What Does a Successful Trader Look Like?

I’ve been coaching for a very long time, and I have to say that it’s really been a learning experience for me every day. And one of the things I’ve learned about is how successful traders are distinguished from unsuccessful ones.

I can give you the profile of a successful trader, and actually there’s a multitude of inherent characteristics found in successful traders, but I’ll give you just a few here.

Successful traders have learned to have complete trust in their methodology, and their read on the markets. They think independently, and they don’t second guess what they’re going to do. When they see the opportunity, they take it.

If the trade happens to win, they feel good. If the trade happens to lose, they feel…good! They know that it’s just another trade. They have a demonstrated self confidence from making the commitment to their method, and they have removed the temptation to second guess what they know works.

Losing traders do the opposite. They jump around from one system to another and they end up become a psychological mess because they don’t know what to do.

Successful traders know themselves very, very well. For example, they know if they are a short term scalper or a longer term position trader. They don’t give a second thought to trades that are not part of their approach.

Here’s a quick story to illustrate what I mean by “getting to know ones self”.

Years ago I coached an aspiring trader who has since become one of the best “scalp” traders I know. When I first met this woman, like most novices, she didn’t know what kind of trader she was. But she was bound and determined to find out. And did she ever. Scalping was definitely her trading approach of choice, and this made all the difference for her.

Another characteristic of successful traders is that of great patience. Lack of patience has been the undoing of many a trader, who just bought their shiny new system, and were just itching to start trading, and inevitably got into something that they shouldn’t have – due to a lack of patience.

The woman I referred to earlier has gone for several days in a row without a trade, which may surprise some people, who think that scalping means that you get in and out many times per day. That may be true IF – and this is a big IF – there are qualified trades. If there are not, you don’t trade. And you watch price swing up and down and all over the place without you.

I have seen weeks where this woman has made only 40 or 50 pips. But here’s the value in being patient and believing in yourself and your method: I have seen her make 271 pips AVERAGE PER LOT, in a single day! Actually if you add up all the pips per lot, it was 549 pips. Not bad for 1 day of scalping. Now that was an unusually big day. But the point is, she sees her set ups, and she takes them. She doesn’t see them, so sits on her hands. That’s patience – that’s what a successful trader does.


Now, there are all sorts of other important characteristics of successful traders – courage, persistence, impeccable risk management, great focus, and on and on.

So here’s the thing: If you’re not there yet in terms of getting your trading off the ground, you may not be very far away. You might already have a pretty decent understanding of technicals, and know something of fundamentals. But maybe you simply need some help in fine tuning, or coming to grips with, other parts of your trading campaign.

Getting a system off the shelf is NOT enough to become a good trader. It’s a starting point, because you have to start from somewhere, fair enough. But I can tell you that you absolutely MUST understand the common characteristics that make up a great trader, and learn to adopt them into your own personal trading profile. That way you can fast track the whole process, and the very best way to do that is to role model (follow what the successful people are doing).

All the best,

Vic Noble

**To learn more about forex trading and how I teach, I have a FREE e-Book, plus 7 great videos on key trading concepts that I believe will genuinely help you. No obligation, just good useful information!