuss some differences between a professional and amateur trader so that it becomes easy for the amateur trader to point out his mistakes which will create hindrance in achieving his goal.

Diversion of focus 

An amateur trader keeps his brain busy in watching youtube or television, scrolling Facebook, and doing chats while trading. For this, his focus diverse from one thing to another. Therefore, he misses many trades and sometimes makes mistakes in calculating.

A Professional trader on the other keeps himself aloof from all such destructions. He gives his full attention to watching his charts. He only watches the news or videos which is related to his business as he knows the importance of time investment.

Wasting time in monitoring the market

Amateur traders waste their valuable time monitoring charts or market conditions for hours. They believe that screen-time will help them to become good at trading, where it is not an effective method at all. Remember, at the futures market, you should utilize your time very smartly, and only then you should be able to find the perfect trade signals.

The professional trader has a vivid idea about his work and they plan elaborately to make profits. He knows the business world. Instead of sitting lazily on the chair and observing the charts, he chose to analyze his previous performance and work for the betterment.

Being overconfidence

After some successful trades, the amateur traders start believing that have reached their desired goal and now they won’t be a failure again. This sudden success grows overconfidence in them and they become eager to take high risk and trade against the trend. Without having any knowledge about the consequence of their ignorance they invest money in the wrong way.

As the professionals know that having some successful trades does not mean that success will be followed by. They don’t change his plans for sudden success. They have the mindset to fulfill what has been planned. They always remain watchful so that their gained success cannot get ruined.

Lack of confidence

Having loss is a normal process in trading. But the amateur traders often fail to face it. They lose their confidence and doubt their skills. As his confidence is not that good, they frequently change their strategies, and without learning, invest more to make up for the losses.

To professional traders, winning or losing doesn’t matter that much as they know that these things are common in trading. So, they normally stick to their strategies and focus on them.

Blaming own self

Failure is not easy to accept. For an amateur trader, this comes as a great issue that for his wrong strategy he is going to lose money. This tendency of self-blaming can be seen in the new and inexperienced traders.

 The professional trader knows that a sudden win or loss will not affect his career. He only follows his principles.

The tendency of making fast money

The amateur trader thinks of having quick profit in a short time. For this reason, he trades for the excitement of being rich.

On the other hand, the professional trader takes trading as a regular job. He believes there is no shortcut way of having profit and it requires a lot of patience to be successful. As he works with patience he gets benefited.

Claire David White
Claire White: Claire, a consumer psychologist, offers unique insights into consumer behavior and market research in her blog.
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