http://www.premiertraderuniversity.com/freeoptionsreversal -- Free Options Trading System
Whether you’ve just come back from vacation or you’re planning on going away soon, there’s one thing that should be on your mind and that’s “how will I manage to get back into the swing of things when I resume trading?” The number of times in the past where I’ve ended up having some pretty terrible days off the back of taking time off isn’t something I’m particularly proud of. But life and trading are there to teach us – and until we learn these lessons, they will be relived time and time again.
2. Whether you’ve just come back from
vacation or you’re planning on going
away soon, there’s one thing that
should be on your mind and that’s
“how will I manage to get back into
the swing of things when I resume
trading?”
3. The number of times in the past where
we've all ended up having some pretty
terrible days off the back of taking
time off isn’t something we are proud
of.
4. But life and trading are there to teach
us – and until we learn these lessons,
they will be relived time and time
again. So if you recognize that this has
ever caused even the slightest of
issues for you, you must decide on
what to do in order to mitigate risk of
it happening again in the future.
5. The problem is that so many important
aspects to trading are just not “sexy”.
6. If you’re anything like me I’m sure
after coming back from vacation
you’re champing at the bit to get
trading again. With all the distractions
it’s easy to overlook the work that
needs to be done and instead just start
trading.
7. But if you’re going to treat trading like
a business – and stay in the game for
the long haul – you’re going to need to
pay attention to these sorts of details.
8. Why do you think businesses do
performance reviews for example? Is it
because they like to extrapolate all of
the money they’re going make?
9. Or is it because important information
about relative performance
expectations, the state of their
business and market conditions can be
gleaned which may in turn help them
to address weaknesses and plan for
the future?
10. It’s probably not the sexy side of many
businesses but it’s also necessary.
11. There’s no doubt that everyone is
slightly different and so you must look
at what you’re particularly susceptible
to. Having said that, there are a few
areas of risk that I know I can fall foul
of and I’m sure many others will be in
the same boat.
12. The first area I know that traders will
naturally suffer from is diminished
contextual awareness. That is to say
what is the current technical condition
of the market, what fundamental
events have taken place and what is
the overall mood of the market?
13. Next I would put my routine and plan
following up there. Some are much
better than others at picking up where
they left off as far as how they
approach trading, but for me……
14. I’m at my best when I’m in an
unbroken string of days where I can
really get into the markets and build
up some momentum to my
performances.
15. Finally I’d say execution sharpness is
potentially going to be an issue
depending on how long you’ve been
away for. It really can be as simple as
this.
16. After you understand what the
potential issues can be, you need to be
careful and diligent as you work your
way back into things.
17. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t trade
or you should trade smaller. Although
this is an option, if you’re thorough in
the way you go about it there
shouldn’t really be any need for this.
18. What you definitely should be doing
though is going back a week or so
before you left and re-running your
charts bar by bar until the day you got
back – you can do this fairly quickly
and take notes on what you see.
19. Look at econ releases for those times
and check to see if there was any
major news and how the market
reacted.
20. This can help you to get back in synch
with the markets and how they are
trading. Then I find it useful just to re-
read my trading plan.
21. Simply reminding myself of what my
trading is about helps avoid taking
those “off the reservation” trades.
Taking special care in your preparation
and logging your trades can help show
you how effectively you’re executing
and following your plan.
22. As far as sharpness in execution goes
there are a few things which could
help. This could certainly be an
argument for going back to the idea of
trading smaller for a short period until
you’re confident you are up to speed.
23. Visualizing a number of different
scenarios and how the trade happens
from a mechanical perspective is
another useful exercise.
24. But also, being humble enough to
acknowledge the possibility of it being
a problem can make a big difference
on its own and help to focus the mind.
25. It only takes a few bad trades here and
there to really impact your bottom
line. But when you also consider that
these eminently avoidable errors can
be the spark that ignites a number of
other psychological issues, the
motivation to avoid them should be
strong.
26. And in fact the suggestions I’ve made
for doing so can be good advice in
general.
27. Making sure you’re doing things
properly and maintaining quality
control are always going to be
important although probably more so
than ever when you’ve just got back
from vacation.
28. Make sure when you come back from
vacation, you ready yourself for action
and you don’t leave your mind on the
beach!