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I just started the Van Tharp Institute Peak Performance Course for traders (home study edition). I really need to improve issues with my trading (fear, self-sabotage, over-trading, etc.). I think this course could really help. To place some accountability on myself to finish the course I plan to post my reading notes and assignments online. Hopefully, the info provided will help others as well. Van Tharp Institute Peak Performance Course Vol 1: How to use Risk Preface: The three stages of growth for a trader. 1) They think they can make easy money from trading. They think the most important thing to investing/trading is picking the right stock. 2) A substantial change has to occur where the trader begins to asks, “how should I trade to make money.” Thus, they start looking for a trading system that fits them. 3) The trader realizes that trading success does not come from external control, but from internal control. Controlling risk, profit/loss>1 and position sizing all comes from internal control. Chapter 1 Commitment means congruency. It means the whole person is working together for a common purpose. No internal conflicts. When committed, trading is no longer just a hobby. The moment one definitely commits one’s self, then Providence moves too. I translate that as: when you are committed to work hard, luck will be on your side. To develop commitment first you must determine your obstacles. Second, and more difficult, you need to determine how those obstacles reflect what is going on within you. The last step is deal with them. Make peace with the obstacles by making them unimportant. Below I created my personal obstacle table: Obstacle Internal reflection Make them unimportant Fear 1) Fear of being wrong 2) Fear of missing my stop 3) Fear the loss will affect my trading and mood. 4) Fear the little success I’ve had is due to an accommodating market. Once the market changes I will fail and quit. 1) Your supposed to be wrong at least 50% of the time. If you are wrong less than 50% you are scalping too much. 2) You are working the mental muscle, it will get easier. I do have risk controls, if I miss my stop I can’t lose too much. 3) If you learn something from the trade, it was still worth while taking it. 4) Have faith in yourself that you will learn and adapt. Self sabotage 1) Every streak of good trading is ended with catastrophic failure. 2) I take way too many partials hurting my win/loss ratio. 1) You will wind down your streaks with smaller share size and SIM trading. So it will end with a whimper not a roar. 2) With more trades, more data will be available for analysis to determine proper partialing. Data is stronger than my nerves. The math will prevail. Over trading 1) If you only take one trade the whole day, but it had a poor setup, you already overtraded. 1) I am having slow progress, but I do see progress. My trades are slowly getting better. I have the time to learn. I am in no hurry. As long as I have progress there is no issue. Health 1) Not enough sleep and exercise 1) My family is slowly becoming more accommodating. It is taking time but they will come through for me. In the last 6 months my average sleep has increased from 4.8 hrs to 5.7 hours a night. Still a far cry from 8 hours but again as long as there is improvement.

7-30-19 Woke at 7:30 SSS & Coffee / rested good Plenty time to research and get ready for the morning 9:36 -PFE 39.71 ORB stopped out 39.60 9:40 -AMD 33.27 ORB stop of 33.33 tgt of 33.09 50% 33.18, 33.10 all out 33.19 9:53 +PFE 39.27 reversal on Doji as it tested a daily I had marked, stop 39.20 prev. candle, tgt 39.56 VWAP. Added +39.32, 25% partials 39.35, 39.45, 39.55, 39.59, all out 39.52 10:15 +MU reversal on hammer at a daily level, stop 46.70 last bear candle, tgt 46.86 VWAP to 47.10 two day low, 25% 46.82, 46.85, 46.87, 46.88, 46.94, 47.07, all out 47.00 11:00 +MRK 83.49 Late on the trigger reversal, s/83.39 prev candle t/ 83.69 MA, 25% 83.60, 83.73, 83.58, all out 83.53 13.02 +MRK 83.25 reversal fail, 50% 83.31 all out 83.24 13:50 +PFE 38.90 reversal, s/ 38.96 tgt/ 38.96-39.09, 25% 38.96, 38.98, added @ 39.04 all out 39.01

Tuesday July 30th, 2019 Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. first trade was an ORBU in$MU. felt good about the trade. my stop loss was far away so i was a little concerned about making it to the HOPM but with a lot of MA support under i felt confident. it sold off the first couple of minutes then bought up to break the HOTD where i got in long risking right below the LOPM. it went in my favor so i set my range order and left to do other things and by the time i got back it had dumped. thought about getting out but spent the entire time second guessing myself until my range order hit. lost a little extra on slippage. GOOD: setup was good, entry was pretty good as well. RFI: could have got out much earlier MOOD: ok not happy about it RFI: get out when the trade clearly isn't working i took $MU again. i was long biased because of the daily chart but i was seeing it below the MAs on all charts but the daily so i went against my bias and short on a pullback. it went in my favor but bought back up. again, i held on when i shouldn't have and got stopped out. GOOD: trade made sense, better entry than the first RFI: should have got out when it broke the LOTD and then made a new 5min high MOOD: frustrated on two stop outs CONSISTENT: followed the plan but i could have cut these short. What i did good today: didn't have any losses greater than planned. What i did bad today: Hesitation on trades that were clearly not working What can i do better tomorrow: Practice getting out of trades that aren't working.

