Chronicles of a Million Dollar Trader: My Road, Valleys, and Peaks to Final Trading Victory

Part II

Journaling the Million Dollar Race

July 2008 Journal Excerpts

We'll begin with a few key journal entries that summarized recent discoveries and set the foundation for my trading at that time, as evidenced by the first post appropriately titled “The Cornerstone.” Please take particular note of the referenced visualization chart, as it will be repeated at various times throughout these pages, including at the very end of the book. Consider it my metaphoric alpha and omega.

The Cornerstone

One of the things I did at the beginning of this year was to take a hard look at all my trading shortcomings. In doing so, I discovered that one of my greatest weaknesses was getting sloppy and away from my game plan after a period of significant equity growth. On most occasions, the result was a drawdown and equity ceiling—both real and perceived.

Yet a decade of history also showed that one of my greatest strengths has always been refocusing and coming back from such times, which is when I'd experienced my greatest levels of focus and performance. So, heading into 2008, I decided to do two things:

1. Get myself in the “comeback” mind-set in every moment of every trade of every day; and

2. Not look at my actual equity balance until June 30 and December 31.

For #1, I created the visualization chart shown in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 Visualization Chart

What does the chart reflect? Well, ...