4 QUESTIONS TO ASK AND ANSWER BEFORE YOU PUT ON A TRADE

To achieve profitability in markets, consistency is important. How do you gain consistency? Start by being consistent in how you build your trades. Put these ``4 Questions`` to work and be a more consistent trader tomorrow!

4 QUESTIONS, BETTER TRADING DECISIONS

Gain the consistency that leads to lasting profitability

To be a consistently profitable independent trader or investor, you have to make better decisions. Traders often come to us looking to develop their own consistency in trading markets. As a trading skill development firm, we work hard to develop processes that enable as many traders to succeed as possible.  To help traders make better trading decisions, we point them in the direction of 3 focus areas we center all of our teaching around and one of them is the 4 questions every trader should ask & answer before putting on a trade.

It’s been our experience that no other area of focus will as immediately impact the performance of a trader (and their positive expectancy) as quickly as when they implement these 4 questions into their trading decision process.

What follows is a simple matrix of questions for evaluating any and every trading and investing decision you make.  While we stand by the assertion that there are no holy grails in trading, If you put these questions into place, it will absolutely lead to more consistency and by extension, greater profitability.

A disclaimer before we begin….these questions will not remove your need to do due diligence and be disciplined, but they will give you a simple, easy and repeatable process with which to execute in a disciplined way.

Our promise to you is that If you do the work and approach every trade by using these 4 questions you will absolutely see a positive difference in your P&L and your consistency.

It’s all about making better decisions.

So, whether you are just starting out in trading or you’ve been developing your skills for many years and still struggling to find consistency, these 4 questions are for you.

WHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY?

The answer to this question quickly separates hobbyists from professionals. When we talk about opportunity, we are talking about where we believe the trade will go. An opportunity is not a trigger. An opportunity is a target. In other words, we know where we plan to exit before we enter.

WHAT AM I WILLING TO RISK?

When you have a plan for where you will exit, it's easier to define what you are willing to risk for that opportunity. We always make sure that the opportunity is a multiple of the amount risked as we will not be right on every trade or investment.

WHAT WOULD TELL ME THAT I'M RIGHT?

When we construct a trading or investment idea, we are essentially storytellers. We don't ultimately know the outcome. We are operating under a narrative for how we believe the story will go. We can stay in trades and investments longer when we can look and see that the story is playing out as we expected it would.

WHAT WOULD TELL ME THAT I'M WRONG?

This question will help you prepare the brain to be wrong in its original assessment. Once we are in a trade or an investment, our brains will do everything they can to convince us that we are right and we just need to give it more time. This is often disastrous! To be able to ``front-run`` our brains, we define the conditions of the idea that would give us pause. When we do this we are primed to exit early if needed and even sometimes not have to take our full risk as a loss.

It’s our conviction that if you don’t ask and answer these 4 questions before you put on a trade, you should not take the trade. It’s that simple.

That’s it!  If you ask and answer these questions before your next trade, we guarantee you will be a better trader or investor.  It doesn’t matter what your approach or strategy is.  It doesn’t matter what your timeframe or capital size is.  It’s simply a process to help you commit to more than an emotional reaction in price.  It’s putting you in the driver’s seat of your trading decisions.

If you would like to receive more insights and examples of how our developing PATHWAY traders use these 4 QUESTIONS (and how we use profiling tools to answer them) on a daily basis, fill out the form below and we’ll send you your first example immediately.

4 QUESTIONS EVERY TRADER SHOULD ANSWER | TRADE WITH PROFILE