So I wrote a post yesterday about a memorable rip I took for my lack of focus. I appreciate the posts by our readers which demonstrated that some good came out of my rip, a lesson shared. I was thinking of titling this post, “And then the Sun Came Up”, but as I tweeted today it has rained everyday in NYC for the past two weeks and this is to continue for another 9 days (by the way my friends on Twitter have shared that it has not rained in Seattle in 30 days). So I changed my title. But I would like to discuss my approach after a rip like yesterday.
OK so you take a huge rip. You confidence is naturally shaken. Mine was. And again let’s remember I have traded my own account professionally for over a decade. This is not a sign of weakness. In fact I have found a loss of confidence to be beneficial. I have thoughts that maybe I don’t know what I am doing. And this is all positive. Let me explain.
Mike how could it be helpful for a professional trader to doubt his ability? Answer: because it makes me a better trader. Perhaps I should not be motivated by fear, but I am. I will let others much smarter than me concerning psychology dissect why this is. But the fear that this may be the end of my career, that maybe I do not know what I am doing, that maybe I will have to resign and start practicing law (talk about motivation to start trading better), actually helps me.
I start to think about all the things I need to do better. I dissect my weaknesses. And then I get rid of them. I now have a plan to ensure that I will be focused before every open. I will not deviate from this plan.
And I slow down my game. Great athletes talk about being in the zone. When they are the game appears slow to them. Baseball hitters talk about the ball looking like a softball. For a basketball player the rim looks like an ocean. As traders after a rip, or after we struggle, we should slow down our game.
How? For me this entails, limiting my trading to only my best setups. Today I stuck with held bids for stocks in an uptrend. Presently I am long CCL as an example from 25. I first started a long position at 24 when 23.99 held the bid impressively, while the market was exceptionally weak. This play is one of my best intraday trades.
Next I chose a stock that is easy for me to trade. I have traded CCL well in the past. Before the open I confirmed this with Alexander, who sits to my right.
Bella: Alexander I trade this CCL well right. Didn’t I chop this up last time?
Alexander: I don’t know about you Bella. I know I did.
Thanks Alexander. Always ready to help me out. When JToma went on CNBC for the first time Alexander exclaimed, “Jeff has a face for radio.” As we say on our desk, there is no Alex in team.
I lowered the stakes for my trading on the open. Normally I trade with 1000 share lots. This open I traded with 700 shares. This is another way to make your game slower, lower your tier size.
I restricted my trading to mainly the open since this is my most profitable trading period. Again I slowed down my game by trading during my best time period.
As traders we can slow down our game. We can wait for our favorite pitch, for me a held bid in an uptrend. We can even pick the pitcher, for me it is trading CCL. Mark Texteria of the Yankees cannot hit in May. So as a trader I can just save my ABs for the middle of the summer, or with my trading just the open. And I do not have to bat with runners on base, with two outs in the ninth, and behind in the game. I can lower my tier size and make my trades less meaningful.
For those who are struggling think about slowing down your game. This will help you get back to the trader you ought to be.
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7 Comments on “Slowing Down Your Game”
Very helpful to hear you share these thoughts, as well as your experience from yesterday. I could hear and understand all the frustration you were experiencing yesterday as I listened on the training call. I recognized it as the type of experience that led me to train with SMB: so that I don’t put myself in those situations ever again. I knew you were gonna be more pissed at yourself for your actions than your rip amount. I just kept thinking, “No, he’s not…oh no…he is.” Very valuable for a developing trader like me to see that this can happen even to the best traders. But more valuable is to see how you deal with it. Thanks for continuing to be a great teacher and sharing your knowledge and experiences (good AND bad) with all of us.
Very helpful to hear you share these thoughts, as well as your experience from yesterday. I could hear and understand all the frustration you were experiencing yesterday as I listened on the training call. I recognized it as the type of experience that led me to train with SMB: so that I don’t put myself in those situations ever again. I knew you were gonna be more pissed at yourself for your actions than your rip amount. I just kept thinking, “No, he’s not…oh no…he is.” Very valuable for a developing trader like me to see that this can happen even to the best traders. But more valuable is to see how you deal with it. Thanks for continuing to be a great teacher and sharing your knowledge and experiences (good AND bad) with all of us.
Very helpful to hear you share these thoughts, as well as your experience from yesterday. I could hear and understand all the frustration you were experiencing yesterday as I listened on the training call. I recognized it as the type of experience that led me to train with SMB: so that I don’t put myself in those situations ever again. I knew you were gonna be more pissed at yourself for your actions than your rip amount. I just kept thinking, “No, he’s not…oh no…he is.” Very valuable for a developing trader like me to see that this can happen even to the best traders. But more valuable is to see how you deal with it. Thanks for continuing to be a great teacher and sharing your knowledge and experiences (good AND bad) with all of us.
Bob,
One of the most rewarding things about trading is its naked honesty. No matter how much experience, no matter how many markets, no matter how successful you have been in the past, if you violate a market rule then you will pay a heavy tariff. All mistakes are correctable. We all make them. You just have to be aware of the mistakes, be willing to work on fixing them, and then eliminate them.
And I will make more. But where I do I will quickly correct them.
Thxs for reading. I hope you enjoy training with us and listening to our audio feed. We try and make things educational and entertaining.
Bella
Bob,
One of the most rewarding things about trading is its naked honesty. No matter how much experience, no matter how many markets, no matter how successful you have been in the past, if you violate a market rule then you will pay a heavy tariff. All mistakes are correctable. We all make them. You just have to be aware of the mistakes, be willing to work on fixing them, and then eliminate them.
And I will make more. But where I do I will quickly correct them.
Thxs for reading. I hope you enjoy training with us and listening to our audio feed. We try and make things educational and entertaining.
Bella
I want to ask you a question. But before i ask you that, i want to tell you something.
I had a similary day where i took a huge rip. I f**ked up fifteen times in a row. After that i was so depressive, i could’t sleep. I lost my self-confidence. The difference between me and you was, that i hadn’t so much experience like you. Things come to my mind like “i will never master the markets”. After i analyze all my trades, I came to the conclusion that i will only trade my best set-ups.
So my question is: why we can’t stick with the rule only to trade our best set-ups ???
If we always trade our best set-ups than it is almost impossible to get a huge rip. I know that we are human beings and that we will make mistakes. But to got a huge rip you made a lots of mistakes and didn’t trade your best set-ups!!!
I dont know the answer. Perhaps Dr.Steenbarger can help us 🙂
My personal theory: We have this unconscious instinct or drive always to change things. Without this drive we would’t have this technological development. Boredom is a human killer 😉
I want to ask you a question. But before i ask you that, i want to tell you something.
I had a similary day where i took a huge rip. I f**ked up fifteen times in a row. After that i was so depressive, i could’t sleep. I lost my self-confidence. The difference between me and you was, that i hadn’t so much experience like you. Things come to my mind like “i will never master the markets”. After i analyze all my trades, I came to the conclusion that i will only trade my best set-ups.
So my question is: why we can’t stick with the rule only to trade our best set-ups ???
If we always trade our best set-ups than it is almost impossible to get a huge rip. I know that we are human beings and that we will make mistakes. But to got a huge rip you made a lots of mistakes and didn’t trade your best set-ups!!!
I dont know the answer. Perhaps Dr.Steenbarger can help us 🙂
My personal theory: We have this unconscious instinct or drive always to change things. Without this drive we would’t have this technological development. Boredom is a human killer 😉