{"id":18268,"date":"2012-04-04T15:27:47","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T19:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=18268"},"modified":"2013-03-15T15:05:15","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T19:05:15","slug":"five-suggestions-for-traders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/five-suggestions-for-traders","title":{"rendered":"Five Suggestions for Traders"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was in my office today working on my next book The PlayBook<\/em> when I got pinged with this from the trading community:<\/p>\n

Mike, \u00a0what do you do when you’re a practicing trader, working, saving, and studying to begin trading live, and you feel your motivation begin to peter out. You have this goal but the road there seems like it will out last you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It reminded me of how I needed to talk to one of our better traders about these comments in his monthly review:<\/p>\n

Last 1 & 1\/2 weeks production started to drop off: lacked energy, admittedly start to dog it on my overnight preparation, didn\u2019t research and attack health care sector plays as voraciously as I could (i usually do a lot of work on sector plays: solar, social media, nat gas, coal to name a few), didn\u2019t want to get out of my comfort zone to trade high beta\u2019s and thin momo stocks, didn\u2019t respect loss as much and would load up on random plays on a whim (taking shots).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Traders are often wired to grab on too tightly. They are wildly ambitious. Some even irresponsibly driven. Failure is not something they can tolerate. If they could they might not have ever tried this silly sport of trading, with more potential rejection than a NYC bar. The traders above strike me as holding on too tightly.<\/p>\n

I see this with GMan at times. I saw this with Dr. Momentum from One Good Trade<\/em>. I see this with that developing trader from our desk above.<\/p>\n

What is progress? What is failure for the new and developing trader? Is it a month where you did not exceed last month’s P&L? Not necessarily. Is it not making money in your first six months of trading? Maybe not. Framing your progress incorrectly breeds unnecessary stress and regret.<\/p>\n

Everyday that you trade you get better. Everyday where you gain screen time you improve as a trader.\u00a0 Often when reading the new regrets of a developing trader I think of that great Dave Matthews line, “Where are you going?”<\/p>\n

I have found five suggestions to be very helpful to me as a trader, which relate to the comments from the developing traders above and their inability to sustain their energy.<\/p>\n

1) Make sure you take some time off.<\/p>\n

2) Do things outside of work so that you do not value yourself from your trading. Trading is the game we play. It is not who we are.<\/p>\n

3) Be grateful for the privilege of trading. It really is so cool that we get to do this for a living. Be thankful for this opportunity, no matter how short or long.<\/p>\n

4) Stop judging your trading by your P&L. For example that trader on our desk had a better month than the prior though he did not make more money. He worked on his sizing. There was less opportunity this month than the prior so comparable results are an improvement. He gained another month of experience.<\/p>\n

5) It is okay to fail. How is Oprah doing with OWN? Remember that Michael\u00a0Jordan\u00a0commercial about all his failures before triumph. Oh man if you only knew how many stupid mistakes I make every week as a trader. Failure is a blessing to learn.<\/p>\n

They say an artist is the only one who can truly judge his work. You know what you need to work on as a trader? Are you doing it? If so, then isn’t that so much more important than your P&L? And if you are doing all you can then why are you so concerned about your results?<\/p>\n

Bella<\/p>\n

One Good Trade<\/a><\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was in my office today working on my next book The PlayBook when I got pinged with this from the trading community: Mike, \u00a0what do you do when you’re a practicing trader, working, saving, and studying to begin trading live, and you feel your motivation begin to peter out. You have this goal but the road there seems like … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[162,29,50,1828,1193,653,38,1996,1354,1349],"class_list":["post-18268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mike-bellafiore-bellas-blogs","tag-day-trading-blog","tag-prop-trader","tag-proprietary-trading","tag-smbu","tag-trader-education","tag-trader-training","tag-trading","tag-trading-class","tag-trading-coach","tag-trading-mentor","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\nFive Suggestions for Traders | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/five-suggestions-for-traders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Suggestions for Traders | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was in my office today working on my next book The PlayBook when I got pinged with this from the trading community: Mike, \u00a0what do you do when you’re a practicing trader, working, saving, and studying to begin trading live, and you feel your motivation begin to peter out. 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