An experienced trader, GM, emailed me late last night as the Yankees were getting pounded again by the Angels. GM had some very kind words for my previous blog post, which I appreciated and made the latest Yankees loss more palatable. In return I would like to spend some of this Saturday AM offering some guidance on his recent struggles. They should not continue.

Sometimes, just like GM, I feel that I just can’t make money. And when you are getting beaten up consistently it’s human nature to viscerally conclude that the market is just too hard for you. But a good trader does not succumb to this human initial reaction. A good trader assumes the mentality that there is always an escape. There is a wonderful new movie, Red Belt, written by one of our great playwrights, David Mamet. The protagonist, Mike Terry, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, is a mixed-martial arts instructor and the film opens with Mike teaching his best student. This student is in a choke-hold that he cannot escape. And Mike is preaching, “There is always an escape. There is no situation you could not escape from. You know the escape.” There is always an adjustment that I can make to improve my trading results for a stock. I watch my trading videos to discover what I was doing wrong, my escape. Almost always I lose money because of my own human error. I fix my errors and move forward. When I do my trading results immediately improve.

But to improve your results you must review your work and eliminate your mistakes. This experienced trader has conquered the market the past five years. What percent of traders do you think are capable of making that statement? This is undoubtedly enough data to conclude that GM is a very good trader. GM, sit down and identify your mistakes, eliminate them, and you will go right back to making money. You do not slip from trading successfully for five years consecutively to being unable to trade profitably anymore. That is unless you get in your own way. But your skills are there. Now it’s time for you to compete.

I talk about this a lot to our new traders on our desk. Compete! But you don’t compete by just saying, “I really want to see better results.” You compete by taking the actions necessary to make your trading more profitable. The reason you are losing money is not because you’re a lousy trader. That is not supported by the past five years of trading data. You are struggling because you are making human errors. Your present data is not relevant because it is blanketed with uncommon trading errors. Eliminate these mistakes and your results will mirror your previous years. Make a list of the trades that work best for you. Visualize making successful trades. And then make One Good Trade and then One Good Trade and then One Good Trade.

All good traders have had thoughts that this is the end. That I am never going to make money again. That this market is just too hard. I have sent these very emails. And those thoughts are all human. We are not Buddhist monks, so these counterproductive thoughts occur. But the good trader moves forward. The good trader finds an escape. The good trader through positive self-talk reminds himself of his past successes. The good trader competes.

Best of luck with your trading GM!