At the end of the day or week (depending on your frequency of trading), identify your best trade and your worst trade. Then dissect each one:
* How did you prepare personally during the time leading up to your best trade? Your worst trade? What was your state of mind? Your physical state?
* How did you research the idea that went into your best trade? Your worst trade? What information did you rely upon? What information did you disregard? What was your edge going into the trade?
* How did you enter and size your best trade? Your worst trade? How did you manage the position while it was on? What information did you process and rely upon during the trade to add to the position, scale out, or stay in the position?
* What was your state of mind while the trade was on? What were you doing during the life of the trade?
* How did you exit your best trade? Your worst trade? What information did you process to aid the exit?
Your best trades are your role models. By reviewing your best trades, you ground yourself in your best practices. If you are mindful of your best practices--if you know how you make money--you're more likely to be consistent in drawing upon those best practices.
Your worst trades are role models also, but in a reverse way. By reviewing your worst trades, you become mindful of the mistakes you make and the patterns of your poor trading. It is much easier to interrupt our negative patterns if we're aware of them in the first place.
How would your profitability look if you could just eliminate one bad, losing trade and replace it with one good losing trade each week? I suspect it would be a meaningful difference.
The successful role models you need to study are not gurus. You at your best are the best role model you can have. You can be your best trading coach.
Further Reading: Best Practices of Best Traders
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