I am still putting together my monthly system to track % growth in portfolios etc

BUT this morning something clicked.

I started trading the Trade Long Term strategy in Jan 2021. Within 6 weeks of starting the system drew down 27%. It was uncomfortable at the time, but I stuck it out and followed all the rules. The system recovered a little, but for a period of 3-4 months it swung between a 15% – 10% drawdown.

During the last 2 trading sessions the system has gone from losing money to being profitable 5.8% (for the year).

The valuable lesson is, you can make money very quickly (with one share, or within a couple of trading sessions), but you have to handle the drawdowns and stick around when trading is uncomfortable.

Finally, I constantly remind myself that everything always changes. So todays system that is 5.8% profitable for the year could be in a -10% drawdown tomorrow.

Now, back to learning about coding and looping (which is making me loopy!)

Haha … I think the key is to be balanced in your mindset. Rather than seeing losses as painful and profits as pleasure, just see trades as business transactions and numbers.

Thank you Julian. Good advice.

The coding has been a huge learning curve. I see myself repeating the course a couple of times to maximise the learnings.

Update.

Nearly finished the coding part of the mentoring program. Had I known about the depth of coding up front I probably wouldn’t have signed up for the course. Now I am starting to enjoy the coding, oddly enough !!

Most days I aim to do about 3 hours on the mentoring program. Sometimes that means staring at the code for 30 minutes trying to think it through .. (I’m blonde, don’t judge me). Then I mix the rest of the day up with trading admin, reading/podcasts/videos (by Nick only) and reading through the forum. In particular I enjoy reading peoples progress journals from the beginning. I want to think through problems in advance where possible. For example, how would I handle a large windfall? How would I handle market conditions such as October 2018? Thinking problems through in advance helps me think of strategic solutions in advance. Then I can be proactive rather than reactive to the market.

Mindset is so important in life, but especially in trading.

MRNA has been erratic the last few weeks. I’ve been surprised at my (lack of) emotional response to big gains and losses with MRNA. This game is long term for me, so perhaps that helps. My weakness is definitely in the coding so I’ve given myself 2 years to learn it properly, even if that means committing 15 – 30 minutes a day to coding ….. over the long run the results will add up.

Aside from trading, I love studying and learning about human behaviour and self mastery. Since 2012 I have studied with Dr John Demartini. He created “The Demartini Method” which is essentially a set of quality questions designed to dissolve your emotional charges.

One aspect of his work is known as “Owning the Traits of the Greats”. Where you essentially own the traits of people you admire/look up too. At the moment I am studying some of the greats in the equities markets. In June I owned Warren Buffett’s traits and noticed an up levelling in our finances within 2-3 weeks of completing it (to the point where I had to increase our financial goals).

One point Nick made, which I love, is that “Everybody gets what they want from the markets”.
Trading is a business and if it is not treated like a business, it is likely either a hobby or opportunity to gamble.