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Imagine trying to help someone solve it who isn't familiar with modern-day vehicles.

How would you differentiate them?

Number of wheels?

Colour?

Number of windows?

Shape of Windows?

How about the number of passengers - now we're getting closer, except, what about trams and trains?

Tough assignment isn't it? So what has this got to do with trading? Let me explain using an example.

See the chart pattern below? It resembles a water tap with a bit of imagination, hence why I've superimposed one onto the chart.

That was from Monday's trading session when I identified a playbook trade to go short. The water cascading down symbolising longs exiting on mass, creating vertical price movement.

So now you know my one on my playbook trades? Well, there are also times when the tap sets up a long trade. I call this the "reverse-gravity tap" playbook trade. Price commences cascading downwards, setting up a long. What?

The charts look similar. But the trades are as dissimilar to each other as a motorbus to a speedboat.

Many factors go into a trade meeting playbook criteria. Giving me the advantages to become a full-time trader is competency in 19 essential trading skills.

The magic of a playbook trade is clarity on how the market needs to behave to enter a trade. Jim Rogers said it best

I just wait until there is money lying in the corner, and all I have to do is go over there and pick it up. I do nothing in the meantime.

So this leads me to the next point—trading in simulation or SIM as it's known is not only for traders who don't trade live.

Moving to trade live is a massive hurdle for traders. Why? Because lack of experience leads to many mistakes. Mistakes that make you a net losing trader.

So what's the solution? I fit in mentoring one or two traders on top of my full-time trading.

I've seen first-hand what moves traders to live consistent trading in the shortest time. It's focusing on one playbook trade at a time. Complete required playback reps (in SIM) to develop the trade to competency.

But if you only have one playbook trade, what happens when the market doesn't align with it?

Trading requires a commitment to continual learning and improvement. So when not trading your playbook trade(s) live, you switch to SIM and develop the next playbook trade. And so, the process continues.

Ninjatrader (7 reasons to use NinjaTrader) lets you set up a different SIM account for each Playbook trade. Separating playbook trades into individual accounts makes for enlightening performance metrics.

I'll re-iterate the path for a trader.

Develop a comprehensive skill-set. See skills outlined here.

Using those skills, hone in on one specific trade and its accompanying characteristics. Work on that trade during live market hours and also utilise replay functionality.

Start trading live based on meaningful stats in SIM, but start small! Measure, review, refine. Let your statistics tell you when it's okay to increase size. At this stage, your SIM trading shifts to the next playbook trade.