{"id":1583,"date":"2009-07-27T17:48:42","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T22:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2023-08-01T17:28:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T21:28:57","slug":"a-bad-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/a-bad-day","title":{"rendered":"A Bad Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

So this young woman for the first time in her eight-day-old trading career posted a negative\u00a0result. 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\u2014trading\u2014is 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.<\/p>\n

Michael Jordan, in a recent commercial, said “I\u2019ve missed more then nine thousand shots in my career; I\u2019ve lost almost three hundred games, twenty six times; I\u2019ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed; I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0under-perform\u00a0and then adjust to that reality.<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0Even 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.<\/p>\n

You can be better tomorrow than you are today!<\/p>\n

Mike Bellafiore<\/p>\n

One Good Trade<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The PlayBook<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No relevant positions Twitter!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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?). 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