A reminder to myself
A phone call with my friend and one-time mentor after his terrible week reminded me of four things about bad runs, rest and honesty. I needed to hear them myself.
The idea
I just got off the phone with my friend and one-time mentor. He had a terrible week, full of poor trading mistakes and emotionally driven f*ck-ups. I know him to be very process-driven and honest with himself. He didn't blame anyone but himself!
He reflects that his week started poorly because of a lack of sleep, family commitments, external pressure, and a motivation to end the working week early because of these factors, among other things. It reminds me of four things.
Everyone has a bad run, even the greats. The cause tends to be a desire to achieve a market-dependent outcome (financial, lifestyle, time-saving). Sometimes these desires are unconscious and hard to spot.
To repeat some clichés: to day trade, we must be outcome-agnostic and accept whatever happens. We cannot control the auction, this force of nature. Our job is to prepare better for the next opportunity and execute consistently. After that, it's in the lap of the gods. If we desire an outcome, the opposite tends to happen. The auction process is a beast, and it doesn't give a shit if you want to finish early, pay your bills or drive a Rarri.
Bad days can follow a bad day, and it's a blessing to have a weekend (a circuit breaker) to reflect. It's better to recognise this yourself and walk away for an extended period if you are trading poorly. Use the time wisely, and don't look at your charts. Your losses are not because you misplaced a squiggly line on a chart.
Trading when tired is a recipe for disaster. It magnifies every single human emotion and lets poor decision-making creep in. If you can't build yourself a decent routine and you trade tired, you need to address this before you ever look at your charts or think of clicking.
You can't learn from your mistakes if you are not honest about the cause. My friend was honest, but careful not to brutalise himself over his mistakes. I have a tendency either to lie to myself or to overly criticise myself when I fail to meet my standards. Neither is constructive in the long run.
It's about me, but not just me
This reminder is timely, as I have been burning the candle at both ends despite my loved ones and friends screaming at me to slow down. Last Wednesday I collapsed after a 13k run and couldn't get up. I had been sleeping less than 5 hours a night for the last few weeks, some days running on less than 2hrs, working like crazy, and I have neglected those around me by cocooning myself in my office.
I am also dealing with health issues in my immediate family (mum and dad) that I struggle to deal with. This all comes when I feel my trading is improving, thanks to a great trading community I have joined. This weekend I am taking the time to reflect on my priorities and what I want to achieve. Most importantly, I am taking time to be with the ones I love. They need me, and I need them. Everything else comes after.
Thank you for reading, and have a great weekend.
Key takeaways
- Writing a trading plan like a pro
- What is a trade journal, and how important is it?
- Learn from your mistakes
- Embrace trading failure: lessons from Black Box Thinking
- Trading is gambling, and when to stop
- Visualising success and failure: a motivational exercise
- Trading and patience: the conveyor belt analogy
- A reminder to myself
- My lucky toilet break in trading
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