You and Your trading coach.

As I said before, I started my change before I ever got to this book. It would have been easier if I had begun the process while simultaneously coaching myself, but it is OK for you to start coaching whenever rather than never.  Don’t wait for “the right moment.” At the time, I was only focusing on my trading and it was just harder to do than it is now that I've learned how to be my coach.  As soon as I started to talk to my coach it became a lot easier. By talking to my coach, I mean nothing else but keeping a good journal. This doesn't mean that I had no journal before; I did have one, but it somehow had less meaning for me. Once I started to keep specific notes about my trading plan, myself and trades (at the moment of, during and after a trade), it all began to mean a lot more to me. Putting it all on paper is one step and the second is reading it at the end of the day or the week.

"Research informs us that the most important ingredient in psychological change is the quality of the relationship between the helper and the person receiving help."*

With having a new journal entry for every single day, for every single setup and trade, I started to see what I was doing and how I was doing it. The thing is that, before I started keeping my new journal, I had no idea why I was anxious, nervous, happy or even excited. It was hard for me to write a journal during the trading day. I had been doing it after the day was done, after good or bad trades were done, and by that time I didn't remember my filings, my setups from the very beginning to the very end of the trade, and I wasn't even sure what I did right and what I did wrong. I was missing much of the information between the lines about my trades and myself.

"Many traders don’t really know what they do best; they’re invisible to themselves."*

So what was different in the new type of journal? I could say everything, but to be more specific it was because of four things. These were the time when I wrote in my journal, the way I organized the journal, commenting on it at the end of the day and finally, reading it at the end of the week. With having correct information at the correct time I was able to see what I was really doing throughout the trading day. I was able to see my mistakes, but also, and most importantly, I was able to see what I was doing well. I was getting information about things to avoid and also about things to repeat and do over and over again. My first goal and most important thing to do, and repeat every single day was to write in a journal. Once I had this goal accomplished I was immediately looking for the next little goal to add to the next day and the next week, and I repeated this process all over again and again, until it was my habit.

"Set a positive goal, based on strengths, to keep you in touch with the best within you."*

"Trading goals should reflect trading strengths."*

While working hard on achieving my goals I realized that I was doing great just by having control of myself and my action in relation to market action. I saw that I was making huge progress in making decisions as well in having more profitable trades. I was not paying attention to the trade itself, but rather, I was paying attention to myself, my action, my decision processes, my feelings and goals that were set for the day/week.

"The best relationship is achieved when goals are linked to values and express distinctive strengths."*

"...if you’re not keeping a journal, your coach is silent. What sort of relationship is that?"*

*LESSON 2 The Daily Trading Coach 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist by Steenbarger, Brett N.