Don’t trade in 2019 until you check this list

Can you become more successful in 2019? If you can answer yes to all these questions then I think your odds will be better. If you have additional ideas then please share them in the comments section.

Plans & Preparation

• [ ]Have you created a list of requirements that must be met for risking your money in markets?

Trading capital, Risk Management, Pessimism

• [ ] Do you have least $25,000 risk capital and evidence based knowledge for what each of your strategies requires in terms of capital?
• [ ] Have you determined the % of capital you can risk per day?
• [ ] Do you have a broker or software enforced risk manager/control?
• [ ] Are you accounting for trading costs and do you have the proper cost-structure for your style of trading?
• [ ] Do you have a “healthy” pessimism or skepticism?
• [ ] Do you have a plan for both growing and withdrawing profits?

Skill Acquisition, Training, Verification

• [ ]Do you have a method for efficiently rehearsing and practicing your trading under extreme and different historical conditions? And, have you practiced under those conditions?
• [ ]Have you verified your trading results conditions over a length of time, also, in a live walk-forward environment?
• [ ]Does your confidence accurately reflect the quality of your trades? Do you have a method for ranking and quality scoring trades?
• [ ]Have you at a minimum defined some invariant properties a.k.a. setups for your trades? Have you sought to identify the factors that affect your trades?
• [ ]Do you have processes in place to gauge both your internal state and external market state?
• [ ]Do you identify the causes of your losses to the extent possible and also have you taken all possible actions to correct the mistakes?
• [ ] Do you have process to take advantage of new and emerging technologies such as machine learning?

Market Orientation & Development

• [ ] Do you have defined processes for cultivating your market cognition?
• [ ] Are you tracking relevant factors that may be influencing and changing your markets today?
• [ ] Are you journaling each day in such a way that you gain quantitative insight into your trades?
• [ ] Are you developing your best market insights?
• [ ] Do you have a plan for how to take advantage of emerging market themes and insights? Do you have a plan for how you will trade opportunistic events?
• [ ] Does your trading integrate or take into account multiple factors beyond price or if not was that the result of a conscious decision?
• [ ] Are you prepared to trade a higher or lower volatility environment?
• [ ] Do you have a market orientation to alert, develop, and trade other markets as opportunity presents?

Health, Wellness, Managing Stress

• [ ] Are you exercising, eating healthy, and doing what is required to be in your peak state?
• [ ] Are you actively using time management such as time blocking to maximize your productivity and make best use of your time?
• [ ] Are you cultivating, at least, some other skills and income outside of trading?
• [ ] Are you energizing your trading by taking advantage of your strongest insights and skills?