Sometimes one of the best techniques for improving a skill is taking time away and this week, out of my control, I took the week off. I was switching accounts from TD Ameritrade to TradeStation and could not get my funds cleared until Friday morning.
Reviewing My Trade Journal
Since coming to TradeSpace, one of the biggest pieces of advice I’ve heard is, “track your trades.” This week provided an awesome opportunity to take a step back and review the successful trades and the big losers.
While doing this, I’ve also started reading, Mastering the Trade. The first few chapters of the book perfectly aligned with the thoughts I was having this week. John Carter spends the first chapter of the book describing trading psychology. He did an impeccable job of describing the issues I have had trading:
Trading without a game plan is like swimming in the Amazon River with a couple of raw steaks strapped to your waist. You might get some good exercise, but the longer you’re in the water, the greater your chance of a violent end.
Over the past month, I’ve been too impulsive with my trades and not focused on properly executing trades, as I’ve been taught in the Sang Lucci Master Course:
- Trade a small list of names
- Wait for important levels to be reached before trading
- Determine what your exit strategy is before entering the trade
Going Forward
This past week provided an excellent opportunity to follow the names I wanted (AMZN, TSLA, GOOGL, NFLX), set alerts for important levels to be reached, and determine trading plans at those levels. By the time Friday came around, and my account was funded, I only executed two trades which were guided by deliberate plans.
Coming from the Army I should be able to put this skill to work. Every mission, whether it be delivering food to a platoon or integrating artillery fire into an breach, requires plans at multiple echelons. In fact, there’s an acronym that has been pressed into my brain, P.A.C.E
Primary
Alternate
Contingency
Emergency
Like the Army, every trade, especially early on, requires a deliberate plan. When the plan is not evolving as hypothesized, traders need to take a step back and analyze the situation before proceeding.
I am surrounded by plenty of successful traders in TradeSpace. Although they might not deliberately lay out a PACE plan for each trade, I know that they have these courses of action established before they are in a position.
Growing Trading the Post
Taking some this week off from trading gave me time to focus on administrative tasks for Trading the Post. Additionally, some other admins from the room were on vacation. The team has established a weekly rhythm that will continue to pump out content daily and spread the word about how effective our service is.
The Sang Lucci Master Course is going to be starting up in the next month and will provide a great opportunity for new traders to get a glimpse of what goes on in the Trading the Post room.