After the Close

A man rushes into his house and yells to his wife, “Martha, pack
up your things! I just made a fortune in the stock market!” Martha
replies, “Wow, should I pack for warm weather or cold?” The man
responds, “I don’t care. Just get out!”

So, it’s 4:15 P.M. and the S&P futures just closed and you had a bad
day trading, so what do you do? Go down to your local bar and get
soused? No, you start preparing for the next day. Actually, first you
should run to the bathroom as you probably have been sitting for four
hours straight glued to your monitor. Then go take a quick walk to stretch
out and clear your mind. If you work on a trading desk at a day trading firm
most likely everyone will be gone when you come back. But the next hour
or so could be the most valuable one of your trading day. You’re thinking
the markets are closed, I can’t trade anymore, the day is over, why should I
still be here? But it’s only the end of the day for John and his loser friends.
Great traders use this time to review their day and start planning for the
next one. As soon as the market closes is when your trades are freshest in
your mind, so why not spend some time after the close going over them?
You can gain a lot of insight into your trading by reviewing what you have
done and what’s more, you can start getting ready for tomorrow by doing
so. After you’ve gone over all your trades, you should take some time
preparing tomorrow’s game plan. This is a two-part process, which should
be done both the night before and the morning of, but by spending time
on it the night before you will get an incredible jump on it the following
morning and will be able to see things much clearer during the trading day.


Some things you will be concentrating on are what’s happening tomorrow,
what will you do if such and such happens, which of your trades just
aren’t working, and what are you doing wrong. You can also spend time
looking for places to adjust your stops to and review your money management
and risk levels. It doesn’t take a long time to do all this, and its worth
is invaluable.