Which is more important to you, charting or trading?

There is truth in your trading.

Not on the outcome of one trade but in the sum results of your trades over time. The aggregate results of your trades-or about 300 completed trades-will just start to tell you the truth about your trading program. This story will continue to show itself to you in more detail the more trades you complete. And your results for your trading program- are undeniable.

Analysis into paralysis.
Which is more important to you, charting or trading? Are you being lulled to sleep by charting and discovering assorted patterns? Or are you trading? Pattern worship and drawing lines on charts will not tell you the truth. In fact, these habits are a modern diversion that serve to keep you from the truth of actually trading. We will find endless discussions on waves and patterns in chats and barely any discussions on trade results. This is because modern retail trading culture is presently obsessed with analysis. With brain flex signaling. With mutual validation seeking. Imagine if traders committed as much time to trading as they did discussing things like discovering obscure pattern correlations.

Are you avoiding trading?
Trading is not a team sport. It is a solo pursuit. It forces us to look into the (proverbial) mirror and to see what our PnL is like reflecting back at us. It tells us what kind of work ethic we have as a person. It tells us if we are afraid-or not-to discover the truth of what our results are-or may be.  The act of actually trading brings us closer and closer each time, to our actual condition. Two questions we need to ask ourselves are, am I avoiding trading? And if so-why?

My guess is most new traders start out with the intentions of taking a serious run at it. But there is absolutely nothing at all wrong with trading as a hobby and trading for fun. Trading for fun or trading for a living are both equally entertaining. But if you have not already, it is probably important for you to place yourself at that fork in the road and decide which path you are going to continue down and make a commitment to yourself on how much of your time and attention you need to dedicate or not to your trading.
Becoming a trader requires trading.