Focusing on Trading Solutions

* How can I trade with discipline?

* How can I find the right places to enter trades?

* How can I manage risk better?

* How can I trade with confidence?

* How can I stick with my winning trades?

* How can I best prepare for the trading day?

* How can I decide the best stocks to be trading?

* How can I decide when I shouldn't be trading?

These are among the most common questions I receive from traders who read the blog. They're good questions, but they're the wrong questions from a solution-focused perspective.

Let's turn those problem-focused questions into solution-focused ones:

* When have I been trading with good discipline? What do I do differently at those times?

* When have I executed trades well? What helped me find good prices for my entries?

* When have I done a good job managing the risk of a particular trade or a particular trading day? What did I draw upon to implement good risk management?

* When have I traded with better confidence? What did I do at those times that helped give me stronger conviction in my trades and my trading?

* When have I stuck with my winning trades a little longer than usual? What went through my mind at those times that allowed me to milk the trade?

* When have I done a good job of preparing for the day's trading? What, specifically, did I do to be (and feel) well-prepared?

* When have I been successful with my stock-picking? What did I look for to tell me which names would provide me with the greatest opportunity?

* When have I done a good job of stepping back from the screen and from trading? What helped me make the decision to slow down or stop my trading?

The solution-focused perspective tells us that there are always times when we *don't* fall into our problem patterns. The key to success is to figure out what we're doing when we enact exceptions to our problems.

Too often, we focus on what we do wrong and never recognize when we do things right. The goal of coaching is not to do less of the wrong things; it's to become more consistent in engaging in the right behaviors.

From a solution-focused vantage point, the answers we seek are within our own experience. That is why seeking answers from a coach is often the wrong approach. At best you'll develop confidence in your coach, not yourself.

AT TIMES, YOU *ARE* THE TRADER YOU WANT TO BECOME. THE KEY TO YOUR DEVELOPMENT IS TO CAPTURE THOSE TIMES AND DO MORE OF THE THINGS THAT DEFINE THE BEST WITHIN YOU.

For more on the solution-focused approach, check out this post and its links.
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