Successful futures traders have a positive mental attitude, and maintain that positive attitude every single day they trade. It takes confidence in your abilities, confidence in your decisions, confidence in your charts and confidence in your system to succeed as a futures trader. Confidence hinges on your mental attitude.

If you think you can do it, you will.

"Your actions affect your attitude and your attitude drives your actions. It can indeed be powerful to get your actions and your attitude working consistently in the same direction."

I find these words from the Daily Motivator* of particular import to my life as a futures trader. More than anything else, your daily attitude affects your ability to perform successfully as a futures trader. If you stay positively focused, you will be able to assess your position with confidence and pull the trigger at the precise moment to ensure maximum profitability. If you allow negativity or self-doubt to eat away at your confidence, you will fail.

The Negativity Factor

Once negative thoughts creep into your thinking patterns, you start to second-guess your abilities, your decisions and your system. Pretty soon, you're making bad trades, you can't pull the trigger and things start crumbling around you. Without a positive attitude you cannot succeed as a futures trader. You will crash and burn before you complete the first lap.

Everyone has the occasional bad day. But whether it's a trading loss or a crisis in your personal life, you can't let feelings of negativity engulf you. You have to "shake it off," "get back on the horse, "get back in the game." Hackneyed though the sayings may be, they carry a large truth.

The only way to succeed is to refuse to allow yourself to be beaten down. You have to maintain faith in yourself and confidence in your ability to succeed. You have to stay positive.

Successful futures traders succeed because they have a positive mental attitude and believe in themselves and their system. It's not the other way around. We're not happy because we succeed. We succeed because we're happy. A positive attitude gets positive results.

Cultivating Success Through Attitude

There are many ways to renew your positive energy each day. I enjoy a brisk walk or run in the early morning. The exercise recharges my physical batteries and participating in the beginning of a fresh, new day revitalizes my spirit. Exercise, daily motivations and personal affirmations are all ways to recharge your positive energy before you tackle a new trading day.

Because different approaches work better than others, you'll need to experiment with and discover those activities that keep you positively motivated, and then make them a daily part of your life. The more positive energy you can maintain in your life, the better trader you'll be.

Why is a Positive Mental Attitude Essential?

Success as a futures trader is 90% attitude. Develop a positive mental attitude and your success will increase as your skills grow. A positive mental attitude will allow you to:

1. Focus on making profitable trades. Even if you have a losing streak, positive focus will allow you to turn things around and snap back into the profit zone.

2. Focus on profit-making goals. A positive focus will give you the strength and courage to persevere if the going gets tough.

In his Daily Motivator of December 22, 2007, Ralph Marston says:

"Whether it's through your actions or through your attitude, there's always a way to introduce a more affirmative perspective into your life. Stay focused on the positive possibilities and life will continue to grow more richly rewarding."

These are words to succeed by.