In today's episode, I'm going to teach you the seven habits that I've embraced in my own trading routine that have helped me take my trading to the next level to help you experience a transformation in your own trading, you have to approach trading from the same mindset and with the same strategy as those who are actually finding success. So I'm going to pull back the curtain and share with you my day-to-day routine and we're going to begin at the end of the day. It starts my first habit with getting enough sleep I know that this is so easy to underestimate like Ross I give me a break. This is not even a habit.

Everyone needs sleep. You're right, everyone needs sleep. But here's the thing I will tell you that when I am sleep deprived and I am trading which I know because I have two kids under the age of five when I've had nights where I'm up all night with one of the kids or whatever it is and I don't sleep well when I sit down to trade that next morning man I I am just not the same person as when I've had a good night's sleep. So the first habit is going to bed early.

So now the first habit of getting a good night's rest the second starts the next morning when I wake up. This is going to be hard for some of you, but I do not allow myself to have caffeine before I start trading I give myself caffeine as a reward when I have finished a day of trading where I was calm, cool, and collected. whether I finished in the green or I finished in the red, it doesn't matter as long as I followed the rules. the caffeine is a reward.

So the reason I say no to drugs caffeine before trading is because what I have found is that when I get myself caffeinated I start feeling good and you know what I do when I feel good I press the buttons I press the buy button a lot I get a little eager I get a little trigger happy and next thing you know I can get myself into a really big position that I wasn't really planning on. So this is just like sleep. It's easy to underestimate how important sleep is. It's easy to underestimate the effect that caffeine and stimulants probably of any type.

Uh, for those of you that dabble can have in your trading so sober as a judge while you're trading, keep your head clear, stay focused, and say no to caffeine until you finish trading and then that is a really nice reward for a for a day well done and again, even if it's a red day. A red day where you walk away following your losses following your max loss. following your rules. That's a good loss.

In my opinion. that's a reason to celebrate and have that cup of coffee or whatever it is. Now the third habit is exercise. I I Can't tell you how many times I'm out and about and people are asking me, do you know where the gym is They look at me, they look at my physique and they're like, if anyone around here knows where the nearest Gy is, it's that guy right there.

Don't underestimate how good exercise can make you feel, even if it's just a walk. Now if you can do a little bit more calisthenics, step it up a notch. Do some pull-ups, do some sit-ups I think that's great. One of the things that I used to do in my own trading is I punished myself for breaking rules if I broke rules I would go for a run and I set rules of different types.

if I if I broke one rule, I'd run a mile. If I broke a rule, sometimes I'd say if I broke that rule, I' run five miles and I remember a day where I was running more miles than I could count because I'd broken so many rules. But for me, jogging, running, doing sit-ups, doing pull-ups it it's A. it's sort of a a very meditative type of exercise where I can be thoughtful I can think a little bit and process my day either the day ahead or the days that have just happened.

and I find for me that this type of exercise is an opportunity to strengthen the muscle of discipline. And that's a muscle that you're going to need while you're trading. Right when you're in a trade and all of a sudden, you're down like a dollar a share your gut instinct might be I'm going to add to the position I'm going to average down I'm going to trade my way out of it. Or you get into a trade.

You see a hidden seller. You start getting frustrated. You know what? I Don't care if there's a hidden seller? I'm going to press the buy button. I'm going to buy up his shares.

Buy buy, Buy Byy Byy. Next thing you know, you're in super heavy. It's a iceberg, it hasn't broken, and now you're going to get smoked. So being able to have discipline in your trading is critical.

And I think areas in your day-to-day life where you can exercise that muscle of discipline is only going to help you be a better. Trader So you know, doing physical exercise I think is good for that perspective. but I also I also feel like it's good just for the perspective of it. Makes you feel good after you do it.

And because trading can involve some emotional roller coasters, things that you can do that kind of help level out those emotions, make the down days a little less down, and it pulls the up days a little bit down too. Like this is just a regular day. Okay, it's a big green day, but I'm just going to try to stay even keeled about it because that's the mentality of a really successful Trader You know, the most successful Traders out there, no individual day really matters to them anymore. They've made so much money and I'm talking about people Farm who made far more than me.

But they've made so much money that any individual day doesn't even matter. So it's like you know they're just so like, even keeled about it. And that mentality is what allows them to cut their losers really quickly. They they hold their losers a little bit or hold their winners a little bit longer.

They don't get emotional because they're just calm, cool, collected. So I really think the exercise is a good one there and I know you know you look I mean you're like, of course this is what this guy's going to say. He's working out all the time, He's in incredible shape. But you know, even if you're not someone that's in as good a shape as me, which is going to be hard because not many people are there, you know, still just make an effort if it's you know, 10 pull-ups a day if it's just 10 push-ups a day and if you want to, you know, mix that in with it's a punishment for making a mistake.

