As a trader our job is to do the right thing. Below is an example of a developing trader who saw improvement by embracing this mindset.
Bella,
Since today was the last trading day of the month, I decided to briefly explain my progress during October. I took a lot of notes during this month, and found some bad habits I had from my previous experience. Before, I was too focused on P&L, and when I had a strong morning I would not be willing to take risks at the afternoon (some days I would not trade at all).
For the last two weeks I have being working to overcome this bad habit, and today was my best technical day yet. Now I am more focused on doing the right thing, rather than finishing the day in the green. I also realized, opposed to what I thought previously, my problem was not overtrading but the initial mistake that would start a chain reaction (which would lead me to overtrading).
My best take away here was that there is a crucial difference between making mistakes and having a problem. Making a mistake is doing the right thing wrong (you only need practice to fix it). While having a problem is not being aware of a bad habit that if at first glance is not preventing success, it will be very harmful in the long-run.
This month I improved a lot, and I need to thank your book One Good Trade.
Thanks for the support.
How do you define “doing the right thing” for your trading? And does this help?
Related blog posts:
Bad Habits Within Good Habits
From Bad to Great: a Trader’s Steps to Improve Performance
You can be better tomorrow than you are today!
Mike Bellafiore
No relevant positions
2 Comments on “How Focusing on Doing the Right Thing Helped This Trader”
Staying true to your system no matter what’s going on in your emotions or in the markets. Probably the hardest thing to do in my opinion.
Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.