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Stream of income, small capital and lots of willpower
As I prepare to embark with you on this journey, let me share the dream before the draft. My trials may reflect your own, and I write so that you can share in the rewards of my labor. I am no longer a beginner, yet I begin again and again.
I struggled to make it in trading. I came with the wrong thought: I can do whatever I want now. I had to pay for that thought. Trading remained difficult,but it was such an immersive activity which generated a state of deep concentration that has brought so much real freedom. Silent moments of truth are the ultimate treasures - states of flow, experiences of The Zone.
Real Life intervenes. Marriage. First child. Second child. Career. But I persisted with trading. I sat down at my desk early each morning and faced the realities of trading head on.
What caused the real breakthrough, what changed me, however was not the holy grail of a method but this: trading all the time.
Create your own method. Make up something that will work for you! Keep breaking traditions, I beg you.
Before I really begin my journal (I created a new one so that the contest remains fair) @SoftSoap I must say I am truly impressed by your journal. You are on the verge of a long a successful career if you keep at it with this intensity!
So I really am starting small - @NinjaTrader brokerage account funded with $500 capital - hence the title.
As in so many things - Endurance to the end pays off. Thank you sharing and I wish you the best! I am at the very beginning of my journey and am looking forward to it.
I wanted to start the journal with a colorful page:
Today's trading was a tiny timeslice, but that sometimes is a good thing. Here is the day's summary:
A ranging market - guess we need to make do with what we are presented with. If you are patient then the entry becomes clear. Good trading is all about good habits backed by good sleep. Also, I always stay in the present moment, or more truthfully, I consciously try to!
I have come to believe that one must check in their ego at the door before entering the trading room. The I is what causes the most and lasting problems.
I start with observing correlations, allow my consciousness to focus and extract the meta information from the screen and finally move in with intuition - however my exit is more of a discipline thing than anything else. Exits are always the hardest and final thing to learn.
I need to work on using single lots and more staying power instead of firing multiple trades in quick succession:
If you've read 'The Mental Game of Poker' by Jared Tendler - I believe there is a 2nd edition out recently - then you may know about unconscious competence and learning as an 'inchworm'. The 10,000 hour screentime rule is what makes you a trader - all you need to do is last that long. Its hard. But totally worth it in the end.
I end with some happy things, staying happy and healthy is what allows successful trading:
I have added these pictures because I am loving journals framed by pictures popping up in the android notifications and am curious to see which of these pictures will appear against my journal. And each picture has been chosen carefully with the cliched but true adage of being worth a thousand words.
Be comfortable. Do whatever it takes to achieve that.
Good posture leads to automatic confidence - slouching or tense postures cause automatic losses.
Know your fear - your current or the most important fear - knowing your fear allows you to harness it for there is no greater power than this.
Let not the profit or loss define your day as successful.
Be inward aware and market aware. Let these gel into one stream which leads you in the fog.
Be honest and straightforward. That is the only way to prevent yourself from getting disgusted with yourself for trading is a naked thoughts game and hiding behind illusions is expensive.
And keep reminding yourself of the patience you have, will have and are having on continued basis. Patience is power.
Attend to physical needs. Hungry? Eat. Attend nature's calls without delays - difficult sometimes when it seems the market is about to move fast but then you must not care about the outcome of individual trades.
Thank you for the compliment, you mention journaling as the glue that combines the pillars of trading. If journaling is that important, then it should be taken very seriously!
The market is a place where you have little to zero control of what will happen. However journaling is a factor you can completely control!
These are amazing. I do some psych prep every morning but it's more of an aggressive coach approach. I love the calm tone yet blunt and gentle honesty. I'm going to add all of these to my routine if that's ok with you!
Yesterday's excellence is today's standard and tomorrow's mediocrity
