Recovering From A Bad Day’s Trading

I am a firm believer that learning to handle a bad day is what can be the difference between being a successful and unsuccessful trader. The simple fact is, in this game you WILL have bad days. Its not all sweetness and light, despite what some people will have you believe.

Yesterday was a BAD day for me. I lost 4 out of 4 tennis matches that I traded on and then lost 3 out of 4 football trades too. It was a frustrating day where I felt like I couldnt do anything right and the man-flu I reported last week has now morphed into a nasty cough which doesnt help at all!

So its fair to say that it was a bad day for me but thankfully, I didnt go on tilt or attempt to start upping my stakes to chase the money back. I have been in this game far too long to fall into that trap but I can see how many people who are new to this business can let frustration get the better of them.

I keep precise paper records of every trade I do. When I have a winner, I highlight it with a nice green highlight pen and when I have a loser I go through with a red highlight pen. I often update the records at the end of the day but yesterday was one such day where I left it till this morning. Its funny how your ego can often come in to play in this game and it was as if recording all those losing trades would just confirm the reality even more!

Anyway….

Waking up this morning and my attitude towards my “bad day” has changed.

I looked at my total for the month and I am comfortably ahead of my usual target, this is actually set to be my best October since 2007. Since, I stick to only trading with a certain percentage of my bank per trade the “damage” yesterday wasnt even a drop in the Ocean in the end. My main frustration at the time was just the fact that I hit so many losers in a row.

No one likes being wrong do they?

I have had some days this month where I have won 4 out of 4 tennis trades and 3 out of 4 football trades and on those days I normally congratulate myself on such great calls without realising that the law of variance demands that you will eventually have the odd bad day too.

So the next time you have a “bad day” or bad weekend, you should look at the bigger picture. Hopefully, you keep records of your trades too and you should look at the overall record before beating yourself up about it. If you are still venting from the day before then it might be best to take the next day off.

Good luck those trading the football this weekend, Remember The Mug will be taking over the blog on Saturday morning from 8am. So if you want some tips to avoid then it might be worth a look 😉