Here’s a very helpful tip about your system and sticking to it.
I’m amazed all the time at how people will tell me that they are having such a time sticking to their system.
Or having tremendous difficulty dealing with their emotions
Constantly fighting the urge to second-guess the rules and do something else
Or just plain having a decent enough level of confidence in their system that they can find a little relief from the nervousness and anxiety
But when I ask them if they ever practice their system outside of live trading, they seem surprised
That thought never occurred to them.
Now trading is a performance activity
Similar in some ways to golf
But you wouldn’t expect to be a competition golfer without going to the range regularly, now would you?
Or hitting the putting green, just to practice
Or playing a par-3, just to focus on your short game
If you never practiced outside tournaments, you’d likely be a nervous wreck
You certainly wouldn’t be able to expect to bring your A-game every time, if at all.
But the practice let’s you refine what you’re doing
It lets you build confidence in your strategy and yourself in your execution
One of my favorite things about the famous Nicolas Darvas was that he’d practice his system at every chance
I’m sure that contributed to his legendary success
So if you have NOT been practicing your system, maybe it would be worth considering.
And if you run into issues or questions with your system, feel free to send me an email
I’d be more than happy to help you out.
Cheers
Brian
P.S. Years ago, I discovered when coaching several traders through issues like hesitation and other ‘psychological’ challenges, that the problem was their system itself.
Because their systems had flaws, their subconscious would flare their emotions, trying to let them know.
Consciously they didn’t know how to recognize the functional problems with their system – they thought things were fine.
Cool thing is, when we fixed their system issues, their other problems went away on their own.
Their confidence shot up and their stress and anxiety went way down.
So if practicing doesn’t help or if the problems you’re experiencing now have been taking the fun and profit out of your trading for a while and with more than one system, then perhaps this little-known proven method of dealing with this problem might prove beneficial.
So many traders make the grand mistake of thinking that an idea for a system makes for a good ‘system’.
There tons of trading systems out there that are based on a good premise, but suck as systems go.
Fix your system and take care of the other problems at the same time.
