{"id":40674,"date":"2015-04-26T19:28:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T23:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=40674"},"modified":"2021-05-06T16:44:35","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T20:44:35","slug":"the-education-of-a-trader-the-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/the-education-of-a-trader-the-playbook","title":{"rendered":"The education of a trader: The PlayBook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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mikebellafiore<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

In my second book, The PlayBook<\/i>, I advocate archiving a favorite setup from each trading session. After each close, choose a best setup from the session that fits your trading style. \u00a0Reverse engineer the variables of that trade. \u00a0Archive this trade in a comprehensive format, perhaps like the SMB PlayBook. \u00a0As traders we should build from our strengths, doing more or what works for us and doing it bigger, with more trading capital.<\/p>\n

The first step is understanding what we do well. \u00a0Study of our favorite setups after market hours and creating a system to do this is a best practice to improve performance.<\/p>\n

This month $ETSY and $GDDY technical trades in IPOs were some of my best and I will archive and review them. \u00a0$AMZN and $FB offered opportunity after earnings as well as technical swing trades.<\/p>\n

While I was writing The PlayBook,<\/i> I met with legendary trader Linda Raschke in her Chicago office after the close. \u00a0While describing the book, she immediately interjected,\u00a0\u201cYou have to include an example of a losing trade.\u201d \u00a0A losing trade that was also a good trade. \u00a0So there is a chapter centering around a character Prep, and a losing but excellent risk\/reward trade as a result of this advice.<\/p>\n

We log losing setups if they are trades that make the most sense to us and still excellent risk\/reward setups. \u00a0For example, this month I made a losing 5k trade in $VLTC that was an excellent trade and we will archive. \u00a0(expansive video to come soon on this $VLTC trade)<\/p>\n

At the time I tweeted this about that $VLTC trade:
\n\"vltctweet\"<\/p>\n

My sense is that the questioner is asking a very different query. \u00a0It seems he is asking: Should we study our bad trades? \u00a0No. We do not spend time reviewing our poor trades, ones that were just mistakes or poor risk\/reward trades. \u00a0We discard them. \u00a0Again, we build from our strengths.<\/p>\n

In the video below, I answer this question in more detail. \u00a0I hope it offers some ideas to help you improve your investing\/trading.<\/p>\n

*no relevant positions<\/p>\n