When I started trading eight nine years ago, I wasted time learning things that didn’t help.
My main goal was to make money from trading.
If a trading concept or strategy didn’t help me do that, it was a waste of time.
But back then, I also didn’t know what to learn first.
But now, after eight nine years of trading, I know what things helped me the most and what things were not that important.
That’s why I made a tier list for you.
It will help you save time by focusing only on what matters.
The things I’m going to put near the top of this tier list helped me a lot.
And the things near the bottom helped me very little, or not at all.
Number 10.
I’ve used Volume in trading mostly as an extra confirmation.
For example, I like to see the volume increase in the direction I’m about to take a trade.
But it only helps a little bit.
If your trading strategy is already bad, volume won’t save it.
Volume on its own is not going to make you profitable when you’re just starting out.
So, don’t waste your time on it in the beginning like I did.
I’ll put it in the D tier.
Number 9.
Learning to read price action is one of the best things I’ve ever done.
It helped me understand how the price actually behaves in different market conditions.
Indicators get their information from the price, but they only show you specific information.
When you can read the price chart directly yourself, you understand so much more.
This greatly increases the probability of becoming profitable.
So I’m putting it directly in the A tier.
Number 8.
If you just focus on indicators, trading will be much harder.
Yes, I have tested many indicators 100 times on the Trading Rush channel, and most of them made money.
But if you only focus on indicators, you won’t know when they work and when they don’t.
You can’t become profitable with just an indicator.
For comparison, price action gives you a much better chance of becoming profitable.
So I’m putting indicators in the C tier.
Number 7.
I started as a technical trader, only looking at charts.
But over the years, I learned that fundamentals are very important.
For example, instead of saying it’s an uptrend because the price is above the moving average, you can know the actual reason behind the upward move if you listen to the fundamentals.
If I had learned this earlier, I would have filtered out a lot of technical nonsense much earlier and made more profit.
I’ll put learning fundamentals in the A tier.
Number 6.
A common trap for new traders is trying to get a high win rate.
But here’s a secret.
I have done many tests that show even if you took random trades, your win rate would be around breakeven in the long run.
In other words, you will not lose or make money.
So, focusing on the win rate is not going to impact your trading success.
Spending time searching for a high win rate strategy is a waste of time.
There are many more important things to focus on.
So I’m putting the high win rate in the D tier.
Number 5.
One of the easiest ways I have found to make a strategy more profitable is to just trade with the trend.
The price is already moving in one direction, so taking trades in that direction gives you a much higher chance of winning.
We literally have data saying this.
Most strategies I have tested 100 times on the Trading Rush channel made money because of the trend.
So, learning to identify a good trend is a very important skill.
I’ll put it in the A tier.
Number 4.
The market is always changing.
Your strategy won’t work all the time.
So, you have to learn to spot bad market conditions, like when the price is choppy and messy.
Most strategies lose money in these market conditions.
You must learn when not to trade and when you need to adapt.
Without learning when not to trade and when to adapt, you won’t survive as a trader.
I’m putting this in the A tier.
Number 3.
Many beginner traders just take random trades.
I used to do that.
But when I tried writing down how I take trades, I realized that I don’t have any consistent entry rules.
That’s why beginner me was losing money.
So, I wrote down my exact entry rules properly and used a checklist.
I only took a trade if it followed my rules.
That’s when I finally got consistent.
I also tracked my trades in an Excel sheet, like a trading journal.
It helped me see the patterns and reasons why I was making and losing money.
So, I’ll put writing rules and keeping a journal in the B tier.
Number 2.
The biggest improvement I ever had was when I started making pretty much all my decisions based on probability data.
Like, what’s the probability of things happening?
It even improved my confidence.
For example, when I had a losing streak, I didn’t panic because the data showed me that it was normal and could happen.
Focusing on probability data is one of the best things you can do as a trader.
So I’m putting it in the S tier.
Number 1.
There is one thing that truly decides if you will be profitable or not.
It’s like 100 times more important than anything else.
If you ignore it, you will lose all your money, even if you are an experienced trader.
I am talking about money management or risk management.
You have to manage your risk on every single trade, all the time.
By combining it with the probability data, you have to make sure that in the worst trading scenarios, you won’t lose most of your trading account.
It is the single most important thing you can do as a trader.
You can reduce your probability of losing the entire account to almost zero, and do better than 90% of traders by just focusing on this one thing.
That’s why I’m putting it in the S tier.
Thanks for watching.