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As a full time trader I think it is important to have a fairly constant morning routine before sitting down and putting your money on the line. Even if your routine is simply getting up, grabbing a cup of coffee, and sitting down and trading…that is a routine. The important thing though is that you are consistent in your approach to the markets.

As far as I am concerned, consistency is the holy grail of trading. We have all been on winning and losing streaks, that’s part of what makes trading so frustrating, that we have tasted some degree of success and know that it IS possible. In our struggles to identify those aspects that are contributing towards our sporadic success it is easy to get caught in a rat wheel and bounce from thing to thing to thing. This is fine to a certain degree as trading most definitely is a process of self-discovery. However, this process must be carried out consciously and with a great degree of exactitude if we are ever to truly uncover and bottle up those processes that lead to our personal success.

I am a very non-routine kind of person. I’ve never really liked making/having plans or doing anything in a repetitive kind of way. I’m more intuitive and until recently, have tended to get bored easily. Not really the ideal trading makeup. But there really is no personality trait that a lot of awareness and effort can not neutralize.

So a couple months ago, I decided to write down an explicit morning routine that I would follow every single trading day. I built some flexibility into it to accomodate my need for novelty & stimulation. Here is my routine:

After eating, brushing, etc,

1.) Turn on PC & Load all related software
2.) Check email and website-related material
3.) Meditate for at least 20 minutes
4.) Check Econoday economic forecasts for the day
5.) Review my Trading Plan & Supplemental Notes
6.) Read news & blogs
7.) Check overseas markets
8.) Read some uplifting and/or Spiritually related material
9.) In a relaxed & calm manner, do whatever I want until the markets open

Before implementing this routine, some days I would watch TV, some days I would surf the net, play a game, study, read a book, whatever…with really no rhyme or even a passing thought given to how it would affect my mood and mental state leading up to the market’s open. As a result, some days I would find myself late to work and scrambling to get everything set up and ready for the trading day (very sad given that I work from home!); This rushed & non-prepared state was hardly very conducive to consistent trading profitability.

So when I had a bad day it was nearly impossible to truly determine the cause. Was I unlucky, making bad decisions due to an inability to adapt to the current market situations, or was I in a bad mental state due to my non-routine rushedness that handicapped me before the market even opened?

Like a scientist trying to perform an experiement with someone constantly changing the variables being measured, it was impossible to tell. So I set about making a goal of holding one variable as constant as possible, my pre-market preparedness & mental state. With that variable controlled for, I then began the long process of uncovering the wealth of untapped data stored in my historical trading log via better statistical analysis. Both of which I’ll be going over in more in depth in the days & weeks to come.

So some questions to ask:

Do you have a consciously derived morning routine?
If so, does it facilitate or detract from a proper trading mindset?
Does it take into account your unique personality characteristics & demands?
Do you ever feel rushed or in a hurry prior to market open as if being late to class?

Feel free to share your thoughts on what you have found to help you prepare for each trading day.

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