A Trader Journal

This post probably will be skipped by most in search of something more intellectually stimulating on understanding market behavior/our own minds. On other hand, a big part of trading involves developing new habits that enable us act in our own best interest.

So how do we develop a new habit? Following is a simple and powerful methodology for new habit development that I came across:

1. First, make a decision clearly that you are going to begin acting in a specific way and spell it out clearly.
2. Second, till it becomes a habit (like first 3 weeks) don't make excuses or rationalizations. Don’t let yourself off the hook. 
3. Third, visualize yourself performing/acting this behavior. The more often you imagine yourself as if you already had the new habit, the more rapidly this new habit will be accepted by your subconscious mind and become automatic.
4. Fourth, create an affirmation that you repeat over and over to yourself. This repetition dramatically increases the speed at which you develop the new habit.
5. Fifth, resolve to persist in the new behavior until it is so automatic and easy that you actually feel uncomfortable when you do not do what you have decided to do.
6. Sixth, give yourself a reward of some kind for practicing in the new behavior. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. 

Understanding above is not hard. The difficult part is doing it. One reason I am writing this post is to reinforce this methodology to myself. Hope you enjoyed this post. Feel free to share and leave a comment.