July 29, 2019 - Nothing I am just ready for July to be over with. I did not take any trades today as nothing met my entry criteria. I had $MYL, $PFE, $YNDX, and $AMD all on watch. $MYL and $PFE pullbacked back towards VWAP but both lost it and did not reject it. $AMD and $YNDX started a pullback but did not get close enough to provide a good risk to reward entry for me. The best part all four stock worked out as long as you took them short. Maybe today was just one of those days. Anyways, tomorrow's another day. I can't wait for August to get here. Sample Set Results, S E P 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Monday July 29th, 2019 Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good, ready to trade. almost took $MYL for an ORB but i was too nervous to pull the trigger. would have been a good trade. then it made an engulfing crack so i was looking for a short entry. I got in a small size on a little bit of a pullback risking the daily level of $21.24. then i doubled my position at the new 5min low, moving my stop to the new 5 and 15min high at $21.19. it came right up to my stop but never broke to a new 15min high. it was consolidating forever near my entry and i got up to use the bathroom and i was it wasn't moving and the volume was dying so i just got out at breakeven. not even 2 minutes later it dumped to my profit target. i haven't made that mistake in a long while and it's a reminder as to why i don't overthink my trades and just let the market do what it's going to do and not overthink it. oh well, try again tomorrow! GOOD: waited for a signal for my entries RFI: got out too early CONSISTENT: no, didn't follow plan. MOOD: ok, i'd like to get to my PT on this trade but at least i didn't lose money What i did good today: took a good trade, played the entry well. What i did bad today: let my snap judgement trick me out of what turned out to be a great trade. What can i do better tomorrow: don't mess with your trades, especially when they're 5min/15min trending in your favor.

Hi Nas -- Thanks so much for sharing your trades -- I am starting out with swing trading, and just did my first journal entries. Can you share what parameters/tools you use for your stock screen. I am playing with Stock Charts and Finviz. Personally I like stock charts because there is so much educational material, Finviz is much simpler. Thanks!

Thanks Mark, The test is $100 on their website. I did get a 25% discount by buying the course. I think the test is only valuable if you happen to be taking the course since they send you a three page letter explaining what part of the course pertains to that specific poor score that I have. Yes, I thought the same thing, Andrew would do amazingly well on this exam. I am also reading a book, Market Mind Games that also describes an ideal trader and you could easily see they are describing someone like Andrew. They are concerned about a high MT score because if you are not trading for money you are probably trading for the excitement or may have a gambling issue. Money is definitely a factor why I want to learn to trade, but a lot of it is because I like the financial markets. I like analyzing charts. I like to think what other people are thinking and what they may do. I don't think this is harmful, but it gave me a low MT score.

Van Tharp Institute Peak Performance Course Vol 1: How to use Risk Chapter 2 What happens to you in the market is a terrific mirror to what is going on inside your head. You will not be able to duplicate the success of the best traders until you duplicate their thinking. The main assignment for the chapter is to take the 176 question Investment Psychological Profile. I did quite poorly on the test, ranking in the bottom 13% of the traders who took it. I thought I have improved, psychologically, in the last 15 months. So I can’t imagine how I would have scored on the test last year. Here are the results:

Review and short summary of the Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. I read this book from a recommendation from Tommy and would definitely recommend it. The book explains the current discoveries how/where in the brain willpower is created and how to improve it. I actually listened to the book so my quotes may not be exact. 1) Willpower is from the Prefrontal Cortex, the part of the brain that “helps you do the hard thing.” The Prefrontal Cortex has three parts and thus so does willpower. The three compartments of the Prefrontal Cortex can be split into what controls “The Will”, “The Want”, and “The Won’t”. 2) The Prefrontal Cortex can be strengthened and weakened. It’s a cliché but it is a mental muscle. It needs to be given a workout and tested every day. But not to extreme, or like a muscle it can be over worked. Since we have only one willpower reservoir to be used for all endeavors, the week you to try quit eating cheesecake, your willpower to stop overtrading will be reduced. Work the muscle, but do not overwork it. I like the example the book gave, ”don’t try and resist cheesecake forever, just try and resist it for 10 minutes.” 3) Diet, exercise and meditation can strengthen the Prefrontal Cortex (let’s call it the PC). This sounds obvious, but the book mentions a couple of interesting things. We all have felt our willpower drop when our blood sugar is low. But recent research has shown it is the decreasing of the blood sugar, not the low blood sugar that causes the PC to start shutting down. Once the brain detects that sugar levels are dropping it starts to shut down lower priority functions like the PC. Evolution probably found it useful to have your willpower drop when you are hungry, so you can take more risks to find food. 4) The books discussion on meditation was worth the read. Though I have read a few books on meditation (none very good) I have never come across the technique discussed in this book. That is to slow your breathing down to 4 to 6 breathes a minute. It will increase your heart variability and be a short term reduction of stress. It works. It’s a great technique in the middle of a trade. Just a personal note: I can recommend a book that motivates you to meditate. 10% Happier is a worth a read for entertainment value alone and got me motivated to start meditating. 5) The book also discusses we give ourselves licenses to be bad. Example: I went running in the morning so I am going to take the elevator for the rest of the day and splurge on dessert. Sorry, that was supposed to be a short summary. But I do recommend the book and found it applies to trading, especially overtrading…