Trading Decision

Well, this last week was pretty poor for me. I made a bad decision in POT on Monday and it colored my trading performance for the rest of the week. I am still working on trading emotionless, obviously.

I shouldn't have traded on Monday. I'd found out over the weekend that a long standing issue preventing me from getting as much work as I'd like, had failed to be resolved AGAIN! So I spent the weekend frustrated, feeling financial pressure, and unable to get appropriate sleep on Sunday night. Trading while overly tired is not a good idea.

I am also restricted in my trading account because it fell below 25,000 last year when I was slow to adapt to the new bear market. I get only three day trades a week before my account will freeze unless I make up the shortfall. I have the money, but I am not putting any more money into the trading account until I master my trading mistakes. One of which is harping on the past. I continually beat myself up over losing the money I did last year, an amount that I've never lost before. Join the club, right? There are many people who lost money last year, including professionals. But I should know better... that's the psychological baggage I am working on.

So, financial pressure, grogginess, and worrying about only having three trades caused me to lose money. I plan to fix that. I'm changing my mental game NOW. I get three trades. That's it. I am not going to trade this next week thinking that I'm going to make up for last week. I'm not going to trade anymore thinking about all the money I've lost in the past. When I've used up my trades for the week, I will spend the rest of it watching charts and improving my skills. My friend, Billy Mays(who doesn't blog as much anymore), has been very helpful teaching me new ways to trade. I will continue to scale into small swing trades and I will work on controlling my emotions. And finally, I will not beat myself up if I slip back into old habits occasionally. Learning is a process.

These are the goals anyway.

When I need a reminder to ease up on myself, perhaps I could play this: