Over my professional career I had always been very successful running my businesses. My primary business was as a residential custom home builder and remodeler. Not the easiest of businesses to run I can assure you. I was able to manage the daily struggles of a difficult business, but for some reason I could not manage one simple trading account. On the surface, a construction business is infinitely more complicated and complex than trading is. So I asked myself "Why can I run a successful business but I cannot learn to trade for a living?" The answer? "Because you are not trading like it's a business".

Step 1 of the experiment; Trade like it's a business.

In a business, each person has his or her own area of responsibilities. Sometimes these overlap but usually they are clearly defined and distinct. In my construction business, I had carpenters, laborers, apprentices, framers, supervisors, lead men, etc. I also had bookkeepers, accountants, secretaries, and sales people. The "outside crew" was responsible for completing a project using a plan that was provided for them. They were not to vary from that plan unless approved by someone higher up in the chain than themselves (ultimately the customer). The "inside crew" were affectionately known as the "bean counters" and they made sure the plan stayed on budget.

So if I was going to run a "Trading" business, what did I need to be doing differently since I was the one and only employee of the company. What I had to do was clearly define my roles in the business and when each role was to be in charge.

Step 2 of the experiment; During trading hours I was an employee of the company who's only responsibility was to win more trades than I lost

Yes, I know that most of you are thinking, "oh what about risk and reward? You could win more trades but still lose money." That did not matter for this experiment. I needed to prove to myself that I could win more than I lost. So, that led me to the next step;

Step 3 of the experiment; Stop counting money or ticks. Just count wins and losses

Money makes people do stupid things. It has this mystical control over us. Just watch the news and see what people will do to each other for money. Money had so much emotional control over me I needed to have it removed from my daily task of winning more than I lost.

Step 4 of the experiment; Clear away the clutter and trust what I know

For so long I had been listening to everybody I considered smarter than me about trading (which was almost everyone). I jumped from trade room to trade room trying to learn that "one thing" that was going to be the piece of that puzzle I was missing. New indicators, new setups, new markets to try, the latest algorithmic doohickey that was the magic that so many were using to be hugely successful, yet I just couldn't get it. Was I too stupid? Although I knew better, I sure felt like it when I saw so many people saying that this new system is the best ever and so easy to learn. They wouldn't be lying, would they?

My trading office looked like mission control. I had so many computers and monitors with so many charts and programs and systems and strategies and indicators and I just knew each and every one of them had merit. But the more I added, the less likely I was going to actually find an entry to a trade. I had so much stuff, I didn't know when to look where and when. So I cleared the clutter, which was harder to do than I imagined it would be. I had grown to love each of my doohickeys and pieces of hardware that made me look so smart and impressive. I started over with just one thing that I KNEW worked because it was a self fulfilling prophecy. Meaning, if everybody believes something has value, then it does. For me that was Support and Resistance and is the foundation on which I built The Intentional Trader.

The experiment has brought me to where I am today. Of course, there was much more to it than I can commit to writing in this venue and it has been suggested that I write a book on it, which I might do someday. Many of the lessons I learned from that experiment have been included in our Trading Rooms trading philosophy and strategies. However most of it has been turned into a program to help others do what I was able to do. The TradeRx program has been a turning point in many traders careers and I am proud of them all.

Click on the TraderKingdom link below to learn even more about me.

I am Tony Peterson of The Intentional Trader. If you are a new or struggling trader, can you imagine for just a moment what it would feel like to be teaching others how to trade for a living? At this point, that may seem like a completely bizarre thought to you. Now perhaps you might understand how I feel having come to this time in my life where I trade for a living and teach others to do it as well. Not only was I nearly convinced that I wasn't going to be able to do it, but I was actually looking forward to the relief I would feel once I officially quit trying and went back to working at a job IF I could find one. I just wanted the pain of trying so hard for so long to go away. I felt like if I could just bleed that last little bit out of my trading account, I would have no choice but to quit.

But instead of giving the last of my trading account up to the trading gods that I had been so generously supporting for seven years, I decided to try a rather different experiment. What did I have to lose? I had already decided I was going to walk away when my account was decimated. I might as well try something a little different than what I had been doing.

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