This discussion may give you an idea to be an independent trader in which your trading decision is not swayed so easily if there are other parties trying to influence you such as a friend of yours telling you "good news" from an unknown source of information. Being an independent trader itself, at least, for me is a super advantage if you want to move forward as the minority of traders (the successful ones). Why? Well, below are the reasons.
You Are In Charge Of Your Trading Account
Just like a captain of a ship who navigates the direction of where the ship is going to head, in trading you are the captain of your trading account where you have to make a rational decision if wild waves of the market are coming. By taking a role as a captain of your own ship you are free from any kind of intervention that may hinder you realize the originality of your decision.
Let me give you a simple example of why this is a big advantage for you. Suppose you have a short position of 1 lot on the EURUSD pair and understand the pair is in a downtrend. However, after some time, there is a sudden fluctuation that makes the price flare up and your friends are telling you to give up the position. In this kind of situation, if your psychology is already strong you will remain calm while thinking rationally about whether you should get out of that position or not and certainly not just "only listening" to your friends to make an important decision.
The Chance Is Low To Get Scammed
In this "good" world there are many scammers who are trying to scam you by pretending to be your friend first. Usually, scammers gather information about their target first and then next by using valuable information they have got, they are trying to get close to you to win your trust. Once they get your trust and get what they want from you (scam you), they will be gone from your sight in searching for a new target to be scammed by them.
However, fret not, if you do your own research, you know how the market moves, and most importantly you understand that loss and profit are normal in trading just like in any other business. An independent trader especially the seasoned one knows this very well, he keeps improving his skill by opening his mind first that the market is always changing and that is why he adapts whenever the market is changed. Therefore, if an amateur swindler tries to scam him by asking his money to be "managed" by the scammers for "unrealistic gain in such a short amount of time", he would not be subjugated so easily by the scammer.
Your Strategy Is Only Yours
Regarding strategy, you may not want to share it if you are always profitable with your strategy as you have worked really hard by building a good foundation for your strategy. Fun fact, even I keep private my own strategy due to some reasons I cannot disclose. However, I can make you understand (at least for one reason) why I do that by asking you this one realistic question "Suppose you have a big business, would you share your strategy of how to run it smoothly?".
I guess regarding this section I do not need to explain it further, however, I can give you a clue as to why a good strategy is good is how the user uses it so if the user is good the result will be good but if a bad user is using a good strategy then he will not be able to maximize the strategy. Aside from that, do remember that market is always changing so your strategy may work brilliantly for the current market condition but it can also be expired in the future.
Conclusion
By being an independent trader, you are free from unnecessary "information" which usually comes from an unverified rumor that is spread by people who are in your environment, your friends, for example. Then, scammers that may want to scam you will not be able to execute their plan against you as you already understand how the market works. Lastly, the best strategy that you have is owned by you and you have a right to keep it private.
Written by Andre I.
Reference
Forex Jed Original Content