What Are You Going To Do With That Anger?

During our midday meeting with our College Training Students and new traders I noticed one new trader quite upset. He was so upset it was uncomfortable for me to look at him. Was he upset at the firm? Something I had just said? Himself? Having to sit in this meeting during market hours?

When traders get upset is an upset difficult to look at. I almost wanted to just end the review session right after it had started to rid that trader of all that pain on his face.

It turns out the trader was upset at himself for some unenforced trading errors. Let’s not be so Coach Speak Correct. The trader had made a stupid trading error. He traded a product above his trading expertise and got smoked. And this was after the Floor Manager had told him the day before not to touch this product.

If you have traded pro you know that inner self-pain. It is a stabbing guilt, pervades all thoughts and smothers your body. You just want to go home sit on the couch, grab a bottle of Jack and wish the pain to end. And it cannot until a next trading session of positive P&L. It just can’t.

I met with this trader after the meeting and challenged him.

“I see that you are upset. I understand that you did something pretty stupid. It is okay to make mistakes. It is okay to be angry. You are a former college athlete. But now we find out how competitive you really are. What are your going to do with that anger?”

This was now a moment to find out if he could trade pro. We all take losses, do dumb things in real-time, and get smoked. I commonly say, “If you sat next to me on my desk and saw the stupid things I do on a daily basis you would wonder how I ever traded profitably.” Pro traders do stupid things everyday. But pro traders then do something next.

Pro traders compete. It was not up to this new trader to compete by learning from his mistakes. Doing a detailed trading review. Talking to other traders about his mistake. Doing a PlayBook trade after the close. Ripping thru charts. Preparing for the next trading session.

Competing like this new trader:

I understand I am new to trading but I was extremely pissed off with this next trade. I go through Finviz first think in the morning when I get to work between then and open I look for good setups in stocks that aren’t one of the stock in paly with AVOL of 2M+ and an ATR of .75 or better. Thursday when the market gapped down outside of the range it was in I wanted to focus on weak stocks in weak sectors that are coming into support. I found DUK. I wouldn’t say it was very weak on the daily chart but it was down 10 pts in the last 3 months, it had just recently broke though support on the 10day and if it could break a longer term level of $67.75, this thing could have a nice move down. I get it up and its gapping down right to support level. I’ve been giving most of my attention to above/below the previous days high or low patters because they seem to be the easiest to spot and offer the best R/R but this is another patter that I need to drill into my head. Weaker stock in the ST, broke 10day support, market structure change to the downside and then the stock gaps below the previous days low! are you kidding me? If thing pops at all to yesterdays close it an easy short which is basically did and then proceeded to drop $1. Unbearably frustrating but I spent last night and some time early this AM just making Playbooks for this play on the long side and short side so hopefully I won’t miss too many more of these plays.

Competing is not blaming HFTs. The firm. That kid who sits next to you. The Financial Media Entertainment Complex. Your platform. Trading commissions. ECN fees. Market manipulation. That fun but crazy European girl you are seeing.

Competing is not wallowing in a corner obsessing over your stupidity.

Competing means starting to do the little things that will help you improve. Use that anger as fuel to do the work that will make you better. It’s called being a pro trader.