The 20 golden rules to succeed in 'trading'

"Targeting the goal of living in intraday trading is real." The phrase is by Borja Muñoz, a marketing expert, a professor at ESADE Business School and, above all, a professional investor and day trader.

"Targeting the goal of living in intraday trading is real." The phrase is by Borja Muñoz, a marketing expert, a professor at ESADE Business School and, above all, a professional investor and day trader. The worms of the markets entered him in 2007 after reading a book of Aitor Zárate, of which he is now a partner. And since then he has not left the markets. He assures that he is rich "in time and money", although in its beginnings he lost 30,000 euros and committed "all kinds of mistakes". Now, he has captured his experience in the book "Day Trading in a Week" (Gestión 2000) , a small work that reads from a sitting and is loaded with practical concepts fruit of his experience.

1.- It does not matter if you do not win, but do not skip the rules!

2.- Once you win, touch the money. The numbers that appear in your broker are real. Withdraw a minimum of 25% of the profit per year. Removing benefits is the best way to protect them.

3.- Establish a daily, weekly and monthly profit target. Do the same for losses.

4.- Do not enter the market by entering. Do not overdo. There is always a better time to do it. Wait until it matures. There are always a couple of good opportunities a day to reach the goal.

5.- When you are with profits, do not close because the quote reaches support, resistance or because you are earning a lot. Let the market pull you out or you'll never make spectacular profits. It takes a lot of temper to do this, so much so that you can only do it by turning off the computer.

6.- Your experience in day tading should include a variety of market cycles, otherwise we will not know how to navigate turbulent waters or in desperate calm.

7.- Losing is stigmatized in our society, it is seen as something bad. In day trading, no. It is lost almost every day. When you start, making mistakes is inevitable. When you are an experienced trader, mistaking is also inevitable, so do not despair, you get into a game that will be full of mistakes. The mistake causes us to fall but the learning raises us. The key? When we lose "we claw nails" and when we win "we take half an arm". Remember that losing or failing is part of our activity.

8.- Include a person in your trading plan. Your wife, girlfriend, your coach, etc. Accountability to a third party that is far from operational is a valuable tool. If you have had problems, look for a person or friend who will tutor your evolution. Commitment to improving and measuring that change adds an extra motivation. Once everything goes back on track, try and make a monthly accountability to a third party, it will be a great ally to measure performance. In my case, it is my wife ... and there are nights that I do not eat (laughs).

9.- Indicators and more indicators: It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to obtain extraordinary results. More is less. A man with a watch knows what time it is, a man with two watches is never very sure.

10.- If you have skipped a rule, castrate. If you have been so brave to break a rule, have the courage to rebuke. If you are not able to respect a "stop", it is better to stop the "day trading". No pain, no guilt. Leave it now because tomorrow will be worse.

11.- The more successful you are, the more humble and attentive you must be. Improving and making more points makes us careless. Eye with the excess of confidence because it is the preamble of days faint.

12.- Never operate with borrowed money. He is ignorant. When you operate with borrowed capital, what can go wrong is often going wrong and is not something nice.

13.- Have you been trading for two years and still have not chained good trading months and have not achieved the desired consistency? Stop and do an analysis, get help.

14.- Instead of thinking that we are going to cover with the following operation, we think that can go wrong. That allows us to focus and protect ourselves from losses.

15.- We are prepared to face the best, but what about the worst? Make a plan of action in case a disastrous month comes. Write it down, analyze the consequences and actions you will undertake, put it in a red envelope, seal it and give it to a person you trust. If the month "horribilis" arrives, ask for it, open it and continue without blinking the emergency plan that you have imposed.

16.- Whatever they are, lower your expectations, especially if you are starting. A novice trader is like Roger Federer at seventeen, exciting, polishing and will have to wait five years to win his first Grand Slam.

17.- Seek every day to learn from your operation. Of the gains, to overcome the excess of greed, and of the losses, like opportunity to develop the resistance. Remember that learning is so easy that even a child can do it.

18.- Reduce your position. Operates with fewer contracts. Go slow and do not want great results right away. These are three of the best tips you can give to a trader that starts ... and everyone.

19.- Forget the why, that is, the why I made this decision? Why has it happened to me? etc. The best question to see things more clearly is with the how: How to make the problem not persist?

20.- And finally, learn more to win better. You watch TV? Do you scuba dive in the neighboring yard of Facebook? If you are Spanish, the answer will be yes. I suggest that you "rob" one hour a day to these activities and dedicate them to something else. It will be 365 hours a year, or what is the same, more than nine workweeks that you can dedicate, for example, to improve your trading. Remember, whether good or bad, habits always produce results.