You will never make money in trading if you can't master this skill...

In life, we do not rise to the level of our ideals, we fall to the level of our standards.

It doesn’t matter that you want six-pack abs this year.

What matters is what kind of minimum standard you set for yourself to achieve that goal.

Example:

It might take you going to the gym at least 3 times per week to achieve that goal at the end of the year.

Most of us are more zealous than that.

If we hit the gym 6 times a week wouldn’t we be able to achieve that goal in half the time?

So we set a goal of hitting the gym 6x/week.

The result?

We do it for the first couple weeks… and fall off.

And we end up not going to the gym for the next couple months because life happens.

Sound like you?

Well… you’re not alone.

Because we do not rise to the levels of our ideals, we fall to the level of our standards.

How consistent you are in achieving any goal comes down to the standards you set for yourself.

Instead of saying you ideally want to hit the gym x times per week…

Set the standard that no matter what… you will hit the gym 2 times per week.

Sure, you can go more times when you feel like it or when you have the energy.

But 2 times per week is the minimum you will hit the gym.

It’s much more doable than 6 times per week.

And it feels way worse to violate the literal minimum standard you set vs. not achieving your ideal target.

The best part is that this adds up over time.

Assuming you do the minimum standard for 2 months.

That’s 16 sessions over a period of 2 months vs. the guy who did 12 sessions in 2 weeks and burns out after.

And you’d likely be in better shape because of the way you set up your routine compared to the “sprinter”.

Infinite Games

Here’s the thing.

Most things in life worth pursuing are infinite games.

Meaning there is no end point.

There is no final boss to beat.

In fitness you do not achieve six-pack abs and put down the controller saying: “You’re finished with the game of fitness now.”

In marriage, it is also a constant game of maintaining a happy relationship with your partner.

There is no point where you “defeat a final boss” and finish the game of marriage.

Examples of finite games would be video games.

There is a final level.

An endgame.

A finish line.

When it comes to finite games, you can go as hard as you’d like to reach the finish line in one go.

Because there is an end to it.

But when you play an infinite game using a finite mindset…

That’s where you get burnt out.

In truth, the way to achieve meaningful progress across any timeframe is not to set lofty goals.

It is the opposite.

Set standards for yourself and enforce it.

And raise those standards over time.

It could be 2x/week this year, then 3x/week the year after.

And eventually you’ll become a machine.

The most successful people out there aren’t successful because they set bigger goals.

They just have insanely high minimum standards.

I used to be exhausted after doing 2 hours of deep work a day - if I even did 2 hours consistently every day.

Now I feel weird if I don’t achieve at least 3 hours of deep work per day.

Eventually… I’ll raise the bar to 4, 5, and potentially more.

But for now…

Slow, steady, undress, and stick to the standards I’ve set for myself.

How does this apply to trading?

You needed to first understand the concept of standards before I could discuss how this affects your trading.

In trading, it’s a little bit different.

Instead of falling to the level of your standards, you fall to the level of your systems.

Sure, everyone would like to achieve 100% returns every month.

And you might have even achieved that a couple times.

But is it consistent?

More likely than not, you would’ve lost a lot of those gains pretty quick.

The thing about trading is that anyone is able to make a lot of money.

But few are able to keep it.

And even less are able to multiply it.

To achieve stage 2 of simply keeping your hard-earned gains…

You must put a point into consistency.

How do you achieve consistency?

By systemising.

But before I get into those systems.

Let’s first understand why you are not consistent in your trading.

Why you lack consistency in your trading.

This is simpler than you think.

We can break this down into 2 major categories:

1. Entry

2. Exit

Most of your trading problems will come either when entering or exiting.

So let’s break down some of the common problems that occur with both.

Entry

1. No clear entry criteria. So your trade ideas are always based on random/different theories.

2. No clear entry steps. So your trades always look different without any clear setup.

3. No clear risk management system. So the position sizes on every trade varies.

Exit

1. No clear exit criteria. So your TPs always come down to discretion. Sometimes you TP too early, sometimes too late.

2. No clear stop loss criteria. So your SL decisions always come down to how you feel about the trade.

3. No clear exit steps. So often times you just panic sell/market close and get eaten up by fees.

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone.

These are basically the most common issues that every trader runs into.

You could even say that if you managed to solve these issues…

Trading would become easy. A breeze even.

Guess how you can solve every single one of those issues?

That’s right. By creating systems.

What are systems?

This is what Google defines systems as:

In trading, it applies the same.

An example of an entry criteria system would be:

• I will only start considering longs once there is a minimum of a 20% retracement from the recent high.

• This coin needs to be amongst the top 10 performing narratives this bull run so far based on Dune Analytics so that I don’t end up buying coins that end up doing nothing.

• Around the 20% retracement area, I want to see some kind of liquidity point on the H4 chart before I start considering a trade.

Once all the entry criteria are met, you move into the entry system:

• Once liquidity point has been swept, hop onto the H1 chart.

• Wait for a ChoCh to confirm on the H1.

• Draw a fib from the low to the high on the H1 ChoCh.

• Place a limit order at the 0.618 retracement. Bonus points if there is a PD Array around that area.

• Place stop loss at the H1 liquidity sweep wick low with 1% account risk.

And once these criteria are met, you move into the exit criteria system → exit steps.

Or if the trade ends up getting stopped out… you have clear conditions for that too as laid out above.

Once you have these systems in place, all you have to do is follow them.

And you will win.

It’s really that simple. There isn’t much more to this game.

Once you set your systems up and follow them religiously…

You cease to need to think.

And if you take a moment to look back at your worst trading moments…

They likely came because you had no systems, and had to think.

The human brain is the most comprehensive piece of hardware ever created.

But it is flawed.

We have hundreds of mental biases that get in the way of consistently good decision making.

So don’t leave it up to your human ability.

Create systems and simply follow them.

Much less headache and much more consistent money.

Suen

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