A DETAILED PLAN BEFORE EVERY TRADE

“The best trader is a prepared trader.” —Evan Lazarus-Partner, T3 Capital

The next time you are in a trade can you summarize your detailed trading plan in one sentence?

First, you need an exit strategy.

“You must have a backup plan for every situation.” And you must do this before you enter your every trade.

your plan should also include an exit strategy for if the stock trades in your favor. What will make you cover your position favorably? Will you exit if it trades at a certain price? Will you exit after a substantial move or when a large order appears? The details of the plan are important, but actually having a plan is most significant.

Look, if you are a developing trader, and you do not develop a detailed trading plan before every trade, please do me a favor. Go find all of your trading records. Secure a fireplace and a match. Take these “trading records” and light them on fire. A paper shredder would be just as effective. Your “trading records” are meaningless. Your trading results are only significant if you have followed the fundamentals used by all consistently profitable traders (CPTs). And a detailed plan for every trade is one of them. Now go and extinguish that fire, please.

Comments

Maximizing Your Profits with Scoring

SETTING YOUR MAXIMUM INTRADAY TRADING LOSS First things first: set a max intraday trading loss. There will be days when you just do not have it. Why do you think coaches pull their players when they are not playing well? They are more harmful on the field than off. When you are underperforming, you are hurting your team and your trading business. You need a system to yank yourself over to the bench. A stop loss is your answer. TRADING BASED UPON THE TIME OF DAY A good trader makes note of what time of day it is, when he trades most profitably, and adjusts his trading to fit such times. Your numbers at the end of the month will not reflect your true trading potential. Make the most trades with the most size during the trading periods that statistically are most profitable for you. Money saved during your weaker trading periods is money earned. Consistency The fact is that most trades you make will start working for you right away. But the new traders also hold stocks that are trading ag...

How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible

Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. This is an inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change: make it dif icult. If you find yourself continually struggling to follow through on your plans, then you can take a page from Victor Hugo and make your bad habits more difficult by creating what psychologists call a commitment device. A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future. It is a way to lock in future behavior, bind you to good habits, and restrict you from bad ones. When Victor Hugo shut his clothes away so he could focus on writing, he was creating a commitment device. There are many ways to create a commitment device. You can reduce overeating by purchasing food in individual packages rather than in bulk size. You can voluntarily ask to be added to the banned list at casinos and online poker sites to prevent future gambling sprees. I’ve even heard of athletes who have to “mak...

THE REAL REASON HABITS MATTER the true question is: “Are you becoming the type of person you want to become?” The first step is not what or how, but who. You need to know who you want to be. Otherwise, your quest for change is like a boat without a rudder. And that’s why we are starting here. You have the power to change your beliefs about yourself. Your identity is not set in stone. You have a choice in every moment. You can choose the identity you want to reinforce today with the habits you choose today. Building better habits isn’t about littering your day with life hacks. It’s not about flossing one tooth each night or taking a cold shower each morning or wearing the same outfit each day. It’s not about achieving external measures of success like earning more money, losing weight, or reducing stress. Habits can help you achieve all of these things, but fundamentally they are not about having something. They are about becoming someone. Ultimately, your habits matter because the...

We care

Search This Blog