There is no doubt about it among high level traders that you must have a subconscious belief that your method will prove profitable. No matter how many positive personal mantras you recite or write out you have to have a proven method first. The only way to acquire that belief is to write out your trading plan in detail; then back-test that plan extensively, then demo trade or micro trade that plan in live markets for a specified amount of time measured not in days or weeks but in months, even years. It is essential that you become familiar w/ a charting package you can go back in time and manually test out the set-ups and triggers your method calls for.

We know that many of you will fail because you aren’t willing to write up your own trading plan, or willing to put in the effort to find charts that allow you to back-test, or patient enough to manually back-test in an organized manner by recording your trades for honest evaluation, or you can’t or won’t commit yourself to demo testing for a suitable amount of time. The great percentage of retail account holders fail because they don’t know they need to do all these things. But a large percentage fail, even after knowing this because they won’t or can’t risk their resources and time to achieve the reward. A professional already has the will to succeed before she chooses the specific goal or method. It is unlikely anyone can teach you to have that desire. That will depend on your own belief system.