You know, then then that's okay too. The fourth Habit in my trading is to focus on the most obvious stock every single day and this is something that even today I struggle with a little bit because sometimes the stock that is the most obvious is not my absolute favorite because of the price or the float or something like that. but you know if it's really obvious, that's where the volume is going to be and if that's where the volume is, that's where the liquidity is. That's where the opportunity is going to lie.

So I really have to be dialed in each day with trading the most obvious stock. Having said that, I also have to really take seriously my strategy and the setups that I'm willing to trade. So if there's a stock that's really obvious, but it just does not fit within my strategy at all then at that time I'll say it I can't trade it and that may be a day that I say I'm not going to take any trades at all and that's totally fine. But each day my day begins by looking at the Gap scanner and and trying to figure out which stock is obvious, which stock most closely fits within my strategy.

but then also you know just with no filters on what is the most obvious stock in the market Today when the most obvious stock in the market is also a stock that fits with my strateg. which honestly is more days than not because my strategy is sort of customized to trading those types of stocks. That's when things. That's when the magic happens.

That's when we get some really great action when the most obvious stock is like a 13 cent stock and everyone's trading that and the stock that I like the most. That that best fits. my strategy is like maybe the fifth most obvious. That's when we don't usually see good follow through.

So I have to be able to really take the temperature of the market. What's the market like today and is the most obvious stock one that fits my strategy? If it is time to step up to the plate, be aggressive. if it's not time for an honest assessment of whether or not it's even worth trading my favorite stock today even if it's you know, sort of far down on the scan and making the decision from that point of you know is today just a day where I say you know what maybe the best trade is no trade at all And one thing I would add to that is the fact that some days really truly the best trade is no trade it all you know I've had these days where I go red in the morning I'll take like a big loss I it's like I was trading a stock that wasn't sort of the most obvious stock you know I like the setup but I kind of lost picture. the big picture got myself into a loss and then I feel the need to recoup those losses.

So I'm looking for something else. But the fact remains that the most obvious stock on that day really doesn't fit within my strategy. And on those days I try to remind myself, you know Ross your best bet of making back this loss, whatever it is is, is wait until tomorrow. It's not going to happen today.

So just sit with this loss today. It's a small loss. It's okay to be in the red today, wait until tomorrow. Or similarly, it's okay for today to be a no trade day if there's nothing that really looks great, and wait for tomorrow as a beginner.

Trader It's so important to master one strategy I Know this looks like 11, but this is just one. and then I'm reiterating One One strategy. That's that's where it's at. Focus on just one strategy.

That's your go-to because if you can make money consistently with one strategy, man, that's enough to keep your head above water. You don't want to underestimate how important that is. That can be enough that you can make a little bit of money trading. You can start making progress while you're working on learning strategy 2 Strategy 3.

And when I'm talking about strategy I Even just mean setup like chart pattern. This is the one chart pattern that I trade on these types of stocks and you do just that for 68 weeks or even a year. It doesn't matter as long as you're consistent. That's what's important.

Focus on what's giving you consistency. That's where it's at. The fifth habit is to quit while you're ahead and this is my opportunity to give you some recommended. Reading the book Quit By Annie Duke I Was inspired by it.

She's a professional poker player who wrote a book on knowing when to walk away. I Mean man. if anyone knows who When to Walk Away More so than a Trader I think it would be a a professional poker player because it's all about. you know, obviously you want to leave your chips on the table, make as much as you can, but you got to know when to walk.

And the same is true with trading. One of the things that she says is that you have to learn to walk away sooner. and I was like man. that Rings true.

That is so right. Learn to quit. Learn to walk away sooner. And the problem is, a lot of us don't walk away until we've had a close call, until we've almost given back our entire day.

and then we're like that was close. But the more we do that, the more times we will eventually give back our entire day. and then we're sitting with regret. So what? I would rather do given the choice to leave money on the table or to give back profit I Would rather leave money on the table, but walk away with profit in my pocket.

And this for me is such an important mentality. when I started trading I I Never thought that I was going to get rich trading or make a lot of money I just really wanted to make a little bit of profit each day. $200 right? $100 $200 and once I hit that I was happy. Now what I have found is that once you're consistently making 10 a day, going from 10 to 20, 20 to 40, 40 to 100, 100 to 200, 200 to a th000, it's sort of just a matter of increasing share size.

So as my days have gotten bigger, my mentality hasn't actually changed. I still treat each day like I want to make my little piece of profit today because that's like my Nest EG You know, just like, put that away and then move on I Don't gamble I Don't try to hit home runs I just just try to hit base hits. and being a base hit Trader means not comparing yourself to other people, but getting your little piece and then walking away and being done walking away sooner. It's really important.

