I was on the subway after work yesterday and a tweet from @gtotoy caught my attention. It was a friendly reminder that we all need from time to time to not simply use our review process to focus on our flaws and what did not go as planned. It is just as important, no actually more important to recognize that which you have accomplished and are doing well.

In trading we see our greatest improvements when we identify our best setups and learn to trade them more often and with a greater amount of risk. This happens after we have achieved a baseline level of skill that is necessary to trade profitably. So certainly when we are training newb traders we point out mistakes that need to be eliminated but we do not harp on them. That would not be energy well spent.

When Bella developed the concept of the “Playbook Trade” a few years ago it rested on the foundation that we wanted our traders to be bigger taking on more risk on what they did well. On the patterns that make the most sense to them. Too much energy is often spent by developing traders hopping from setup to setup each time they face a minor setback. But if there is a process in place for them to imprint their favorite setups we have a better chance of them identifying and exploiting those trades the next time they occur.

Too learn more about this process check out Bella’s book “The Playbook” on Amazon or click on the banner below to receive some free training videos from SMB’s DNA Mentoring Program.

Steven Spencer is the co-founder of SMB Capital and SMB University which provides trading education in stocks, and options. He has traded professionally for 17 years. His email address is: [email protected].