December Trading Issues

So my usual trading issues flared up in December...

• trade avoidance
• a disinterest in trading
• and a little bit of self loathing, for not taking trades that I spotted

 However they all came from one cause, that being...

• not keeping  my current goal in mind.

recently

I recently completed my "strategic business plan", this is a 40 page long-term business plan aimed at creating trading success for myself. Essentially it defines shorter-term goals I need to achieve to get there. My coach Paul emphasises that it's important to ensure these shorter term goals are "relative" rather than "absolute", meaning goals should be relative to where you are currently rather than verging on a pipe dream. So the first relative goal on my journey has simply been to build my numbers up regardless of P/L. I wanted around 30 trades in the bank before I made any major decisions regarding my trade plan.

I got my trades to 26, froze and the trading issues mentioned above flared up. I thought I had fixed this but obviously had not. In the month of November I did well by simply waking each day thinking "all I've got to do is build my numbers up". December came and I got a bit lax/overconfident and just didn't wake with the same clear headedness or mental discipline and my numbers suffered. I doubt there is a cure for a fear based trader but I have proven, albeit for a short time that I can prevent my FBT tendencies sabotaging me if I keep my mind in the present.

going forward

The above is a simple yet important lesson, I've got to have a relative goal fixed in my mind at the beginning every working day to discourage fear based trading. As a fear based trader the thing I most need to battle is trade avoidance. Even after my first 30 trades are completed and I amend my trade plan a little the goal again will be to "build my numbers up".  

I created an anachronism: PPTMRR(R) - Prep. Plan. Trade. Manage. Record. Repeat. (Review) despite this probably being more accurate I don't know if it's as straight forward/ no-nonsense as saying "just build build your numbers up" every morning. Maybe a mix is better?

Just build your numbers up -  Prep, Plan, Trade / Manage , Record , Repeat