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Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth

I heard Mike Tyson say this years ago, and it immediately stuck with me because of so many ties it has to trading your trading plan with focus, discipline, and repetition.

Our main focus in training new and veteran traders is to build a belief in the system through repetition. After seeing the performance of a trade over 150 times within a 2 month period, it becomes evident that you begin to move away from a fear-based internal dialogue regarding your trade. You already know the system is consistently profitable, so the only X-factor in the entire process is that little 6-inch universe between your ears. Now, the focus of accuracy has everything to do with you, the trader, following your rules with consistency and repetition and nothing to do with the system.

Now back to my original point. We have seen the trades. We know the system is profitable. We have simulated the system and are showing a profit. We are ready to trade live hard earned cash that we have an emotional attachment to. Every dollar we are trading equals a loaf of bread, so to speak. Our hard earned trading capital is now taking the INEVITABLE equity draw-down, as dictated by the system. We WILL lose trades, traders, this is a fact that we must embrace on all levels. But remember, contraction leads to expansion. Your draw-down will inevitably lead to a run-up. The KEY is NOT TO MISS IT!

Now, we’ve had the draw-down, and to put it bluntly we’ve “Been punched in the mouth”. THIS is where the magic happens. At this very moment what will you do? Will you let the fear and painful associations of the market dictate your trading executions? Or will you draw upon your training, having fully accepted that this equity swing is nothing more than another step to consistent profitability?

Will you continue to place those next trades with consistency? Will you remove all mpulsive trades from your trading style? Will you follow the trading plan that you’ve put so much thought and process into developing for yourself?

If you have a pen, WRITE THIS DOWN and tape it to your Monitor:

“WHEN I TRADE MY PLAN WITH CONSISTENCY AND REPETITION THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW.”

Remember, every trader gets punched in the mouth. The magic is how you apply
your trading when this happens.

Spiraling Growth in Understanding

It seems to me that growth in understanding of any subject happens in upward spirals. The X factor in this equation is passing time. The result is that you can study the SAME materials you studied during the last period, yet now these very same words contain a whole new level of meaning.

This is why it is good practice to go back and re-study the basics again after a certain chunk of time has passed. I’ve been doing this for the last week or so, going over the basics again – and it is like I never really READ it before. The very same material now contains whole new layers of meaning for me… But what’s really happening is that my understanding has increased over passing time and I’m in a new learning cycle, seeing it all again with the eyes of the experience I gained since the round.