There is an abundance of skilled traders out there, and yet the vast majority of traders still fail. Skill gets you in the door. It doesn’t keep you in the game. Something else separates the traders who last from the ones who wash out.

Keep experimenting, keep getting a little better, and keep doing it. The hard work is boring. It is not glamorous, and it is not sexy. It is grueling, and it requires a commitment most people are not willing to make.

So I surround myself with daily reminders of who I am and who I will become as I pursue this honorable profession of day trader. I don’t leave that job to chance or to my mood. I put it in front of my eyes every day.

Nobody sees the preparation. The fans see the fight, and the market’s audience sees the trade. But the result was decided earlier, in the review, the practice, and the early mornings no one applauded. The session is just where it shows.

Belief isn’t a switch you flip. It’s built by repetition, the same way a skill is. Say it, see it, and repeat it until it stops being a hope and becomes a conviction. Ali is telling you what comes after that: things begin to happen.

Isn’t it fascinating, and in fact reassuring, that the greatest, Muhammad Ali, has a quote about affirmations and about belief in oneself? Positive self talk. Visioning a future. Belief. Conviction. All of it, in his words, a predicate for what he calls “things begin to happen.”

It is like Muhammad Ali is giving up the secret formula to his success, and therefore to your success and mine too. There is no hidden trick. There is the unseen work in the gym and on the road, and there is the belief you build by repeating it to yourself until it becomes a deep conviction.

That is why skill alone isn’t the answer. Plenty of skilled traders fail. The ones who succeed do the boring, grueling work when nobody is watching, and they protect their belief while their own mind tries to talk them out of it.

I find that comforting and empowering. If the formula is that simple, it is available to you and to me. We have to be willing to do the work and repeat the message. Every single day.

Trade safe,
Jay Cradeur
Founder, Day Trader Dojo

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