One of the best ever posts on ET was by Rabbitone and I suppose because of its wealth it was seemingly completely ignored on ET, except for my own comment that when the wheel is invented, this is what keeps the rubber on the road. I copied it into my journal and here it is as I think it is very appropriate for your present state of reflection...
"Nod many on ET donât understand that these funny little sayings you and I use play a crucial role in using our trading methods as part of âWhatâs my Trading System?â. These techniques are cross training our brains to use our trading systems effectively. You are using some excellent techniques to train yourself. Hearing your own voice say something is an excellent leaning tool._
I learned how to cross train my brain in the early 1990s. I was working for a steel mill owned by the Japanese. We all were required to learn KAIZEN as our quality control method. I was chosen to be a team leader for quality control for IT databases and security and sent through two weeks of training with instructors from Japan.
One Japanese KAIZEN instructor in particular challenged our western way of thinking in those classes. With statements like ââ¦Why do always take âYesâ for an answer when it is not trueâ¦.â, ââ¦Will you be true to yourself when you are the source of the problemâ¦â, ââ¦Why do fixate on innovation while allowing standard processes to steadily deteriorate and decayâ¦â and ââ¦the truth about learning lessons is they are never learned; they must be relearned every dayâ¦â_
What KAIZEN taught me is I not only have to stick to my trading plan but
- I have to reinforce every day what I must do right.
- Teach my trading brain each day not to make the mistakes of the past.
- Continuously provide myself feedback whether my plan and advice (reinforcement) is working.
- Keep change and improvement to small steps so not to disrupt trading.
- Maintain and relearn what works with my trading
- Pay attention to details about each trade as to how it happened, why it happened and did it go according to plan.
- And to expect and measure gradual improvement over the long term.
For example this means I must stop my primitive brains urges each day from destroying my trading. The list is actually much longer than I have shown you._
Here is an example of what Iâm talking about. In the past I discovered that after one or two good profitable swing trades I would be full of myself and deviate from the plan with ânew untested trading actionsâ These have in the past destroyed my trading. If I find myself doing this today I penalize myself with long log entries for doing something that stupid â which I hate writing. This threat is a major one for me. I almost happened to me again a few days ago. I had just closed out my profitable Apple long the other day. A low and behold I found myself thinking about shorting Apple where there was no short set up. But I caught it and started my cross brain training with âFor every new trading actionâ¦.â
So Nod keep on chanting out loud and cross training yourself. But I would take on innovation slow and easy while maintaining what works."
Rabbitone
that's my point. I think you might need a little sleep?