Many years ago, when Miles and I were beginning our trading education we were privileged to have access to a few of the best traders in the world. We asked them what we would have to learn or do to reach our dreams. Each person shared personal preferences and valuable suggestions but all of them were in agreement that making big money in the market is a process of patience, self control, and focus on basic rules. They also said that we should choose one or two investment techniques, and then practice until we were masters of those techniques. We were also told to pick a handful of companies and get to know them so well that we knew "the heartbeat of the stock."

I am sorry if my answer was a disappointment to you, becoming a master of the basics is not glorious and it seems too simple. Yet, being able to consistently apply the knowledge of the basics is what makes the difference between winning big money or not. It seems so easy that most people keep searching for some hidden secret or trick that will earn millions of dollars, and the answer is right in front of them all the time. What I think is that people want to take a short cut so they can bypass the struggle, they do not want to practice, they want to get to earning the big money right away (without any effort).

Teaching classes lately I have been astonished at how many traders, who consider themselves seasoned traders, are not fine tuned on basic skills like reading charts and identifying Support & Resistance. These "traders" act like they know the basics - but when I take a few minutes to review some important points with them, such as how to pick support and resistance or even using moving averages they don't know how to properly do so. It amazes me how they have traded so long (many with 5, 10, 15 years experience) without mastering this essential skill.

I believe that we get stagnant in our trading skills over time and we just forget how to use the basic and simple things that worked when we first started. We get excited about more advanced methods and in the excitement we overlook the things that are so simple and always critical like support and resistance