What You Must Know In Your 1st Year Of Trading
- Nov 13, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 15
Fast track your way to trading profitability.
Summary:
Your first year of stock trading is not about making money — it’s about survival, expectations, and building habits that allow you to stay in the game long enough to succeed. Markets move in cycles, trading styles vary by personality, losses are unavoidable, and risk management matters more than any setup. Traders who understand these realities early dramatically improve their odds of long-term profitability.
The Reality of Your First Year in Trading
If you’re new to trading, your first year will almost certainly be emotional, confusing, and unpredictable.
Some traders are fortunate enough to start during a strong bull market and make easy early profits. Others begin during choppy or declining markets and quickly become discouraged. In both cases, the danger is the same: misunderstanding what trading actually involves.
Without realistic expectations, early success can lead to overconfidence, and early losses can push traders out of the markets entirely. Knowing what to expect from the outset is one of the most powerful advantages a new trader can have.
A great video on expectations can be seen here:
Markets Move in Cycles — Always
Financial markets operate in cycles of expansion and contraction, commonly referred to as boom and bust phases.
Bull markets attract new traders because profits feel easy and almost automatic. Bear markets and choppy conditions do the opposite — they expose weaknesses in strategy, discipline, and psychology.
Good periods do not last forever. Neither do bad ones.
When conditions are favourable, traders should focus on executing well and protecting gains. When conditions deteriorate, survival becomes the priority. Many traders fail not because their strategy is wrong, but because they refuse to adapt to changing market conditions.
Trading Is Personal — One Size Never Fits All
One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is copying another trader’s style and expecting identical results.
Trading performance is deeply influenced by psychology. Two traders can follow the same rules and experience very different outcomes due to emotional responses, risk tolerance, and discipline.
Some traders are comfortable with volatility and drawdowns. Others struggle to sleep after small losses. Your job in the first year is not to become someone else — it’s to understand yourself and adapt your approach accordingly.
Your trading style must align with your temperament, not fight it.
Trading Is Not Gambling
Many beginners enter trading believing it’s easy money — buy, sell, repeat, profit.
This mindset is dangerous.
Trading is not about home-run trades or getting rich quickly. It’s about stacking probabilities over many trades while controlling downside risk. Expecting every trade to be a winner leads to emotional decisions, refusal to accept losses, and destructive behaviours like averaging down.
Trading is a marathon. If you treat it like a sprint, the market will eventually remove you.
Risk Management Is the Real Edge
New traders often obsess over entries, indicators, and setups. Professionals obsess over risk.
Successful traders focus on defence first. They accept small losses, size positions appropriately, and understand when to be aggressive — and when not to be.
Beginners tend to focus on returns before understanding risk. This is backwards. Once you learn to protect capital, returns become possible. Without risk control, even a good strategy eventually fails.
Avoid the Mistakes That End Trading Careers Early
Many traders destroy their accounts not through bad strategies, but through bad reactions.
Common career-ending mistakes include:
Revenge trading after losses
Increasing leverage to “get it back”
Refusing to accept losses
Overtrading during poor conditions
If your first year ends with modest results but strong discipline and learning, that is a successful year.
Journal Everything — Especially Your Behaviour
A trading journal is one of the most powerful tools a new trader can use.
It reveals patterns you cannot see in real time:
Cutting winners early
Trading out of fear or FOMO
By documenting not just trades, but thoughts and emotions, you gain self-awareness — and self-awareness leads to improvement.
Journaling also helps track performance metrics that improve position sizing, stop placement, and trade management over time.
Longevity Is the Goal
Most traders make money not by brilliance, but by lasting long enough to learn what works.
There are no shortcuts. You must see thousands of charts and take hundreds of trades to develop skill. Expect at least two years before meaningful consistency appears.
Progress comes from eliminating one mistake at a time — not chasing perfection.
Final Thoughts
Your first year of trading is about building foundations, not profits.
If you learn risk control, discipline, self-awareness, and patience, you give yourself a chance to succeed long-term. If you chase quick wins, the market will eventually correct that behaviour.
Trading rewards those who respect it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is it normal to lose money in your first year of trading?
Yes. Most traders experience losses early. The goal is to keep losses small while learning.
2. Should beginners avoid trading during bear markets?
Not necessarily, but position size should be reduced and expectations adjusted.
3. How important is psychology compared to strategy?
Psychology often determines whether a strategy is executed properly.
4. How much capital should a beginner risk per trade?
Typically no more than 1–2% of total capital per trade.
5. Why do many traders quit early?
Unrealistic expectations, poor risk management, and emotional decision-making.
6. Is copying another trader’s strategy a good idea?
Only as a starting point. It must be adapted to your personality and risk tolerance.
7. How long does it take to become consistently profitable?
For most traders, 2–3 years of disciplined practice and review.
8. What is the most important habit to build early?
Risk management and journaling every trade.
Related Reading
Inside the Financial Wisdom Weekly Consolidation Breakout Framework
Risk Management in Trading: The Foundation of Long-Term Profitability
Published by FinancialWisdomTV.com Trading Education | Risk Management | Trading Psychology
Great video for beginners like me Gareth. Thank you!