Greed, Fear, Hope, Desperation - this makes up the stock market or Forex market : when you mix all these elements togeather and add money there will be always be winners and losers. There will be more losers than winners and 70% of the wealth will eventually fall into the hands of 30% of the trader. Have I dissuaded you yet? No - then read on.

What does it take to become a London Trader, and more importantly how can we make the experience last longer than 6 months? I will try and answer these questions as best as possible but remeber one thing, I myslef was a Trader after leaving the insurance industry and I failed! So why listen to a failed trader? Well I think the following Chinese Proverb will make you read further.

"Its good to learn from your mistakes, but better to learn from other peoples mistakes" - Chinese Proverb

To succeed in the markets you need to have hunger and desire for money, you need to wake up wanting more money and go to sleep wanting more money. You must be relentless in your persuit to be the best but have the good sense to control all these emotions and go about your daily tasks and think of money as a by product of hard work - remember there are no quick ways to get rich for all.

Technically sound - Your technical ability and attention to detail must be second to none. You must be able to look at a chart and using all the tools at your disposal be able to predict the direction with at least 80% accuracy. If you want to learn more about technical analysis then you need to visit this website (its not mine) www.stockcharts.com - the educational resource is the best.

You must be able to follow the markets and know your companies inside out fundamentally. This is where many people fail. By distinuishing a strong company from a weak company you stand a better chance of being successful. Check www.babypips.com - great for fundamental analysis.

Penultimately your money management must be watertight, you need to ensure that no matter how many times you lose you will always have enough to still go on. Always make sure you have a risk reward greater than 3:1 this means that if you lose 7/10 times you will still break even.

Finally and ultimately your emotions, this is where I failed, my emotions always got the better of me. I became greedy when I was winning and got fearful when I was losing. I have all the qualifications under the sun and suffice to say my resume is pretty damn impressive and I could probably get any job I wanted however the bottom line is I suck as a trader because I cannot control my emotions. Controlling your emotions and having adaquate experience and education is the perfect recipe for success. I leave you with this video. Enjoy.

As always I appreciate your comments and rating from the good people of the Xombies community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7upG01-XWbY

"Be Greedy when everyone is fearful and be fearful when everyone is greedy" - Warren Buffett