Page 450 - THE MARKET WHISPERER

446 PART 13 - How To Get Ready For Your First Day Of Trading

By the way, if you’re human, I don’t expect perfection from you.
Consistently careful, measured behavior is not human, in fact. I’d be
surprised to hear you withstood all temptations in the trading world.
I know that right now you’re thinking something along the lines of “he
doesn’t know me at all, I have incredible self-confidence, and I can
withstand temptations!” Mark this page with a yellow highlighter and
come back to it two weeks after you’ve begun trading, and let’s see who’s
right. If I’m wrong, let me know and I’ll be thrilled to send you my best
wishes and honest admiration. If only I could always operate according to
the rule book!

The good news, though, is that as time passes, you will experience an
ongoing mental transformation as you become a professional trader. Now,
as you start out, you are much more exposed to errors than you will be
in future. Over time, you will discover your weaknesses and learn how to
control them. Over even more time, your control over your emotions will
also improve simultaneous to the full assimilation of your trading method.
Correct trading behavior will become second nature, and impulsive,
irresponsible behaviors will become the rare deviation. Yes, there is light
at the end of the tunnel… it just takes a while to get there.

Making Millions…with a Demo

When I was a young kid, I loved to play Monopoly. I bought buildings, land,
jumped turns, waited two, profited lots, and sometimes lost a lot, too (and
don’t I ever hate to lose!). It was all with small bits of paper having no true
value. It’s fun to play Monopoly. You always walk away with your real life
accounts intact. And that is exactly why it never readied me for the real
world of business. Back then, I could lose a million in one go and still sleep
as well at night as if I’d made two million!

Demo trading is a demonstration program, also known as paper trading.
It is technically very similar to real stock trading, but it all operates on
“pretending,” just like Monopoly. You get to use a real, professional trading
program working with real time data, known as streaming live data. The
program operates on “play money,” allows buying and selling of stocks, and
displays profit and loss balances that look as though they’re derived from
real money. Mostly, there’s no risk, and no pressure. It’s the ultimate adult
computer game. Sounds great? Well, not always, and now I will explain
why.