Maintain Composure, Maintain Control
"When forced, as it seems, by circumstances into utter confusion, get a hold of yourself quickly. Don't be locked out of the rhythm any longer than necessary. You'll be able to keep the beat if you are constantly returning to it."
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Whilst reading today's meditation, I realised that it had a similar theme to some of the issues raised in some of my previous "daily journals"
Just read that opening line and I quote "We're going to get caught off guard from time to time"
I have touched on how it is vital that we don't get carried away and over-confident, when we are on a good run of profitable trades. Over-confidence can cause expectation and negligence during a trade and if you let your guard down, the market will bite back and kick your ass!
It is imperative that we stay fully focused and "in the Zone", ensuring that we keep the correct neutral mindset, as soon as we enter a trade; managing it until fully completed. This means that we are trading what we are seeing and not what we expect/hope to see, based on the historical stats/data that we have available to us. As I have said previously, we have to be ready to expect the unexpected!
Things won't always go to plan and that is fine, as long as we deal with those moments by making the right choices, swiftly and without hesitation, to ensure any losses are controlled and manageable and therefore we are protecting our trading bank.
So stay focused and stick to the plan 100% of the time. Remember that you are in control of every trade that you make, as long as you don't leave it too long to react and end up in the land of hope! We are not relying on hoping we get lucky and a trade turns back in our favour. Your luck will run out; I can guarantee you that!
"Maintain composure, maintain control" This is how we continue to improve, as we strive to be the best that we possibly can become. You can do it if you continually practice, setting your mind to the task in hand. You've got this!