When you see traders in the movies, they are either portrayed as one of two things, a single person sat in their bedroom or office, glued to the computer with very little interaction with anyone else. The other is in a loud and busy room, shouting down the telephone, even though they are surrounded by others, they are fixed on their own task, ignoring all around them and simply trying to complete their current task. While they are very different environments and situations, the traders are very similar in the way that it is only them trading, they are not working with others.
This is the view that a lot of people come into trading thinking, they are assuming that trading is a job for those that do not like to interact, or if you do pick it up, you are not meant to be talking with others. The truth is, that this is both the case and it is not the case. It is true that you should be doing your trading for yourself (not using signals for expert advisors to do it for you), but there is nothing to say that you should not be interacting with others, in fact, we would recommend it as it brings in a lot of different benefits, and so we are going to be looking at the advantages of both trading alone and trading with others, as both bring different advantages to the field.
Let’s start with one of the major reasons as to why a lot of people trade alone, it’s the simple fact that the fewer people that there are around you, the fewer distractions that there are. Distractions can be a real killer for a trader, it can completely take you out of your stride and can even cause you to make mistakes and so ultimately can make you lose money. So being able to get rid of those distractions can help. When it comes to trading with others, this is simply about others talking to you, asking questions, or simply making noises around you which can distract you from what you are doing and take your concentration away from what is important. If You are one of the many people that get far too easily distracted by others, then maybe doing the majority of your trading alone will help. Of course, this does not mean that you need to seclude yourself completely.
Having said that, even if you trade completely alone there are still reasons to try and get in contact with others, the main would be to get opinions on your ideas or to get ideas from others in order to find new trade setups and to develop your own style with the input of others. If you are simply trading by yourself. How are you going to get feedback on your trading, you could, of course, use your trading journal, but if your basic understanding of something is wrong, then to you, your journal would be telling you that you are doing something right and doing it well. When in reality, that thing that you are doing may be detrimental to your trading, the only way that you will get to learn this is if you are talking to other people about what you are doing. So while people can be a major distraction, it is important that you do interact with them, just do it outside of your trading time. You can also get ideas from others in trading communities, ideas of good assets to trade and good trade setups, even completely new strategies, so make sure that you use people for knowledge again, just do this outside of your trading time so it does not become a distraction.
While we have stated that getting ideas from others can be helpful, it can also be counterproductive and can make things a little complicated. Let’s imagine that you have your idea already, you go online and there are others showing you that this is not a good idea or giving you little things to add, this causes you to go back and change things. You may end up changing quite a lot, so now your strategy and risk management plan is nothing like it was before. This can make it harder for you to actually understand what it is that you are trading anymore. So while talking to there may be fine, you need to be sure of your own strategy, make sure that anything that you do change, you understand exactly why, otherwise you need to stick to your original strategy, this is what you set up and it is in line with how you wish to trade, after all, it is your strategy, so don’t let others dictate it.
A lot of people who have come into trading have come from their previous job, being able to get rid of your boss was one of the major draws of trading so being involved with others is not really what they are looking for. This is perfectly understandable, trading by yourself means that you are in charge, you are taking responsibilities for your trades, your wins, and your losses. This is a good situation to be in as you do not want to be blaming others. If something goes wrong, you did and so it is up to you to find out what went wrong and to rectify it, the same goes for wins, the wins are your own and so you should feel proud of them. If others have given you the trade ideas or changed the way you trade then it can feel like a hollow victory and like you are back at your old job listening to your manager. Having said that, listening to others is not necessarily bad, just don’t let them influence your trading too much.
We are going to throw this one in there, other people can be very valuable when it comes to their trading signals or even copy trading. You should really be trying to develop your own style of trading so that you can trade yourself, but there are those out there that prefer to bypass that and simply copy other people’s trades without really understanding why. If this works for you then there is no problem with it, but it is important that you get to know the person that you are putting your trust in. Keep in constant contact with them, get to know them better, and what it is that they are trading. The last thing that you want to do is to simply blindly follow the trades, so there ain’t really much interaction, but it is important that you make the most out of the interaction you can have with the trade provider.
So those are some of the reasons why you should, or possibly shouldn’t trade alone, each person will have a different opinion of it, some will love being by themselves while others will need the human interaction that they get from others. What is important is that you trade the way that is right for you, just do not be afraid of being out of your comfort zone every now and then, especially if your trading demands it.
