As our main goal as a trader is to "make money," in order to do that comes many other things that factor in to having an "edge" in the market.
In this post, I will breakdown 5 ways which could help improve your trading:
#1 Get a good full night sleep
As sleep plays a vital role in our lives for general well being, it also plays an important role in your trading performance. To get a good full night's sleep takes practice and consistency to train your "Internal Clock'' or also known as your "Circadian Rhythms."
Before we get into a few ways to help you achieve a better sleep, What are Circadian Rhythms?
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. Below is a figure that represents this.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rxG8WzQr65rCN9MQ7
There are many things that could throw off your "Circadian Rythym" which affects your quality of sleep and it doesn't take long to fall in a cycle of disruptions throughout the night. To take control of your sleep requires practice and consistency, it doesn't happen in one night.
Here are a few things which could help your quality of sleep:
Consistency on Bedtimes & Wake up times
Benefits of you implementing a specific wake up time will give you bring you sharper focus, a brighter mood and improved alertness. Having a regular sleep schedule helps with many different aspects like, emotional stability, productivity and concentration, digestion and regularity. By setting a regular routine you can increase the amount of sleep you get on a daily basis which on average you should strive for at least 7+ hours.
▪️Create a restful environment
In order to improve your quality of sleep you need to get comfortable. This could mean many things but it all starts with creating a restful environment. This begins by silencing noise. Turn off the power on the television or silence non-emergency notifications from your cell phone. Starting with these brings you to another way to create a restful environment which is dimming the lights. As a change in setting also creates comfort, it could mean absolutely anything that you may want. The goal is to fall asleep as quickly as possible.
▪️Avoid large meals or caffeine late night
While we all know this is bad, it's a very common pattern that people fall into which disrupts their sleep. Eating late at night causes muscles to work to digest which affects the ability to fall asleep. Caffeine also delays your ability to sleep due to keeping you alert. Eliminating these 2 things could make your sleep that much better.
# 2 Journaling
The importance of Journaling is not only to keep a track of your wins or losses, but to map out your emotions that got you to that result. What caused you to enter a trade just to see a reverse and your stop loss hit? Did you panic over FOMO? Did you take a loss on the last trade and you were so sure the price was about to break out of the channel? Maybe you felt stressed and got anxiety.
The purpose of mapping out your emotions is to identify the triggers to what's really causing you to trade by your emotions.
Set a routine which allows you to map your emotions the most effectively. For example, If you pick every Sunday to journal your trades and mapping of emotions, how are you able to remember why you pulled the trigger during the U.S Session that previous Monday? Spacing time out at the end of your trading day allows you to go through the thought process and identify your "do's" or "don'ts". Before your trading day begins, review your previous days trades or running positions. Look at areas that need improvement and focus on executing them properly.
Another thing to help your journaling is to review your targets and goals that are ahead of you. Becoming a better trader doesn't mean you need to trade more. In fact, it means the total opposite. When you hit your target for the week or month, quit! A trader will never make a 60% return on their total capital overnight, they make small realistic targets and continuously review their goals to ensure they are on track for achieving them.
Keeping a spreadsheet and thought process of your work is important to bring out success and to ensure you don't make the same error over and over again.
#3 Time management
Managing your time accordingly is important to keep a balance AWAY from the charts. The more you stare at your trade running the more you'll become emotionally attached to it. Balancing your personal life throughout your business day/schedule will create a detachment from that position and let you control your emotions without triggering unnecessary feelings that could take you out of your element. In order to know when to step away, you first need to know when you're going to trade, in what session? How many hours in that session?
There are many variables that make this up but simply for myself, I trade the U.S Session, mainly the first 4 hours by preference. I chose this as I am sleeping the European and Asian session and from my previous back testing results, I found the market to range throughout the course after noon. Keeping an open mind and knowing your hours you'll be active within can make it easier for you to step away to spend time with your family and friends when that time comes to disconnect. You'll know there will be more opportunities tomorrow, you will become more disciplined.
