Rob Booker, author, The Currency Trader’s Handbook shared some essential steps to building profitable trading strategies…

The first step, Booker told traders, was to forget about complicated charts and systems, as they just prey upon our desire to not do this alone or to be the only person who’s interpreting this particular chart. Most traders plot too many indicators, when it’s really best to keep it simple. Less is more. It’s a myth that the more information we have, the better decisions we make. You really need to know very little to find the underlying signature of a complex problem.

Booker also emphasized the importance of testing, cautioning traders that if they don’t get in the habit of testing, they will blow up their accounts. He added that it takes a long time to build up a trading account and just one bad decision can lose it all.

He told traders that he didn’t learn early enough that it wasn’t ok to give all his money back. Losses are often called learning experience, and investment, tuition. But Booker noted that it really isn’t necessary to lose all your money in order to learn how to trade.

Most traders make the mistake of focusing on making money. And that makes them rush the system, test expensively, trade too much, and explode. Instead, you should concentrate on protecting your account—learning how not to lose your money. That means learn your system perfectly, test cheaply (in small steps), trade live, make money, and focus on evaluating your progress.

Booker commented that the key to success is education, including connecting with other traders. And forget about keeping your emotions out of your trades. That is impossible. But what is possible is to understand your own psychology and personality and to use your emotions positively, to build a profitable trading strategy.

Booker closed his workshop by reminding attendees that the big secret to trading success is this: You are never going to understand the market as a whole, but you can make enormous strides in understanding yourself, and that will make you a better trader.