Planning Your Trade
Summers are full of family vacations. Picture a large family cruising down the highway traveling to a distant destination. This doesn’t just happen; meaning, we don’t just leave the house, pile into the van and take off. My wife and I make a plan. We plan for us and for our kids. We plan what we will eat, drink, and even what clothes we will bring, depending on weather conditions. Even after all the planning, things come up that we don’t account for. Like family trips, our trades should have a plan.
In trading, there will always be some unknowns. Will the underlying stock go up, go down, or remain the same? Depending on our bias, we place trades that should pay-off, if our assumptions hold true. But what if the stock only goes up half of our intended move, or not at all? What if it goes opposite of our intended direction? Planning ahead allows us to prepare for these outcomes and prepare for the decisions we will face because of them. Making decisions when powerful emotions like fear and greed are involved are often not based on sound thinking. But, if we have a plan for each outcome, we can decide in advance what we should do. We can account for such possibilities when we are calm and execute the proper orders when we see them, rather than in the spur of the moment when we may not be thinking clearly. Trading can be an adventure, but it doesn’t have to be a stressful one. We can reduce anxiety if we will plan ahead of time and make decisions in advance, helping us be in control no matter the outcome.