Page 28 - Trading #101 Course – Part THREE: SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS – www.traderscoach.com

TRADING #101 COURSE – PART THREE: SETTING UP YOUR BUSINESS – WWW.TRADERSCOACH.COM

Chapter 16:

Personal Methods to Increase Your Success

There are many personal methods that over the years have proven to be effective in
increasing a trader’s success. In this Chapter, you will see what I recommend to my
students and what have time and again proven to be effective in staying on track.

Write in Your “Sunrise Trading Journal”

The “Sunrise Trading Journal” is a “long” journal approach where you will write three
long pages every morning at sunrise or when you first wake, prior to your trading day.

Begin writing in your journal every day from this day forward, including weekends. The
purpose of this is so that you can start to develop an understanding of your feelings and
your psychology. You will also see how this can improve your investing and trading
performance. In addition, the routine of the journal creates instant structure and
discipline in your trading and finances.

Before you begin your day, when you first wake up, go to your Sunrise Trading Journal
and write down your feelings, thoughts, and ideas. They don’t have to be trading or
investing related and can basically ramble on as a stream of consciousness. The idea is
to empty your mind of any distractions and do a “mind dump.”

This will enable you to focus on the reality of the present moment and to work in the
here and now. If you have no thoughts or emotions, just write down that you “have no
thoughts or emotions.”

The goal is to capture whatever unconscious information you can gather when you first
wake up and then release it onto the handwritten page. Then you’ve transferred any
distracting unconscious baggage into your journal before you start your work day. You
will find it enlightening, and it will clear your mind.

After writing for one full month, review your journal and use a colored highlighter marker
to highlight any recurring words or themes you find. Look for patterns in your writing and
in your thoughts, as well as any changes from the time you first began writing in your
journal.

Do you see any themes of anger, fear, or greed? Are your journal entries changing from
negative themes to more positive ones? Reviewing in this way will lead you to discover
clues about yourself and ways to improve your trading and investing.

Repeat this process every month.

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