Some shorthand highlights from Dr. Steenbarger's 101 Lessons for Becoming Your own Trading Psychologist

The Daily Trading Coach

Every day outline a trading goal – then at the end of day review that goal. It could be increasing trading size, goals for entering and exiting positions, or otherwise.

These need to be process, not outcome goals.

Enact a new role for trading, change the script from hobby trading to professional business trading.

Traderfeed.blogspot.com is a great trading advice archive

Size in with units - not all at once

When you are appropriately sized in and managed, a losing trade is a mere annoyance

“What would make my trading day a success today, even if I do not make any money.”

Write out rules for things like entries, exits, position sizing, if you lose too much on a trade, if you lose too much on a week, if you are over trading, etc

I am the manager of my trading business – reviewing performance, allocating resources and adapting to shifting market conditions

You have to have a goal for each day, week, month

Each day goal should fit into the week goal, and each week goal should fit into each month goal

Good trading is pure intentionality

What about trading is uniquely yours? What distinguishes you? What is your vision?

Write down problems in a notebook as they happen, and address them in a journal

When the advantage is yours, press it to the hilt

Do more of what works – this is the essence for solution focus

Think about what would happen if you DID NOT follow your trading rules

What is your unique profile as a trader? Constantly remind yourself of this

You need to trade free of projections, processing things as they unfold

When you talk to yourself, talk to yourself as a fellow trader, not as yourself. Insert a 3^rd person perspective

You have to ask yourself before entering a trade – “Has the market come to me?”

Focus on the positive of your trading, not the negative

The key is to find a state or situation that is incompatible with the triggers for your worst trading and then build into that your normal trading routine

Imagine the benefits of making the right decisions before they happen

I never go into the day WANTING to trade

How can you expect to make money against paid professionals who have more trading experience than you do?

Think of yourself as a conglomerate of different trading systems that all build into one portfolio

The trader who lacks clearly defined targets and stop losses is like the scientist who lacks a clear hypothesis

Good execution, psychologically, is all about patience

The clearer you are about risk and reward, the easier it will be to stick to trades that offer favorable expected returns

Trade management is the set of decisions you make based on fresh information that accumulates during the trade

Never ever allow panic to take over

Read affirmations and play them back to yourself every morning before you trade – similar to a talking journal

If you are celebrating or bemoaning a trade while you are in it, you are not focused on the market itself

Sit in front of the screen with a confident, quite mind

Intuition – the result of implicit learning that occurs after long periods of observing market patterns – this intuition may play an important role in getting in and out of positions

Money is a tool, not a goal

‘The next trade I take is my favorite. I have no favorite past trades. What I have is the ability to make the next opportunity presented to me into my favorite trade.’