Try also only looking at the charts 3-4 times a day, say before the market opens, close to noon, at market close and before you go to bed. Consistently trying NOT to look at your charts will help you maintain a separation of emorion which will create improvements in many areas of your trading.
#4 Healthy Lifestyle
3 main factors in a healthy lifestyle are:
▪️Exercise
▪️Healthy Eating & Diet
▪️Socialization
Exercising is not only physically satisfying, but it is also mentally satisfying knowing there's an improvement in your overall health and wellness. Having your blood pressure, cholesterol, weight in order gives you a positive attitude and that brings out better performance.
Have you ever heard of the term "you are what you eat?". Well, if you eat nothing but junk, sweets, fast food and on then expect your trading performance to reflect accordingly. Meaning your laziness or lack of motivation, possibly fatigue, will factor into trading errors and profits left on the table. Late executions, running profits cut short, all the errors which come with that category. BEing alert and knowing what to do when to do it will maximize your returns. Clean up the diet and your focus will strengthen.
A healthy diet consists of the following:
▪️Fruits and vegetables
▪️Protein foods
▪️Whole grain foods
Encouragement from your friends and family to eat more foods in these groups is helpful to make it a natural choice before that unhealthy temptation. Socializing with friends & family is important for your brain health specifically Interaction, to promote safety and much more.
#5 Your overall mood
Before you pull that trigger and execute a trade, ask yourself how you're feeling. How did you wake up today? How was your sleep? These kinds of questions will keep you from trading when you're mentally just not there.
Identifying when not to trade is critical to avoid losing money.
Remember that you have a plan and rules to follow. If the market does not meet your entry requirements wait until another pair does, understand there will always be another chance.
Lastly, one of the most important factors which boosts your overall mood is CONFIDENCE. You must have confidence in your set ups, your technical analysis, your take profits and more. Keep having confidence in your work will bring your mood and physcology to where it needs to be to improve your results.
I hope you have learned something from this post ! Thanks for taking the time fo read it!
Click the like button and follow me for more educational ideas!!!
Thanks
Trade Safe
In this post, I will breakdown 5 ways which could help improve your trading:
#1 Get a good full night sleep
As sleep plays a vital role in our lives for general well being, it also plays an important role in your trading performance. To get a good full night's sleep takes practice and consistency to train your "Internal Clock'' or also known as your "Circadian Rhythms."
Before we get into a few ways to help you achieve a better sleep, What are Circadian Rhythms?
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. Below is a figure that represents this.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rxG8WzQr65rCN9MQ7
There are many things that could throw off your "Circadian Rythym" which affects your quality of sleep and it doesn't take long to fall in a cycle of disruptions throughout the night. To take control of your sleep requires practice and consistency, it doesn't happen in one night.
Here are a few things which could help your quality of sleep:
Consistency on Bedtimes & Wake up times
Benefits of you implementing a specific wake up time will give you bring you sharper focus, a brighter mood and improved alertness. Having a regular sleep schedule helps with many different aspects like, emotional stability, productivity and concentration, digestion and regularity. By setting a regular routine you can increase the amount of sleep you get on a daily basis which on average you should strive for at least 7+ hours.
▪️Create a restful environment
In order to improve your quality of sleep you need to get comfortable. This could mean many things but it all starts with creating a restful environment. This begins by silencing noise. Turn off the power on the television or silence non-emergency notifications from your cell phone. Starting with these brings you to another way to create a restful environment which is dimming the lights. As a change in setting also creates comfort, it could mean absolutely anything that you may want. The goal is to fall asleep as quickly as possible.
▪️Avoid large meals or caffeine late night
While we all know this is bad, it's a very common pattern that people fall into which disrupts their sleep. Eating late at night causes muscles to work to digest which affects the ability to fall asleep. Caffeine also delays your ability to sleep due to keeping you alert. Eliminating these 2 things could make your sleep that much better.
