Mark Douglas is an author, speaker, and coach. When it comes to trader psychology, his books and talks are an excellent place to start.
In everything you do, your mindset helps determine your success or failure. The same goes for trading.
Related: How to Open a Roth IRA
Psychology separates good traders from those who fail.
Mark Douglas is one of the best resources.
He’s known for his two books, Trading in the Zone and The Disciplined Trader. Also, his Trading in the Zone Workshop videos is absolute gold.
Many successful traders credit Mark Douglas for their mindset.
The following are the best quotes by Mark Douglas.
Read the quotes several time and apply them to your trading.
Related: The Best Peter Lynch Quotes (Former Fidelity Magellan Fund Manager)
The top quotes from Mark Douglas
1. “Trading without fear. This is a trading skill. It is the primary skill that you will have to acquire to create consistency.” -Mark Douglas
2. “The market was different because I wasn’t afraid anymore… That relatively carefree state of mind allowed me to flow in and out of my trades with an easy and effortlessness that I would not have been able to imagine beforehand.” -Mark Douglas
3. “Everything you do wrong as a trade is going to be a result of what you’re afraid of and the effects that fear has on your perception of market information.” -Mark Douglas
Related: What Are the Different Stock Exchange Hours?
4. “Learning how to trade without fear is a function of learning how to think in probabilities.” -Mark Douglas
5. “Move from thinking from a trade-by-trade mentality and move to a series of trades perspective.” -Mark Douglas
6. “You don’t have to know what’s going to happen next on a trade-by-trade basis to win or make consistent money.” -Mark Douglas
7. “All price movement has to be the result of an imbalance of a degree of conviction between the traders who believe the prices are going up and those who believe it’s going down.” -Mark Douglas
8. “If I’m going to trade my methodology appropriately, it really obligates me to take every single trade. I can’t be picking and choosing my trades based on what I think is going to happen.” -Mark Douglas
9. “When you win, you weren’t right, and when you lose, you weren’t wrong.” -Mark Douglas
10. “It’s just a numbers game based on the odds.” -Mark Douglas
11. “All technical indicators and price patterns do is get you in a situation where there’s a likelihood that when you get into that trade, it’ll work.” -Mark Douglas
12. “There’s absolutely nothing to think about, just put the trade on.” -Mark Douglas
13. “No one trade has any more or any less significance than the other.” -Mark Douglas
14. “By truly accepting that the outcome of this trade can be different than whatever happened the last time, you’re positively managing your expectations.” -Mark Douglas
Related: What’s a Stock Split?
15. “When you disconnect, you won’t perceive market information as threatening. You’ll eliminate the potential to make a trading error, and you’ll be aspiring to trade without fear.” -Mark Douglas
16. “Every moment in the market is genuinely and truly unique.” -Mark Douglas
17. “Stay focused on the process of trading, as opposed to the outcome.” -Mark Douglas
18. “When you achieve complete acceptance of the uncertainty of each edge and the uniqueness of each moment, your frustration with trading will end.” -Mark Douglas
19. “The consistency you seek is in your mind, not in the markets.” -Mark Douglas
20. “No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation.” -Mark Douglas
21. “Good market analysis can certainly contribute to and play a supporting role in one’s success, but it doesn’t deserve the attention and importance most traders mistakenly attach to it.” -Mark Douglas
22. “When you operate from the assumption that more or better analysis will create consistency, you will be driven to gather as many market variables as possible into your arsenal of trading tools. But what happens then? You are still disappointed and betrayed by the markets, time and again, because of something you didn’t see or give enough consideration to. It will feel like you can’t trust the markets; but the reality is, you can’t trust yourself.” -Mark Douglas
23. “The best traders aren’t afraid.” -Mark Douglas
24. “The fact is that if traders really believed that anything could happen at any time, there would be considerably fewer losers and more consistent winners.” -Mark Douglas
25. “I define random trading as poorly-planned trades or trades that are not planned at all. It is an unorganized approach that takes into consideration an unlimited set of market variables, which do not allow you to find out what works on a consistent basis and what does not.” -Mark Douglas
26. “When you genuinely accept the risks, you will be at peace with any outcome.” -Mark Douglas
27. “However, market analysis is not the path to consistent results. It will not solve the trading problems created by lack of confidence, lack of discipline, or improper focus.” -Mark Douglas
28. “When I put on a trade, all I expect is that something will happen.” -Mark Douglas
29. “If your goal is to trade like a professional and be a consistent winner, then you must start from the premise that the solutions are in your mind and not in the market.” -Mark Douglas
30. “If you want to change your variables at the end of a sample size, you’re free to do it. You cannot do it in the middle of one.” -Mark Douglas
31. “Change is a function of desire.” -Mark Douglas
32. “I’m willing to risk a certain amount of distance from my entry point to find out.” -Mark Douglas
33. “You can’t put an extraordinary amount of significance on each individual trade.” -Mark Douglas
Related: The Best Kristjan Kullamägi (Qullamaggie) Quotes for Traders
Featured image courtesy of Amazon.
About David Em
David Em is the founder of More Money More Choices, which he launched to help you take control of your finances and build your dream life. Before More Money More Choices, David worked in leadership positions in the finance industry.