Why I'm Struggling in the Stock Market

The stock market is the only place I know of that will make you look like a genius one day and a fool the next.

Out of all the things I’m doing thus far to achieve multiple revenue streams, the area that has brought me the most heartache, frustration, and disappointment is in investing. It has been a longtime dream of mine to become a consistently successful investor. I, like many aspiring investors, always imagined myself on a white sandy beach, sipping Pina Coladas next to my beautiful wife, watching our kids play in the water. This escape from the rigors of reality, of course, is fully paid for by the brilliant decisions I’ve made in the stock market over time.

However, the harsh reality is that I’ve struggled to make a profit. This isn’t to say that I’ve struggled in learning the concepts, however. I’ve learned a lot about the technical and fundamental indicators that traders use to select their investments. I’ve gained an appreciation for the stock chart patterns that signal a change in the market. I’ve even taken a class and read books on options investing to increase my knowledge and experience. However, it just hasn’t led to profits to date; I haven’t yet found my edge.

To be honest, it’s difficult to consistently fail at something and not feel discouraged. The feelings are compounded when you are in a slump and every trade you make seemingly amounts to a loss, when people tell you that stock options investing essentially amounts to gambling and you can’t really make money in that arena anyways, and that small-time investors don’t even have a chance against the multibillion-dollar market movers. However, I plainly refuse to believe such rubbish. I know that part of my overall financial success will come from my mastery of investing concepts. Options investing will be a large part of that. Anyone who downs my vision is a dream-killer and their negative words are just excuses on which to pin their own failures. I just need to determine what I need to do to turn things around. In fact, I’ve already identified some areas to work on to improve my chances of success.

First, I needed to take stock of where I’m at and how effective an investor I am. I had someone ask me the other day what I attributed my recent struggles to. “What is it you feel is causing you to fail at investing?” he asked. I was sort of caught off guard by the question because I never spent much time dwelling on it. Of course, during each individual trade I would analyze what was causing the trade to lose money, but as a whole, I never settled on a concrete answer on why I was slumping the way I was. Was it because I was forcing trades when I shouldn’t be in the market? Was I being too greedy or too sheepish? Was I not being disciplined enough in following my strategy, or was it that I wasn’t doing my due diligence when selecting stocks to invest in? Maybe some combination of the above? I realized in order to really progress in my investing, I will need to sincerely answer his question.

Second, I realized I needed to find others that are as interested in investing as I am. The hardest part about investing for me is not being able to discuss my struggles with others who not only understand the terminology, but who have also been there before. So using MeetUp.com, I was able to find some investing groups where I can share knowledge and experiences. Hopefully this type of networking will help me learn new options trading tips and tricks while affording me an outlet I can use to vent or bounce new trading ideas off of.

Third, I realized I needed to increase my motivation. To achieve this I purchased an audiobook titled “The Daily Options Coach”. In it the author teaches trading techniques mainly from a psychological or emotional perspective, instilling principles of diligence, patience, and above all else, success. And what was especially unique about the book was that these principles were not solely bound to trading; you could use these ideologies anywhere in your life. I listen to this book whenever I work out to keep up my motivation and help me to coach myself more effectively.

So yes, I am taking proactive steps to trade better. I firmly believe that anyone can trade successfully if they wanted to; it just takes the right amount of discipline and experience. I am still learning and growing, and if I can just hang on and figure this thing out, I know I will be a better person (and a richer person) for it!