Don't underestimate it. Check out the book by Annie Duke So now for my sixth habit: meditation and reflection. once I finish my trading day, it's time for me to get away from the computers. This is something that was a real game Cher For me when I was living up in Vermont and I was trying to break out of this habit of Revenge trading overtrading that kind of snowball cycle that I would fall into, many of you are familiar with it.

You may have had it yourself and so one of the things that I was doing in those days and this was I I had the specific memory that I I gave myself a project. The project was I needed to cut, chop, stack enough firewood for the winter and so when I finished trading in the morning around 10:30 or 11, I would go out into the yard and I would trim down some trees that were dead, or cut up trees that were on the ground that were dead. I would bring the wood over the Woodshed and then I would chop drop it, split it right, get it ready, stack it. And that was such a relaxing, meditative activity because while I was doing that, for those of you who do have done manual labor, you know how you can get really in your thoughts.

You know you're thinking you're just, you're doing something that's mindless. It's easy enough to do so you're not using a lot of thought and that allows time to process the day that you just had and I still do that now. I do it in different ways I I have some fish that I car for uh I I it's it's kind of silly, but I I have some some shrimp that I care for each day. my little small shrimp and then I've got my bigger fish.

My bigger fish eat shrimp but they don't eat each other I keep them separate and then I I have my terrariums that I work on I do my gardening and these are all things that I find really relaxing and meditative and it's it's difficult for me because you know being a dad and and a husband and you know having a business and all these things. The days get very very busy and it's easy to lose the time that I need to kind of process and reflect on my trading day. but it really is important and especially for beginner Traders carving out some time that's quiet time for you whether it's to journal or it's just to think about the trading session. and and if you even want to do actual meditation, you know where you're doing a a a guided meditation or something like that I have the headspace app on my phone I've used that I did it more as a beginner Trader Now I bring it back out of my sort of tool chest as a coping mechanism for when I'm dealing with a really a frustrating period in the market where I'm getting frustrated.

It's like I need to bring it, you know, calm, cool, collected. So I encourage you to find Outlets where you can reflect and you can kind of decompress and where hopefully they're disconnected from Trading So you're not looking at trading, you're not thinking about trading. So I have the things that I do that you know bring me some joy that that that I you know, find, um, helpful Sometimes working on my old cars, it's helpful. Some of these things can be frustrating in their own right because they're a project.

but it's good to have things separate from trading. It really is helpful. And now for the seventh habit. Last but not least, possibly the most important habit: journaling tracking your trades, analyzing your metrics.

This for me, was so important. So when I took my first paper trades, well, they were. We didn't even have a paper trading account, but when I was in Middle School this was in the 90s. this was a long time ago.

we were trading with you know, just a like a legal pad Ledger and we were writing down the stock prices of what we were buying and then we were checking the newspaper to see what the current quote was on these stocks. And this was a semester long project when I started trading when I was a teenager probably SE 16 or 17 years old. when I took my first trades with a with my Amir trade account, I did the same thing. I was tracking my trades, taking notes about why I bought them.

you know why I sold this and that. and so when I got back into trading and tried to make it a my full-time job, that was something that I did from the very beginning tracking all of my trades and that was so important for me. I've met so many Traders over the years I've said what are your metrics and I said I don't know, you know I don't I don't get into I don't I don't know I don't get into that. It's one thing for an experienced Trader who's making money to say I don't feel like obsessing over the details cuz generally things are going well.

but for someone who's struggling, those details May hold the answer that could help you get through. Get over the hurdle, right? So if the if you're not solving the puzzle right now, I would look closely at those metrics. If you haven't already imported your metrics, import all the metrics of all the trades you've ever taken, figure out what your accuracy is, figure out your profit loss ratio, figure out the time of day you make the most money, the day, day, the week you Mak make the most money, the price range stock you make the most money, the characteristics of the stocks where you make the most money, how much it's up on the day, how much it's down on the day, what the volume is, what the relative volume is. There are answers in that data you just have to look for and so I use that data in my own trading even to this day.

every single trade I import so I can analyze it I don't necessarily analyze it on a day-to-day basis, but I look at it over the the you know the course of couple weeks a month. certainly over the course of a year and years as I'm trying to understand Trends and what's working for me and what's not working for me I Promise this is the last time I'm going to say underestimate, but don't underestimate the importance of metrics and tracking your trades. But I Hope learning these seven habits that I have implemented and embrace in my own day-to-day routine will help you I hope you implement them in your own trading. Well, it's just about 4:00 so I better be getting ready for bed.

but I hope learning about the seven habits that I embrace in my daily routine helps you as you think about getting yourself into the Mind space, the head space of a successful Trader I hope that you implement some of these habits in your own trading and I hope that this helps you experience that transformation as you go through your learning curve and your journey from beginner to intermediate to. Advanced Trader As always I hope you hit the thumbs up I Hope you're subscribed and check out this episode right here that YouTube thinks you're going to love.