10 Skills of Top Traders

10 Skills of Top Traders
10 Skills of Top Traders
Jeff Rowley

Here are the ten key things I have learned that have allowed me to make money in the markets, and some of the characteristics of the best traders I know.

  1. The ability to buy pullbacks in uptrends. Buying at the right pullback levels while everyone else is afraid is typically profitable.
  2. Selling strength short at key resistance levels during downtrends. The ability to sell short after a big move inside a range bound or down trending market can be profitable with the risk/reward ratio is in your favor.
  3. Top traders use stop losses and limited position sizing to control their risk per trade. They never risk all their capital, their lifestyle, or their careers on any one trade.
  4. Top traders are flexible and can be bullish or bearish at any given moment, depending on the price action and market trend.
  5. Top traders like to trade in the path of least resistance in their time frame, always going with the flow.
  6. If you want to be a top trader you have to love to trade. Just wanting to make money is rarely enough motivation to do the work necessary to be successful.
  7. Top traders do thousands of hours of homework on historical charts and price action trends to see what actually works.
  8. Top traders HATE to lose money so they keep their losses small.
  9. Top traders maximize their winning trades and minimize their losing trades.
  10. Top traders don’t give up when they are exhausted and beaten down, they only stop when they have won.