This is separation season

I heard this phrase from Ed Mylett a few years ago and it’s stuck with me ever since.

This is separation season.

Wait what?

This is a time of year that you can really separate yourself from the rest, and from the trader you are to the trader you want to be.

How?

Well, most people are switching off, relaxing, and maybe lowering standards.

Which is fine to a certain extent right?… Relax a bit, enjoy time with family, and have a beer or two.

But a lot of people just switch off for the whole month, eating tins of chocolate, dumped on the couch watching more Netflix than the whole of the year combined.

No need for that.

You can use this time when the crowd is getting sloppy to give yourself the extra edge.

Ok, so the markets may be quiet and you don’t want to trade a quiet market.

But finding time to:

• Read that trading book,
• Run through your trading performance,
• Explore that new strategy,
• Or examining the charts of your best trading days can really move you forward.

This kind of stuff doesn’t take long, and it doesn’t mean you need to be a Scrooge.

“No Christmas dinner for me thanks, I’m reviewing my trade journal!” no, no, no…

Relaxing and refreshing is important, but also seizing this downtime as a chance to move yourself forward. Keep the ball rolling and momentum chugging.

Not only does it help your trading, but it builds your confidence.

After you spend an hour doing some work on your trading, give yourself credit.

Appreciate that you could have just watched yet another Bond movie, but you didn’t. You made the effort to do some work to push you towards that big goal…

That’s a very powerful message you give yourself.