LET’S REVIEW

This chapter may seem out of order at times because it assumes you are
doing things that I’ll discuss throughout the book some of which will come
later. However, I put it here because the best way to start your trading day
is to get ready for it the night before. But before you start getting ready for
the next trading day, the first thing you should do is go over all the trades
you made or have on. You can do this in any order you like, but I prefer
to start by looking at any trades I have that are still open. These are the
ones I need to be the most focused on going into the next day, and I like to
confirm that they are still good trades.
By “good” I mean that the reasons I put the trade on are still valid.
I’ve been known to not get out of bad trades in hopes of them opening
up the next day in my favor. This is always a bad decision as bad trades
should always be gotten out of as soon as possible. Now this is different
from a trade that is not making money but is still in the parameters of your
strategy. I’m referring to trades that blow through your levels but that you
have decided not to get out of.

If I still have a bad trade on after the day, I make a big note to GET
OUT if it does not start reacting correctly as soon as the market opens. It’s
oh-so-common to look at a bad position and rationalize why it could work.
For example, if it gaps down against you the next day, you may say, okay
this is the worst it can get and it will close the gap. And you sit there and
hope all day it does. Doing this could easily throw off your whole game plan
for the next day as you will spend too much time babying a bad position
and ignoring the good ones you have, which may end up turning bad.