Leverage the Power of Your Mind

Add the 3-2-3 method into your daily routine and feel the power of your mind...

Do you ever wonder why some traders make millions while others lose everything?

The difference lies in the structure of their psychology.

Most traders have no structure or way to track how their mind operates before the session, during the session, or after the session.

That was one of my early issues–which lead me to create my own journalling routine:

The 3-2-3 Model.

Here’s what it is and how you can implement it in 30 minutes or less:

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The 3-2-3 method is a simple mental model to build journalling into your daily routine in 30 minutes or less.

It is broken up into 3 parts:

1. Premarket (3 questions, 5 minutes)

2. During Market Hours (2 questions, 10 minutes)

3. Postmarket (3 questions, 15 minutes)

Let’s break down each one:

Pre-Market (3 questions):

1. What could hold me back today?

Here you want to be very clear with the consistent actions you’re trying to avoid. For me, this answer oftentimes is something like, “Trading setups that are outside of my system. I will only trade setups that are a part of my strategy.”

By acknowledging the mistake I consistently make, and actively saying I am going to avoid it for the day, I create a clear path forward during the session and provide some consistency in thought toward my actions during the upcoming session.

2. What are the best setups on my focus list?

This answer should be no more than 2-3 names that you are focusing on at the beginning of the session.

The goal of this question is to provide yourself with mental structure (in an unstructured environment). You know what tickers to execute on based on the levels you laid out in your post-market routine the day before.

3. Are there outside life factors affecting my ability to perform today?

This is the most important question of your new premarket routine.

Are you fighting with a significant other? Are your pets sick? Are there other areas of strife that may affect your decision-making today?

The answer to this question will be a clear indication of whether or not you’re in the mindset to trade.

During the Session (2 questions)

1. Actions

One of the biggest improvements to my trading began when I started to write down my trading executions & associated thoughts during the session.

This allows me to accurately capture the exact emotions and thought processes I was working through as I put real money on the line.

2. Other Thoughts Based on Feel (Intuition Checks)

This section allows you to write down your thoughts about the overall activity of the market.

On a broad basis, are stocks participating in the day’s action? What are the indexes telling you? What groups is money flowing into?

By consistently checking your intuition vs. what the market actually does, you are able to build better mental models toward the patterns the market shows on a daily basis.

There will be a time when the market feels exactly like the previous day–now you have the ability to go back and check your thoughts that day & use them to your advantage in the present.

Post-Market

1. Standout Names/Groups

This is where your scanning during/after the session gets put on to paper.

You are organizing your plan of attack for the upcoming session.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What are the best stocks/groups that deserve your attention going forwards? Do a couple of names stand out above the rest?

2. Final Thoughts About the Market’s Action

In this section, you can check your intuition notes from earlier or come up with conclusions about what the action is telling you for the days to come.

This is your brain dump section.

3. Areas of Success/Failure

Always make sure to look back on the day and grade your performance.

What did you do well today? What could you have done better?

Answering these two questions will provide you with valuable information about the thought processes and actions you need to take in the upcoming session to be the best trader you can be.

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Notion Template:

If you want to keep track of all of your notes digitally, instead of by hand, I have created a Notion Template that you can download (for free) here:

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The inspiration for this weekend’s edition came from the feedback I received on this tweet:

Greg Duncan 🦁 @GregDuncan_

Notes from my trading journal today If you want to be a legendary trader you have to be able to connect past states to future ones in an instant. This is best achieved by journaling. 💪

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Let’s now get into some of the weekend routine prep.

Below I’ll cover:

→ The market action this week

→ My performance so far in the 2023 US Investing Championship

→ Video walkthrough of my Focus List heading into next week

Let’s go 💪

Reviewing the Market Action this Week:

SPY: After a 3-weeks tight below all of the MA’s, we get some strength to close out the week. More importantly, stocks underneath the hood continue to take shape and show some strength.

QQQ: RS line still lags here and scans don’t show a bunch of tech-related stocks doing well. My focus will likely not be in these names until character change takes place.

IWM: The RS Line flips above its MA which is a huge positive - possible we see some sort of outperformance from the small caps if this rally has any legs.

DIA: This has been the strongest of the 4 but I don’t put much weight into this grouping as it is only 30 stocks.

Reviewing my Performance: 2023 USIC