# 2 Journaling
The importance of Journaling is not only to keep a track of your wins or losses, but to map out your emotions that got you to that result. What caused you to enter a trade just to see a reverse and your stop loss hit? Did you panic over FOMO? Did you take a loss on the last trade and you were so sure the price was about to break out of the channel? Maybe you felt stressed and got anxiety.
The purpose of mapping out your emotions is to identify the triggers to what's really causing you to trade by your emotions.
Set a routine which allows you to map your emotions the most effectively. For example, If you pick every Sunday to journal your trades and mapping of emotions, how are you able to remember why you pulled the trigger during the U.S Session that previous Monday? Spacing time out at the end of your trading day allows you to go through the thought process and identify your "do's" or "don'ts". Before your trading day begins, review your previous days trades or running positions. Look at areas that need improvement and focus on executing them properly.
Another thing to help your journaling is to review your targets and goals that are ahead of you. Becoming a better trader doesn't mean you need to trade more. In fact, it means the total opposite. When you hit your target for the week or month, quit! A trader will never make a 60% return on their total capital overnight, they make small realistic targets and continuously review their goals to ensure they are on track for achieving them.
Keeping a spreadsheet and thought process of your work is important to bring out success and to ensure you don't make the same error over and over again.
#3 Time management
Managing your time accordingly is important to keep a balance AWAY from the charts. The more you stare at your trade running the more you'll become emotionally attached to it. Balancing your personal life throughout your business day/schedule will create a detachment from that position and let you control your emotions without triggering unnecessary feelings that could take you out of your element. In order to know when to step away, you first need to know when you're going to trade, in what session? How many hours in that session?
There are many variables that make this up but simply for myself, I trade the U.S Session, mainly the first 4 hours by preference. I chose this as I am sleeping the European and Asian session and from my previous back testing results, I found the market to range throughout the course after noon. Keeping an open mind and knowing your hours you'll be active within can make it easier for you to step away to spend time with your family and friends when that time comes to disconnect. You'll know there will be more opportunities tomorrow, you will become more disciplined.
Try also only looking at the charts 3-4 times a day, say before the market opens, close to noon, at market close and before you go to bed. Consistently trying NOT to look at your charts will help you maintain a separation of emorion which will create improvements in many areas of your trading.
#4 Healthy Lifestyle
3 main factors in a healthy lifestyle are:
▪️Exercise
▪️Healthy Eating & Diet
▪️Socialization
Exercising is not only physically satisfying, but it is also mentally satisfying knowing there's an improvement in your overall health and wellness. Having your blood pressure, cholesterol, weight in order gives you a positive attitude and that brings out better performance.
Have you ever heard of the term "you are what you eat?". Well, if you eat nothing but junk, sweets, fast food and on then expect your trading performance to reflect accordingly. Meaning your laziness or lack of motivation, possibly fatigue, will factor into trading errors and profits left on the table. Late executions, running profits cut short, all the errors which come with that category. BEing alert and knowing what to do when to do it will maximize your returns. Clean up the diet and your focus will strengthen.
A healthy diet consists of the following:
▪️Fruits and vegetables
▪️Protein foods
▪️Whole grain foods
Encouragement from your friends and family to eat more foods in these groups is helpful to make it a natural choice before that unhealthy temptation. Socializing with friends & family is important for your brain health specifically Interaction, to promote safety and much more.
#5 Your overall mood
Before you pull that trigger and execute a trade, ask yourself how you're feeling. How did you wake up today? How was your sleep? These kinds of questions will keep you from trading when you're mentally just not there.
Identifying when not to trade is critical to avoid losing money.
Remember that you have a plan and rules to follow. If the market does not meet your entry requirements wait until another pair does, understand there will always be another chance.
Lastly, one of the most important factors which boosts your overall mood is CONFIDENCE. You must have confidence in your set ups, your technical analysis, your take profits and more. Keep having confidence in your work will bring your mood and physcology to where it needs to be to improve your results.
I hope you have learned something from this post ! Thanks for taking the time fo read it!
Click the like button and follow me for more educational ideas!!!
Thanks
Trade Safe
