I read Mark Douglas’ book ‘Trading in the Zone’ some years ago when I was at the beginner stage of my current trading strategy, and I didn’t get it.

Yes, the principles that Douglas provides are simple and easy to grasp but to truly relate to what he is saying, and how it applies to what Douglas calls the ‘traders mindset’ is another thing altogether.

I think that a trader needs to be at, or in the early stages of, the ‘expert’ level as a trader to properly grasp Douglas’ lessons.

A beginner tries every kind of strategy going, which is fine, as long as the trader can settle on a particular way forward without a great deal of variation in the overall principle of a chosen strategy; to do so is the only way that a trader can move from beginner to intermediate.

The expert level is the cumulative refinement of one’s strategy and complete acceptance in that strategy. And that’s the easy bit. The hard work then comes with mastering Douglas’ trader’s mindset.

If we are a beginner or intermediate we aren’t going to get the importance of Douglas’ concept because, at the beginner and intermediate levels, we haven’t yet fully accepted responsibility for our strategy. In other words, we have not yet emotionally matured as a trader and fully accepted the probability of our trading strategy.

Read Douglas, and reread it when your foot goes on the first rung of the expert ladder – believe me, it’s like a light coming on.