This is the mindset you have to have to be successful at trading. You have to want to be successful as bad as you want to breathe.
Your right and wrong, you have to have a true edge to be a profitable trader but while your on the road to finding that edge you have to have the right mindset to keep pushing forward. You can't have great psychology and a terrible trading strategy and expect to make money trading. Do you think you can make money with a true edge but have terrible psychology?
it's just simply not possible to have a great "psychology" and a terrible trading strategy. It's the old chicken or the egg thing. A terrible trading strategy will destroy your great psychology and a terrible psychology will destroy your great trading plan (if there is such a thing.)
It's been proven many times for great athletes, actors, singers and many other careers along with trading careers... You gotta have a good mindset to stay on top and/or keep up with they young ones coming up. Mental game...that's one of the big key to success. Most traders begin trading via putting most of their efforts into their trade method and very little into the psychological aspects of trading. Later, they realize its important and then try to develop the mental game while still trading...usually doesn't work. Therefore, I have the opinion that there would be more successful traders if they got their mental game going before venturing into to trading and then when they begin trading...double the efforts in strengthening their mental game.
Mental game is overrated, good freaking edge is what you need and the discipline to follow. Find the edge, trade the edge. Everything else is overhyped and overrated for snake oil salesman to spend months, sometimes even years teaching absolutely nothing of use, for a fee of course
Misinterpretation... You're implying there's only two components to trading success 1) Psychology 2) Trade Strategy Reality, there's many components to trading success. This forum is litter with traders that have a great mental game but "no trade method"...traders getting their feet wet and they figure they'll just "develop" a trade method along the way. Simply, many traders have a good mental game in combo with a terrible trade strategy and eventually they will either develop a good trade method or blow up and then be optimistic about their experience as a trader...some will use that experience as a building block to greener pastures elsewhere. There's actually psychological research about people like that...I just can't remember the book term about that when I learned it in college in my psych class. Simply, people like this in the world do exist in just about any job career. Very famous people fit the above profile.