Bella recently wrote a blog post in which he described five things that top traders at SMB were doing to facilitate their success. It was interesting for me to read his post because, as he notes, I've been working as a coach with many of these same top performers. I see the traders from a different angle so, with that in mind, I offer three additional "best practices" that I am seeing among traders experiencing consistent profitability:
* Accountability - The most successful traders are the ones that most consistently bring their numbers to meetings with me. They show each day's performance and review with me what happened: good and bad. They let the numbers tell the story: whether or not they let losing trades get away from them; whether or not they were consistent in trading their edge; etc. In one case, P/L was down for the month, but the distribution of winning and losing trades showed real consistency and superior risk management. It was simply a time period where opportunity was more scarce in that trader's strategy. But the conversation focused on what the trader was doing right, not simply on the lower P/L. The best traders hold themselves accountable; they hold themselves to the goals they set and they set their goals in measurable ways.