Monthly Review

Looking back on transactions closed is the best way I know of to learn from your mistakes, habits, and impulses. Depending on your trading activity the look back period could be annually, quarterly, monthly, or if you are very active, weekly. The important thing is to look at why you bought, why you sold, the activity of the equity after you sold, and whether you profited or not.

Personally I look back at the previous month. I usually allow some time to pass, so the trades and dust can settle, and that allows me some distance to gain perspective, and to put the month somewhat out of mind, so I can look back objectively.

In December, I closed out 16 trade, nine of them bearish or insurance trades and seven longs. The month was about a 15% loss, which sounds extreme but for the portfolio I trade really is not. It is disappointing however and hard to pay the bills if this trend continues.

There were several exits made that were perfectly executed, one profit was allowed to go into a loss, and one exit was made prematurely. The three largest losses accounted for 75% of the trading losses, one entry should never have been made, and one, ABX (gold stock) was stopped out before a major reversal.

Premature entry was the worst mistake made repeatedly, impatience continues to be the biggest bugaboo to overcome.