As traders some days we just won’t have it. During the last two training classes at SMB our best students have been female. For some reason only about two percent of the resumes sent to us originate from women (how do we get more?). A leading female student in our present class finally had a negative trading day in her young career, and she asked an excellent question about her day today: What do you do when you are just off? Let’s discuss.
So this young woman for the first time in her eight-day-old trading career posted a negative result. Congratulations! Welcome to our rather large club. She obviously didn’t want to be part of the club because she had a bit of a “how could this be” tone as she asked her question. I reminded her that our job—trading—is as close to being a professional athlete as any job I can think of. And it is not just me who says this. JToma said the same thing during a lunch-time interview. And no, I did not steal this line from him. As former athletes, JToma and I know that on some days you just don’t have it.
Michael Jordan, in a recent commercial, said “I’ve missed more then nine thousand shots in my career; I’ve lost almost three hundred games, twenty six times; I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed; I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.” And he is considered one the greatest athletes of all time. So like in sports, some days as a trader you just will not have it.
As you become more experienced you will learn to observe yourself as a trader. How do you feel? How you are trading? And how does this compare with past performance? Some days you can literally feel that something is off, that you just don’t feel right. Today before the open I sensed I was wound too tightly, so I spent five minutes focusing on my breath. On certain days your concentration will not be as sharp. On some days you’ll just miss trades that you normally would not. Every so often you will not process information as quickly as expected. On these days you can feel as if someone else is sitting in your seat.
And so what do I do on these occasions? I adjust. I decide that I don’t want to risk as much money in the market when I’m feeling that I’m not at my best. I lower my tier size. I trade only my best setups. I keep my stops tight. I trade less. Most important of all is that I acknowledge the likelihood that I will under-perform and then adjust to that reality.
So if you’ve had an off day, don’t fret over it. Remind yourself that off days have happened more than a few times for the great Mike Jordan. The good news is that the markets will be open tomorrow and that yesterday will have no effect on tomorrow. Even better? The more bad days like today throughout your career that you have the better. It means you have been in the game for a long time. And that’s a good thing.
You can be better tomorrow than you are today!
Mike Bellafiore
No relevant positions Twitter!
6 Comments on “A Bad Day”
Mr. Bellafiore,
This is an excellent paralel with the athlets.
I played tennis for 13 years and now, a couple of hours a day, I train some students. It is amazing how similar the mental and technical training in tennis is to trading. It is an excellent way to trade mentally for trading. Some may argue that this is the case with all the sports, not only tennis, and I agree with that, only that tennis is what I play and it is an one-one sport.
I want to make one point regarding the wining streak of a beginner: this is one thing that scares me: a beginner playing great! This is how you get to overconfidence and not realize that it is unsustainable; you are tempted to think that you master the game and the humble attitude toward a new field is gone; and when the bad day is coming and you get a loosing streak it is hard to get back to square one and realize that not the talent is the one that makes you a winner but the hard work, concentration and the % approach.
There are a lot of aspects to debate here, but this is not the case now.
p.s. you mentioned in an article about Wimbledon final and Roddick game. Yes, it is true in all that you’ve written, but I want to stress a small aspect: Roddick had a game with himself, it was Roddick 2.0; but it was a drop-shot from Federer which Roddick hit it straight into Federer body.
The tennis rules say it is ok to hit the opponent body, because he is part of the field, but the gentlmen don’t do that. Roddick hit Federer and he turn his back without saying sorry by raising his racquet or his hand. And in that point Roddick lost the fight with himself, and eventually the final. It was a brand new Roddick, but he was defeated by a small and important aspect. Just thinking how many traders were defeated in the market court based on the common sense rule…
Mr. Bellafiore,
This is an excellent paralel with the athlets.
I played tennis for 13 years and now, a couple of hours a day, I train some students. It is amazing how similar the mental and technical training in tennis is to trading. It is an excellent way to trade mentally for trading. Some may argue that this is the case with all the sports, not only tennis, and I agree with that, only that tennis is what I play and it is an one-one sport.
I want to make one point regarding the wining streak of a beginner: this is one thing that scares me: a beginner playing great! This is how you get to overconfidence and not realize that it is unsustainable; you are tempted to think that you master the game and the humble attitude toward a new field is gone; and when the bad day is coming and you get a loosing streak it is hard to get back to square one and realize that not the talent is the one that makes you a winner but the hard work, concentration and the % approach.
There are a lot of aspects to debate here, but this is not the case now.
p.s. you mentioned in an article about Wimbledon final and Roddick game. Yes, it is true in all that you’ve written, but I want to stress a small aspect: Roddick had a game with himself, it was Roddick 2.0; but it was a drop-shot from Federer which Roddick hit it straight into Federer body.
The tennis rules say it is ok to hit the opponent body, because he is part of the field, but the gentlmen don’t do that. Roddick hit Federer and he turn his back without saying sorry by raising his racquet or his hand. And in that point Roddick lost the fight with himself, and eventually the final. It was a brand new Roddick, but he was defeated by a small and important aspect. Just thinking how many traders were defeated in the market court based on the common sense rule…
Mr. Bellafiore,
This is an excellent paralel with the athlets.
I played tennis for 13 years and now, a couple of hours a day, I train some students. It is amazing how similar the mental and technical training in tennis is to trading. It is an excellent way to trade mentally for trading. Some may argue that this is the case with all the sports, not only tennis, and I agree with that, only that tennis is what I play and it is an one-one sport.
I want to make one point regarding the wining streak of a beginner: this is one thing that scares me: a beginner playing great! This is how you get to overconfidence and not realize that it is unsustainable; you are tempted to think that you master the game and the humble attitude toward a new field is gone; and when the bad day is coming and you get a loosing streak it is hard to get back to square one and realize that not the talent is the one that makes you a winner but the hard work, concentration and the % approach.
There are a lot of aspects to debate here, but this is not the case now.
p.s. you mentioned in an article about Wimbledon final and Roddick game. Yes, it is true in all that you’ve written, but I want to stress a small aspect: Roddick had a game with himself, it was Roddick 2.0; but it was a drop-shot from Federer which Roddick hit it straight into Federer body.
The tennis rules say it is ok to hit the opponent body, because he is part of the field, but the gentlmen don’t do that. Roddick hit Federer and he turn his back without saying sorry by raising his racquet or his hand. And in that point Roddick lost the fight with himself, and eventually the final. It was a brand new Roddick, but he was defeated by a small and important aspect. Just thinking how many traders were defeated in the market court based on the common sense rule…
Love your posts!!
Anxiously waiting your post on reading the tape!!!
Love your posts!!
Anxiously waiting your post on reading the tape!!!
Love your posts!!
Anxiously waiting your post on reading the tape!!!