I’m not talking time-frames or markets. I’m referring to something else. Are you the type of trader who will focus on what is needed to improve and actually do something about it?

 

Or, are you the type of trader who recognizes the problem but continues to do the same things anyway?

 

Are you like Glenn? He’s devoted significant time and energy studying markets and developing a plan. At the beginning of each day Glenn has nothing but the best intentions. He’s even practiced some visualization and recites positive affirmations. He’s even taken a course in NLP.

 

But just about every day, often pretty early in the day, Glenn ends up doing something else. He watches the market move without him, he struggles to control himself but ends up getting into yet another impulse trade. On some days he decides to hold on to this impulse trade hoping that it will work out. And those days are very draining. Occasionally it does work out, which just ends up reinforcing the bad behavior. All it takes is just one or two impulse trades to turn profitable and a bad habit is set.

 

On other days Glenn eventually bails out of the impulse trade and becomes even more frustrated after taking a hit to his trading capital, not to mention a major hit to his psychological capital. His frustration then acts as fuel and he either gets himself into another bad trade or he just throws in the towel for the day. And, in the evening on these days, which are very common for Glenn, it’s almost as if he forgets what he did earlier in the day. After the market he again spends all of his time looking at charts, reading trading forums, etc,  for the answer. By the end of the evening he begins to feel a tiny bit better, he’s made promises to himself to not put on an impulse trade tomorrow.

 

Glenn pulls out a blank piece of paper and takes a red marker and writes in all capital letters, BE  PATIENT! He tapes this paper next to his monitor. He then recites a few affirmations and he starts to feel even better.

 

Glenn gets up the next morning and feels as though it’s going to be a new day. ‘Fresh start’, he tells himself.

 

He sits down in front of the computer and the same exact thing happens.

 

Deep down inside, Glen knows that the solution to his impulse trades is probably not in the charts. It’s probably not in the affirmations and it’s not going to come from that large note taped to his monitor.

 

What kind of trader is Glenn?  What kind of trader are you?

 

If you are interested in accelerating your development as a trader, consider my Advanced Course, designed to address the problems that all traders face. It is ‘heavy duty’ trading psychology with a lot of actionable steps to improve your performance. It’s for  traders who are serious about improving. And if you haven’t already, sign up for my free email newsletter that gives you professional trading psychology tips.