Question:
What do traders do for the rest of the day after they have been stopped out especially when it happens early in the day?
Answer:
Thank you for the excellent question.
You trade on the demo. You make details notes in your trading journal about the set ups that ended as losers. You talk to others on the desk about your trades. You talk to your mentor. You find levels which you can use for the next trading session. You watch video of your trades. You participate in an SMB Tradecast where as a group we watch trading together. You search for set ups on the demo that you can make your own.
Your goal is to improve everyday. If you get stopped out early there is still so much you can do to improve. There is nothing you can do to improve your P$L for that day. But you can work on your game. Build your trading skills. Get better. If you do that then you can turn a ripper P$L day into a very good day of progress.
What do you do after you are stopped out for the day?
Mike Bellafiore,
Author. One Good Trade (Wiley Trading)
2 Comments on “Traders Ask- Now What?”
If I get stopped out for the day, first thing I do is beat the living crap out of the guy beside me :). Jokes aside, here is what I typically do:
1) Write on my trading journal.
2) Go through my trades and look for where my biggest losers/winners came from.
3) Review my biggest losing trades, review how or if I did prepare for them, what was my plan for them, how I executed them, determine what mistakes I made or what could be improved
4) Review my winning trades, review my preparation, planning, and execution of these trades, and determine my mistakes and areas of improvement
5) Visualization exercise – visualize myself not making the mistakes I made; visualize myself repeating the things I did right to reinforce good processes/routines
6) Engage in some type of activity that helps me relax physically and/or psychologically. For me it’s jogging. I jog to clear my mind, relax, and refresh. From my personal experience, I’ve found that being mentally prepared and being in the right state of mind is very important in sustaining focus and objectivity during trading.
Hope that helps!
Very nice Dax!