The New Year is a time for reflection and new beginnings. How did you do in 2013? Did you make money?
If you haven’t already charted your performance, it’s time to do so. Contact your broker and get him/her to send over all your trading statements for the past year. Go through them all and put them into a spreadsheet. Run some basic pivot tables and graphs and see where you lost money, then drill down into those results and see what went wrong.
Guest post by FXTM
Did you overplay certain trades? Did you end up chasing the market? Once you have a clear understanding of your weaknesses, note them down and stick them on the wall. Then, take your statements and lock them away. They are useless now. It’s a new year and it’s time to start a brand new slate. Give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far then make your resolutions – the things you need to do to turn into an even better trader.
1 – Reverse bad habits
No matter if you made a million dollars trading last year or lost a thousand, all traders have bad habits that disrupt trading. Maybe you have started to get lazy in your preparation or maybe you are beginning to see the number of hours at your desk trailing off. Now is this time to cast those bad habits away. Resolve to trade completely free of bad habits for the first 4 weeks of the year and turn those bad habits around.
2 – Make a commitment
2014 is going to be the year you really make it, the year you push yourself to your full potential and realise your dreams. This is the moment to be positive, to draw up your goals, make them real and then commit to them fully. Write your goals down on paper and stick them to the wall. Start with small, manageable goals, all the way up to a complete vision of how you want your life to be. Use photos to represent the life you want to lead and visualise yourself reaching your goals. Then make the commitment to do your best to hit them this year.
3 – Cut out overtrading by 50%
If you don’t have a problem with overtrading then you are lucky. Or maybe you have the opposite problem of not being able to pull the trigger. Whichever it is, strive to cut the problem in half. If you take too many trades, try to reduce them by 50%. If you struggle to pull the trigger, try to increase the number of your positions by 50%
4 – Read 1 book a month
2014 could be like any other year, or, it could be the year something incredible happens. Whatever happens, it’s always good to read. Make a promise to read at least 1 new finance book a month and you will increase your knowledge of the markets which can never be a bad thing.
5 – Learn a new skill
There are skills that you could learn that will no doubt help you in your trading endeavours. Could you make 2014 the year you learn to code, so that you can set up your own forex robot? Or maybe you could take a MOOC course on risk management?
Whatever you choose to do, make 2014 an adventure.
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