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Scott Phillips: How I learned to love the system

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Like almost everyone I was convinced I was a “good trader” a couple of years before I really was.

And by “a couple” I mean about four years more of completely sucking like an automated sucking machine.

Back then, 90% of my trading attention was on technical analysis.

Getting better and better at reading the charts, and learning ever more exotic and esoteric technical analysis stuff.

I spent months figuring out the Tom DeMark sequential 13 setup (most complicated Rube Goldberg machine of a setup you can imagine). And almost a year of my life trying to decipher the indecipherable (and nearly useless) Elliot Waves. The Carolan Spiral Calendar…. you betcha!

I was a sucker for all that stuff back then. You see I had this fundamental misconception.

I was going to conquer this trading thing by just cramming more and more knowledge into my massive computer brain. My big idea was that eventually I would know the charts so well that I could practically predict the future.

And naturally I would profit. This was my plan.

In retrospect it was a moron-spawned demon plan and it had zero chance of working out.

OK, well it half worked. I DID get better and better at reading the charts. Eventually I was able to set aside my natural bias and shameful closet bearishness. I learned some setups and started to think about risk v reward.

I honestly thought I was doing pretty good.

But my account never went up. I mean it had long patches where it didn’t go down, but it never looked like one of those equity curves with mostly an upward slant from bottom left top right.

I took a lot of trades and it “felt” like I was holding my own.

That was b******t though. I really wasn’t… my account was dying the death of 1000 cuts.

And deep down I knew. That my short lived trading “career” had a use by date. That I was destined to f**k it up and blow the account… and the only variable was whether it took me months or years to lose it all.

I had this tremendous secret shame around this too… which seems ridiculous now, but it was there.

I had placed a lot of my self worth in the box marked “I am a professional trader” and having to admit defeat was going to crush my fragile little soul.

I just wasn’t ready to give up on my dream.

“I figured out I went the wrong route. So I got with a sick ass clique and went all out” – Wu Tang Clan C.R.E.A.M

I did one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I actually stopped trading until I could be sure that I was going to actually make money.

I mean it should be easy, you click a few buttons and you are out of the market.

But I agonised over this for weeks, it felt just terrible to do. Like breaking up with a girlfriend.

I know now that stopping trading was an admission that what I had been doing was the wrong thing. And I needed to up my game.

You see, getting better and better at chart reading is fine and dandy. I even sold some of you the Price Action Masterclass to do just that.

But when I met traders who were actually doing 100 percent or 200 percent in a year… I was ALREADY better at chart reading than them! I mean WTF, right?

Scott Phillips

 

These guys weren’t even that interested in talking about technical analysis. Not like MY trading buddies who always wanted to show and tell about chart setups and indicators.

In fact what stuck me about Van’s Super Trader group (this group of elite traders I swapped system rules with) was that they weren’t even that curious about other traders.

They had their own systems and they were not looking to change.

And its a key indicator of legit trading professionals. They tend to “settle in” with a system and stick with it in the long term.

And as I became an ardent devotee of the religion of trading with a system a few things clicked for me.

I’d never met a long term successful trader who did not have a system. And I still haven’t.

It’s really that simple.

All the winning traders have a system. All the losing traders think they are good enough to do this without a system.

Knowing how to read charts is necessary, but it’s not sufficient.

Not the endgame.

The endgame is building, borrowing or stealing a system. And testing the almighty c**p out of it so you can bet your nuts on it working in the long term.

And that’s what we are going to do for the next two weeks.

As my gift to you I’ve put together a free system building training course, which I’ll be releasing in chunks over the next week or so.

And on October 3rd 7pm EST I’ll be hosting a free live webinar where I’m going to teach my core trend following system and trade it live in front of you.

I’m going to show you how to put all the pieces together into a coherent daily routine that you can follow in 20 minutes a day.

Anyway, you want to be paying VERY CLOSE ATTENTION to the 3 System Building Training videos I’ll be releasing. In them I’m going to go through the whole process of choosing a type of system, prototyping, backtesting, forward testing and implementing a trading system that suits you.It really is the type of thing I ought to charge for, but I’m giving it to you free.

Make sure you watch this. Game changer.

Here is the first system building training video. (link removed)

Do me a favour and if you enjoy it leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Thanks

Scott Phillips

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This article does not constitute investment advice. Do your own research or consult a professional advisor.

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