Bad Assed Trader: So it's the start of a New Year. What's my resolution for 2012? I pondered over this and decided on a pragmatic goal and it's one I've already made considerable progress on. This is because it's something I like doing, that fits with my personality and interests and is fairly easy for me to achieve.
Whoever said life had to be hard?
My resolution is to bring more structure and balance into my daily routine. The Faceless Bureaucrat that still lurks within me asks "How will you know when you've got there?" whenever Bad Assed Trader sets a goal. So I started my resolution by setting myself a daily routine for each different day of the week which includes the balance and structure I want to achieve.
I've typed it all up and now have a little checklist for each day (yup, the Faceless Bureaucrat lives on...) so that I can tick when I have successfully followed my plan of balance and structure. It's a default plan and it's ok for me to deviate in exceptional circumstances and I know what those are. I like this sort of check list so I know I'll be well motivated to follow it and as I started it on Jan 2 and have pretty much followed it to the hour already I'm fairly confident it'll be a success.
For example, today (Sunday) is a relatively restful day and had 2 hours of historic trading analysis in the morning (when everyone else in the house is asleep) and 2 hours of future trade planning in the evening. Apart from half an hour of "mind training" (more on that shortly) the rest of the day is earmarked for "family time" - which means time with my darling daughter and/or time with my fabulous husband or just time with me: reading or whatever.
An example of a more full-on work day would be Thursdays. The routine starts at 6.30am. There's 30 minutes of this mysterious mind training (isn't the anticipation building up on this now....?) then two hours current trading analysis (includes actually placing trades), an hour of reading of trading books followed by an hour and a half of historic trading analysis. Lunch at 12 for 30 minutes followed by an hour of current trading analysis and 30 minutes catching up on emails and then I'm off to the gym and relax for 2.5 hours. Another hour of current trading analysis on my return and then family time from 5.30pm.
By planning out my daily routine I get to set my own agenda and make sure I'm covering the areas I want to. I felt I was spending too much time looking at the current charts and not enough time stepping back and analysing my previous trades to see what I was doing well/not well. I also wanted to factor time in to read some of the many trading books I have now got after circulating my wish list to my family before Christmas.
I've been working my way through Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques which is an amazing and fascinating book my step daughters kindly gave me for Christmas. They also gave me New Market Wizards which has been a rather lighter read for me when I've had a spare minute.
My Dad gave me Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom and The Psychology of Trading. This second book is by Brett N Steenbarger who also wrote The Daily Trading Coach which is an absolutely excellent book and I can't recommend it enough.
My sister gave me Animal Spirits and Fooled by Randomness which were both recommended to me by traders at the centre where I've trained to be a trader.
So plenty of reading to get through.
But what about this "mind training" business??!
Well this is really part of my resolution, to develop better focus and concentration.
Bear in mind I have a degree in Applied Psychology and have recently qualified with a diploma in Executive Coaching and then you won't be so surprised to learn that I have an interest in training the subconscious mind to support my trading development.
I did a bit of research on the internet and came up with four tools which I am using, coupled with my own meditation routine which I've recorded on my iPhone and lasts nearly 20 minutes.
And just to build the suspension even further I'm going to love you and leave you now and cover the Mind Training in my next blog. By then I should be able to give you more feed back about the impact the various tools are having on my Bad Assed Faceless Bureaucrat Brain.
Whoever said life had to be hard?
My resolution is to bring more structure and balance into my daily routine. The Faceless Bureaucrat that still lurks within me asks "How will you know when you've got there?" whenever Bad Assed Trader sets a goal. So I started my resolution by setting myself a daily routine for each different day of the week which includes the balance and structure I want to achieve.
I've typed it all up and now have a little checklist for each day (yup, the Faceless Bureaucrat lives on...) so that I can tick when I have successfully followed my plan of balance and structure. It's a default plan and it's ok for me to deviate in exceptional circumstances and I know what those are. I like this sort of check list so I know I'll be well motivated to follow it and as I started it on Jan 2 and have pretty much followed it to the hour already I'm fairly confident it'll be a success.
For example, today (Sunday) is a relatively restful day and had 2 hours of historic trading analysis in the morning (when everyone else in the house is asleep) and 2 hours of future trade planning in the evening. Apart from half an hour of "mind training" (more on that shortly) the rest of the day is earmarked for "family time" - which means time with my darling daughter and/or time with my fabulous husband or just time with me: reading or whatever.
An example of a more full-on work day would be Thursdays. The routine starts at 6.30am. There's 30 minutes of this mysterious mind training (isn't the anticipation building up on this now....?) then two hours current trading analysis (includes actually placing trades), an hour of reading of trading books followed by an hour and a half of historic trading analysis. Lunch at 12 for 30 minutes followed by an hour of current trading analysis and 30 minutes catching up on emails and then I'm off to the gym and relax for 2.5 hours. Another hour of current trading analysis on my return and then family time from 5.30pm.
By planning out my daily routine I get to set my own agenda and make sure I'm covering the areas I want to. I felt I was spending too much time looking at the current charts and not enough time stepping back and analysing my previous trades to see what I was doing well/not well. I also wanted to factor time in to read some of the many trading books I have now got after circulating my wish list to my family before Christmas.
I've been working my way through Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques which is an amazing and fascinating book my step daughters kindly gave me for Christmas. They also gave me New Market Wizards which has been a rather lighter read for me when I've had a spare minute.
My Dad gave me Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom and The Psychology of Trading. This second book is by Brett N Steenbarger who also wrote The Daily Trading Coach which is an absolutely excellent book and I can't recommend it enough.
My sister gave me Animal Spirits and Fooled by Randomness which were both recommended to me by traders at the centre where I've trained to be a trader.
So plenty of reading to get through.
But what about this "mind training" business??!
Well this is really part of my resolution, to develop better focus and concentration.
Bear in mind I have a degree in Applied Psychology and have recently qualified with a diploma in Executive Coaching and then you won't be so surprised to learn that I have an interest in training the subconscious mind to support my trading development.
I did a bit of research on the internet and came up with four tools which I am using, coupled with my own meditation routine which I've recorded on my iPhone and lasts nearly 20 minutes.
And just to build the suspension even further I'm going to love you and leave you now and cover the Mind Training in my next blog. By then I should be able to give you more feed back about the impact the various tools are having on my Bad Assed Faceless Bureaucrat Brain.
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| Shaping up the Brain for 2012 Trading... |
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