*** Develop a trading system to ensure your success...

*** Keep your secrets to yourself...

*** Are you cut out to be a trader…? and more...

From the desk of Julie Brownlee

Dear Investment Academy reader,

As promised last week, here are your final top 20 trader tips...

1. Develop both method and system to mechanise your trading as much as you can. Any method and system is better than none at all.

2. Silence is golden. Traders with the Midas Touch don’t brag about their success.

3. Believe in what you’re worth. We’re not only what we eat, but also what we think. You can’t make a million if you only believe you’re only worth R10,000.

4. There’s no such thing as a failure. A bad trade is only another way you’ve learned how not to do things to eventually succeed.

5. Yesterday is dead and gone. The door to yesterday is closed. The door to today is open. Forget your losses… and forget your profits too!

6. The traders who become the richest the fastest are always those who trade because they love to trade, not because they’re trying to get rich. No matter how clever someone is, if they don’t love what they do, they can never be better than mediocre.

7. Don’t double-up losing positions. Cut them dead and prepare for the next opportunity.

8. When the market's in a phase of "going nowhere" – do nothing. Go somewhere else and do something different while the market makes up its mind.

9. Don’t let the fact that you’ve "missed" a good trade affect your emotions. There’s always another trade around the corner.

10. Once you begin to become a successful trader – DON’T start giving advice to others. When somebody else profits from your correct advice, you’ll be their hero – but as soon as they lose from it, they’ll see you entirely differently! Good or bad, keep it to yourself. A trader has no room for a big head, and if he or she loses concentration and focus, their trading business will soon be dead.

11. When you’re neither long nor short, don’t think you have no position. For a trader, being neutral awaiting opportunity IS a position.

12. If you’re not suited to being a trader, the market will slaughter you. Stick to investing instead.

13. If your trading position goes pear-shaped – don’t just hope or pray. God has better things to do than help you out because you’re too stubborn to cut your loss!

14. Devise a set of trading rules that suit you to mechanise your trading. Lose your opinion – not your money.

15. If your access to prices breaks down, so will your trades. If you’re driving a car and the windscreen goes black – stop the car and get out.

16. You can only earn what the market's willing to offer you. Sometimes the market behaves like Father Christmas, other times like Scrooge.

17. When you trade – DO NOTHING ELSE. Watching the telly instead of your computer screen won’t earn you money… and could lose you lots.

18. Don’t chase the price. If you missed the right price to get in – don’t jump in when the move might be over. Wait for the next opportunity.

19. Small losses, bigger profits. You can have nine small losing trades and one big winning trade, and still be profitable. Or you can have nine small profits and one big loss – and be wiped out.

20. DON’T OVERTRADE! Small is beautiful – look after the cents and the rands will look after themselves

Julie Brownlee
For the Investment Academy