I was flicking through an old trading journal of mine the other day.
It’s a bit tattered around the edges but when I look at them now, I can see that those pages contain absolute pearls of wisdom.
At the time, I was still desperately trying to figure things out.
I’d been reading all the classic trading books and this was my attempt to distil their essential advice into easy-reference checklists.
You know, the kind of thing you might cast you eye over every morning as you try to burn good trading habits into your brain!
Here’s a good one I’d scribbled down:
Observe yourself. Start taking note of what you think, say, and do. Becoming consistent is psychological in nature. Pay attention to your mental processes.
Words of wisdom, right?
But here’s the journal entry I really wanted to share with you today… it’s from when I first read Trading in the Zone by the great Mark Douglas.
It’s a checklist of ‘building blocks’ you need to have in place in order to create an unwavering belief in your ability to make money.
Because, trust me, until you have total belief in what you’re doing you’ll find it very hard to trade with the kind of strict discipline you need to make money.
Have a look. See how many of these items you can tick off:
7 steps to winning the mental game of trading
(1) I can objectively identify my profitable edge
(2) I predefine the risk of every trade before pulling the trigger
(3) I accept the risk, or I’m prepared to let the trade pass by
(4) I act on positive signals without hesitation
(5) I pay myself as the market makes money available
(6) I monitor my susceptibility for making errors
(7) I accept the absolute necessity of these principles and never violate them
So be honest with yourself. And if you can say – without any sheepish glances to the floor – that you have all this stuff in place already, then that’s great, you have the foundations of a great trader’s mind and making money should come easily for you.
But if not, if there was even a glimmer of doubt, then don’t worry, because it’s all stuff you can learn and adopt very easily.
When you join me in my 4DFX Trading programme, that is.
Where I’ll be doing all the heavy lifting of finding trades with a profitable edge, leaving you to focus on building an impregnable ‘mental fortress’ so tough it repels all bad trading habits whilst only opening the drawbridge to consistent profits.
(Again, with my help, of course!)
The programme is almost ready. I’ve even included a special ‘starter setting’ for you. This will set you off on the right path to consistent profits even if you’ve never pulled the trigger on a trade before.
Watch this space. More news coming very soon…
