I had a plan. After school, I’ve set up the kids with snacks and their Wii game for the rest of the afternoon. Then, I had the water on the bath going, added some oil and flowers, got the sparkling Moscato white wine, and picked up my little one to go into the bath. I haven’t quite settled in for 1 minute, when, she decided it’s not for her! ( I guess she prefer the bubbles). She kept wanting to get out, while I tried keeping her in. The floor is starting to get a bit slippery too because of the oil, arrrggggggggghhhh
But wait! The plan was so that I could relax,,, enjoy a quiet moment of reflection, a celebration. I had after all, turned a year older, managed to finish the book, visited family overseas and made it to the kid’s school on time that morning! So with the “greater good” in mind, I made myself and the kids FOLLOW the plan. After all, this “me-time” is going to help me get ready to dive in to a whole new flurry of activities.
So, I rinsed and bundled out the little one, dressed her and made her join the other children. Made my firstborn in charge of the play and, warned them to share and have fun, if not – no more games that afternoon! 🙂
Moral of the story : have a plan, then follow it.
Faced with the falling US market last Saturday, I forced myself not to think about it and just “follow the plan”. I have been nursing along the stock STO which has been going up and up, but seemingly the Greek bailout talks (for the nth time!) was causing disturbance in the market, erasing the Iran and Middle East problems out of the radar and brought oil prices down. I said to myself, that’s OK. Nothing to worry about, don’t even try to explain what is going on (we all know the debt problem is lurking in the shadows!) when it breaches the trailing stop at the close, then it’s time to implement the next trade (which is to either sell the shares or Sell Call option which is my strategy for protecting the profits while still keeping the shares.). Trailing stop is now 30c less than the highest close which was 14.06, so I’m looking at 13.76 level to execute the new trade.
This is opposed to what I would have been thinking and feeling in my “previous life” of, heart pounding early on Monday, dreading the fall in price that the stock would suffer, and then jumping in at the earliest opportunity to sell at the hope of preserving profits. Yes, so stressful. Very.
But today, wow! I feel very grown up now. I stuck to the plan, by mid day, I saw that the stock had indeed opened low but recovered quickly, and have not breached the trailing stop. In fact, it’s another day saved, STO had even moved up to close 8c higher.
So next time you feel any of these emotions : being excited, or nervous, even “hopeful” remind yourself that the plan is there to help you trade profitably. So my friends, follow the plan, but also to remember your plan differs from mine — like my shoe size is 8 1/2, maybe yours is size 7 — if you find my trading plan in the book – don’t just copy, see if the trailing stop works for you for the stock you own (yes the would differ – some stocks move more than others). You have to determine this with how volatile the stock is and whether you are comfortable with the amount / profit technically at risk.
Follow your own plan. Follow “me” – (oh no – not me- you). Oh you know who.
Following?
