Part III
Beyond the Race: Best of the 2009 Journal Excerpts
As the first quarter of 2009 dawned, it soon became apparent that although I had planned on initially trading lightly for “fun” and with no self-imposed pressure, sufficient positive momentum remained that couldn't be ignored. Further, I felt that I might be able to improve on December's lackluster performance by eliminating some sloppiness that had crept into my trading. As such, I created the scorecard shown in Figure 3.1 as a way to identify, manage, and track how I responded to the market environment of the day.
Figure 3.1 Performance Scorecard
The top section of the scorecard, titled Trading Environment, was designed to grade the day's opportunity and my preparation using color-coded shading ranging from red (poor) to dark green (stellar), whereas the lower Performance section was designed to grade how I traded given the level of perceived opportunity as defined in the top section.
Each week's scorecard became a recurring reference in my journal during the early part of 2009, and its use indeed helped correct some of December's sloppiness to such an extent that the first quarter of 2009 resulted in one of my most consistent quarters ever. I'd go on to record profits in 58 of 61 days and net another $350K+. One example of how I used the scorecard to effectively make course corrections appears in the following post. ...
