This much is true: All financial investments have risks. Of all the people who go into trading, about ninety percent will inevitably end up losing money. So, what is it that you’re doing wrong? In simple terms, these people do not have a good understanding of the situation. It can even be said that investments is like playing poker.

My theory is thus; the game of poker is a good simulation of the investment world, and the correct strategies in winning, or getting to the endgame, at least, is similar in both cases. I admit that this may sound a bit nontraditional, but do hear me out.

When one plays poker, you won’t get very far into the game if you just hold back and wait for the right hand to invest all your chips in. Obviously, even the best hands have an amount of risk in it, for one thing, and you may still end up losing all your chips in that single go. Also, going in with guns blazing, may end in a small yield of extra chips. It’s not worth it.

Betting like mad on every single hand is not a very brilliant move, either. Do this and you’ll probably end up being playing the fool. If you constantly expose your chips to high risk, it’ll only lead to a sudden burnout; you’ll be out of the game before anyone else, steadily losing all of your chips in a few rounds.

So what is the right way to play poker? As anyone playing will learn quickly, getting ahead in poker involves more than just considering your own hand and chips, but getting a good feel for the hand and chips of those around you as well. Once you get a good feel of the game table, also know that you can’t put all your chips in one really good hand. Invest your chips little by little, spreading out your game to those of good, but not necessarily great plays.

In conclusion, these same principles will apply to trading. The game table is the market, and how it affects your investments. You’ll also avoid having all of your capital on one investment; if it is spread out in many decent deals, then if one crashes, it wouldn’t be as devastating.