Today marks one year since I joined the trading challenge.

Today also marks the second biggest red day of my journey (-$1315), and the day where i have now given back nearly %50 of my total profits in the past 2 months. But most importantly, today marks the day I size down, hone in on only 3 specific strategies and focus on becoming the best trader I can be.

--Backstory--

For the first few months of the challenge, i focused on studying; (patterns, basics, rules, platforms etc). 

Within a few months I found a few patterns that were working for me, yielding small profits. (OTC breakouts, panic dipbuys, FRD, FRD bounce shorts, FGD), focused on none specifically but instead tried to become a master of them all at once. Essentially, trying to trade almost the entire 7 step framework.  Mistake#1- not being specific enough.

Early profits got to me, and I thought I had cracked the code on becoming a "consistently profitable trader". 

I added funds to my brokerage account, thinking bigger size= bigger profits, oblivious to the fact that bigger size also = bigger losses. Mistake #2- sizing up to early.

Inspired by my profits and convicted by the hot market (COVID), I continued to profit for the next few months. I started to set profit goals (daily, monthly), and started to get in the wrong mindset of focusing on PnL instead of trading well. Mistake #3- Chasing PnL.

As the market slowed in late summer (August, September), I suddenly wasnt making as much as in the previous months.

Seeing other traders continue to profit, i started to deviate from my strategies trading random setups I had no edge on. I started to size into unideal trades, and my poor habits combined with rule breaking really started to magnify my losses. Mistake #4- not adapting, not sticking to my rules.

Thankful to tracking all my trades, and journaling after each trading day, I finally came to the realization that there were some serious problems at hand I needed to address.

I needed to get back to the basics. I needed to focus on only trading my ideal setups when they appeared, and sit on my hands at all other times. I needed to size down and focus on trading well forgetting PnL. I needed to do all of this to continue to develop my discipline and rules. Most importantly I needed to SLOW DOWN.

---

In the back of my mind I always knew this was a marathon not a sprint, yet here I was sizing up, chasing profit like some sort of degenerate.

Past all of this; I'm going to continue to work hard day in day out, looking to better myself and my trading.

I will comeback better and bigger than before.

Dueces,

Karl.