Starting again with anything in life can be a bit of a challenge, after all, how can you start from fresh when you already have some knowledge and have most likely already built up some biases within the markets and for certain trading strategies. It can be difficult, no doubt about that, it will take a lot of work too, do you remember how much reading you needed to do, how many websites you had to visit to get the knowledge that you currently have, well we will be doing that all over again.
So why would you want to start over? There are many reasons why someone would want to, maybe you had an extended time away from trading, if you have stopped doing something for a year, when you come back you still have the knowledge of it, but a lot of things have changed, or you have forgotten certain parts of it, sometimes it can be easier to just start from scratch and start learning again rather than trying to find the little bits of information that you are missing. You could be in a situation where your current strategies just aren’t working and you don’t have the motivation to fix them, starting again can help drive more motivation into your learning and trading as you will see far more progress over time if you have started from the start again.
Learn the Markets Again
Relearning the markets from ground zero can be a little daunting and challenging at the same time, you are trying to re-learn things that you already know, or at least think you do, this is probably the most boring part of starting again. It is important that when doing this, you do not get held up on your own learning, what you knew before is now irrelevant, we want everything fresh, things may have changed from when you last learned it and so we do not want your past biases to take effect on your learning, learn everything, even if you do not think it would be relevant.
Remember Your Strengths and Weaknesses
While we are starting from scratch, one advantage that you will have over someone who is entirely new is the fact that you know your strengths and your weaknesses. You need to remember these and keep them, not only does this help you with building the first strategy of your restart, but it also helps you to focus your learning, there is no point on concentrating on the bits that you are good at, instead it allows you to focus some more of your time on your weaker parts, thus bringing your overall trading abilities up, you never know, these weaknesses could have been the parts holding you back before.
Use a Trading Journal
You have probably had people tell you to always use a trading journal, a lot of traders do, but a lot of treaders started them well into their trading journeys. This is your opportunity to start one at the beginning (of the re-start). Why would this benefit you, it will allow you to see exactly how your trading is developing, you will begin to see patterns forming, but also even the most subtle of changes will be brought up, you can then look at the figures and see where you are going right or wrong. If the changes are good, keep with them, if they are bad, you can revert back to the point where things were going right. Keep entries of everything you do and it will help guide you to far better trading in the long run.
Keep on Trading
Keep trading, the best way to learn is to do it, trade, trade, trade, of course, you want to be trading in line with your strategy. As all professionals or experienced traders would say, use a demo account to practice, this is your way of honing your skills, practice your established strategies and new strategies alike. The more that you trade the more used to trading you will become and your data you will gather in order to analyse your own trading abilities.
It is never easy starting over, you will feel like you have lost all the time you spent learning before, but this is not the case, you will still have knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses, you will still have a decent understanding of the markets and various strategies. Starting over is more of a way of refreshing your knowledge and getting a fresh view on things, especially if they have changed since the last time you traded. Practice and record everything you do and you will soon find the motivation to go much further than you did before.
