Not a whole lot so say here today really. I had a very nice morning with 2 very solid trades that took me well past my Net Daily Goal before 10:00. Since they both happend so close together, I am featuring them both in today Review of the Day.

I don’t really think I made any errors in either my entries or my exits. I did have a rough time maintaining my concentration during this morning’s meditation. That combined with a wierd dream I had last night made me be a little more cautious about today’s session.

I am a pretty vivid dreamer. I have been for a number of years. I love falling asleep really, as it’s sort of like going to see a movie without ever knowing what it is ahead of time.

That being said, I’m not a big fan of dream analysis for it would take way too many hours/day to log, review, & analyze all the crazy $h!# that goes through my mind each night. But one dream I had last night I was able to directly relate to my trading and it gave me pause.

When I was little, my family used to go to the mountains to go Alpine Sliding up in New York. For those of you who have never even heard of Alpine Sliding, check out the link as it is a great, novel way to entertain a family for a day or two.

Well in my dream I was a kid again, eagerly running up the last part of the mountain to get in line so I could slide back down. I remember specifically being excited because it was almost winter and I thought that would mean that the lines would be much shorter than normal so that I’d get to go down the mountain multiple times. However, as I approached the top of the mountain I noticed a huge winding line that seemed to extend forever. I remember feeling very disapointed for I knew that it would now take me a long time to reach the front and I’d be lucky if I got to go down the mountain more than once today.

But I patiently waited. After what seemed like an eternity I finally was approaching the end of the line to the point where you could grap a sled and go down the mountain. Right about then though, I noticed somebody grabbing a sled and then walking down some stairs to a place that was beyond my current view. After he did that, others started to take their sleds and do the same thing. I stood there at the top of the mountain about ready to start on my way down but my curiosity was killing me. I asked a passerby what was going on downstairs. He replied that he wasn’t sure but that he heard that there was another track one level down that had just opened up that was supposed to be faster and more exciting than this one.

Hearing that, I picked up my sled and headed down the stairs. As I rounded the corner the stairs led into a building that was like a souped-up arcade. It had a bowling alley, pool tables, games of every kind imaginable, but no slide. To top it off, the place wasn’t even open yet, so there were just tons of people standing around with their sleds who no doubtedly felt as stupid as I now did.

My heart sank at the implications as I headed back up the stairs to ask the attendant if I could go down the slide. Unyielding he shook his head, pointed to the line, the end of which I could not even see, and instructed me that I would have to get in the back and wait just like everbody else.

As so often happens with my dreams, this one morphed and continued in a number of different directions after this point with numerous plot twists and directions. But when i awoke I couldn’t help but have a sense of disappointment after waiting for so long, come so close to my goal and still feeling as if I had such a long ways to go.

Recently, I’ve been having similar thoughts and feelings concerning my trading. On one hand, I have come tremendously far over the past 16 months and grown greatly both in my trading skill and psychological awareness. A number of times I have come within days of hitting those benchmarks which would allow me to step up my trading to the next level only to find myself making decisions at the last minute that prevent me from achieving my goals and setting me back for weeks or even months!

I am approaching one of those critical junctures in my trading now as I have hit my Net Trading Goal for 14 out of the last 20 days. My goal is to get to 16/20. I’ve been stuck on 14/20 for some time now for every new win I have has simply been replacing a win from 21 days ago. However, the next 2 days will both eliminate a prior loss from the record which means that I could potentially hit my goal on Wednesday if all goes well. I can feel a lot of anxiety approaching as it has so often in the past around this time. But this time I am more aware of it than ever before, and this time I hope to be able to push beyond this wall and finally start taking my trading to the next level.

Consecutive Days Hitting Net Daily Goal: 3
# Days Hitting Goal out of Last 20 (with goal of 16/20) : 14