Accountability is one of the number one things you’ll need as a trader, says Dave Landry, founder and president of DaveLandry.com. He shares ideas on Pulte Group, Penn National Gaming, cryptos, and helpful trading books. More Trading Lessons Fridays on MoneyShow.com.
Hold yourself accountable to someone and your trading will improve. Well, maybe you won’t be thanking me when that someone is questioning why you didn’t honor your stop or otherwise ditched your plan.
Anyway, regardless of what you want to accomplish, holding yourself accountable will help make you more successful.
What I’m trading: Once again, not much! In equities, with the market’s erratic behavior, the database hasn’t produced much lately. That’s okay!
Wait for your pitch. Patience is probably the biggest secret to trading out there. If you don't find yourself thinking that when considering a trade, especially given this environment, then pass. You might want to write that down.
In the Model Portfolio, we got stopped out of our last lonely long (LX) and remain short Pulte Group (PHM) and Penn National Gaming (PENN). As I preach, let the ebb and flow control your portfolio.
In the cryptos, I took a stab at an hourly Bowtie in the ethereum/bitcoin futures (ETH/XBT) pair. It failed miserably, but that’s okay. You have to be willing to take a couple of stabs when trading transitions like this.
In forex, I sat on my hands. I’m playing the waiting game here. Once I see major highs or lows, I'm going to step in with hourly Bowties. See last week’s Dave Landry’s The Week In Charts for more on this type of trading in efficient markets.
What I’m reading for trading: Since most of the books I started are in my second office, I allowed myself to start a new book. This week, I started Kluge by Marcus based on a reference in Annie Duke's book.
So far, I’m not blown away, but this is from the lens of trading psychology (and technically, it is not a book on trading psychology) from someone who has already read a book or two on the subject. This may not be completely fair. For instance, after my third or fourth book on behavior finance, I noticed a lot of the same things and started mostly skimming.
The books I quote most often here are the ones that I read first (e.g. The Little Book Of Behavioral Investing, by Montier). I do like the way Marcus reaffirms that the human brain is a bit of a kluge with newer parts sitting on top of the older primal parts. So far, it's nothing earth-shattering, but does dovetail in with me accepting the fact that we're not made to trade manta. I'll keep you posted.
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Similar books, which I have read previously (and often quote), such as Thinking Fast And Slow, might be a better first read here.
I’m in the process of outlining Annie Duke's Thinking In Bets. Now, this one is definitely worth reading. Again, she reaffirms a lot of the concepts that I often discuss in columns, webinars, and Trading Full Circle such as outcome biases, embracing uncertainty, and mentally rehearsing. In fact, I quoted her again in this week’s Dave Landry’s The Week In Charts).
What I'm thinking about: Being back in the home office for a while has made me realize how many distractions that I have here. This is especially true because we are getting the house ready for a downsizing move.
This has got me thinking about the micro vs. macro reoccurring theme recently mentioned from Tribe Of Mentors. We all think about achieving greatness someday. That someday boils down to how your hours and even minutes are spent now. Whenever I find myself going down a rabbit hole, I have to ask myself: is this moving me toward or away from my goal?
May the trend be with you!
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