2016, a year in review

2016 has come to an end. It’s time to review the results, and the processes.

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How to reach the next step in your trading

I’ve wrote this in a private forum. The discussion was about traders who have been studying for years but are stuck running in circles. It kind of pissed me off so i decided to be brutal.

My first year

I funded my first live account one year ago, knowing i wasn’t ready yet. Let’s review what happened since then, where i’m at now and what the next step is.

Random Trading Observations

I realize i haven’t posted in here in months. Many things happened since the last post. Please find below random observations, thoughts i’ve had since then.

• I went on a ski trip in February. I was on a roll before. Spotted setups on my phone during the trip but abstained from trading them. What i wasn’t prepared for was the comeback. It took me weeks to get back in the game. Barely. I couldn’t read the market at all, and thus was frustrated for not taking advantage of opportunities when they were there. I know i shouldn’t be that emotional to missed opportunities and that it shows my youth in the game. I may be lying to myself but i think all accomplished traders went through that stage at one point in their development. It probably takes more time when you’re on your own at home than when you’re in a bank, hedge fund, prop firm, with experienced people to coach you. In any case, we’re in june now, and I haven’t reached that level of synchronicity with the market since then.
• If there’s one thing i learnt, is that the trader is the edge, not the strategy. The more i know about the market doesn’t implicate more money in my account. It’s not the opposite either, obviously, but the correlation is very low. Of course having more knowledge (market structure, time and price, etc) helps, but it such a ridiculous part of what’s necessary. It’s not even close to having control over yourself. And don’t forget money management either.

My trading diary

There are two types of trading journals: those that help you keep track of your stats – I use and recommend Edgewonk – and those that are more personal, like a diary. That’s the type i want to talk about today.

Second entry in the Trading Journal

The latest entry in my Trading Journal with a particular thing noticed that i must focus on.