# 5 fundamental truths for trading **1. Anything can happen.**\ \ Why? Because **there are always unknown forces operating in every market at every moment**, it takes only one trader somewhere in the world to negate the positive outcome of your edge. That's all: only one. Regardless of how much time, effort, or money you've invested in your analysis, from the market's perspective there are no exceptions to this truth. Any exceptions that may exist in your mind will be a source of conflict and potentially cause you to perceive market information as threatening.\ \ **2. You don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money.**\ \ Why? Because there is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. (See number 3.) In other words, based on the past performance of your edge, you may know that out of the next 20 trades, 12 will be winners and 8 will be losers. What you don't know is the sequence of wins and losses or how much money the market is going to make available on the winning trades.\ This truth makes **trading a probability or numbers game.**\ \ **3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge**\ \ If every loss puts you that much closer to a win, you will be looking forward to the next occurrence of your edge, ready and waiting to jump in without the slightest reservation or hesitation. On the other hand, if you still believe that trading is about analysis or about being right, then after a loss you will anticipate the occurrence of your next edge with trepidation, wondering if it's going to work. This, in turn, will cause you to start gathering evidence for or against the trade, so you will not be in the most conducive state of mind to **produce consistent results**.\ \ **4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another.**\ \ Creating consistency requires that you completely accept that trading isn't about hoping, wondering, or gathering evidence one way or the other to determine if the next trade is going to work. The only evidence you need to gather is whether the variables you use to define an edge are present at any given moment. When you use "other" information, outside the parameters of your edge to decide whether you will take the trade, you are adding random variables to your trading regime. Adding random variables makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine what works and what doesn't.\ Gathering "other" evidence makes about as much sense as trying to determine whether the next flip of a coin will be heads, after the last ten flips came up tails. Regardless of what evidence you find to support heads coming up, there is still a 50-percent chance that the next flip will come up tails.\ **If the market is offering you a legitimate edge,determine the risk and take the trade**.\ \ **5. Every moment in the market is unique.**\ \ Take a moment and think about the concept of uniqueness. **No two moments in the external environment will ever exactly duplicate themselves**. To do so,every atom or every molecule would have to be in the exact same position they were in some previous moment. Not a very likely possibility. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://blog.atraderlife.com/extras/5-fundamental-truths-for-trading.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.