As day Traders we understand that if we finish a week up, let's say $10,000 it'll never be because we made exactly $2,000 each day. Inevitably, there will be one day that was great, one day that was the worst and a couple of days that were in between. That's how trading is and yet a lot of new Traders have not yet learned. This is not only true on a daily basis, it's true on a monthly basis.

And it's true. Even on an annual basis, you cannot assume and expect that every year will get progressively better and better and better. In terms of the amount of profit you make in trading, you will have just like you do on a daily basis. You will have some years that are better and some years that are slower.

and the sooner you learn that and accept it, it allows you to settle in when the Market's cooler and focus on base hits. Knowing when things heat up, it's time to put the pedal to the metal and get aggressive to maximize on the opportunity. I get how scary it is as a beginner. Trader if you're making less this year than you made last year and as an example, in my first year, my first year trading.

Now for for context: I took my first trade when I was probably 16 or 17 years old. that was my first. Real Money Trade I'm 38 now So I've been in the market in one way or another for a long time, but my first year of actually trading full-time like this was my thing that I was going to do I made money and in the second year I was red I finished the year in the red and that was really scary for me because I was asking myself was last year a fluke you know, was it just luck and and is this now the way it's going to be for forever and because I was feeling anxious and and stressed out, it was negatively affecting my trading I was getting more erratic, more emotional you know I was holding losers too long I was getting stubborn and frustrated and with that ended up doing was it perpetuated this sort of negative spiraling draw down that I went through, which if I had had the knowledge at that time that trading is not linear, you know you don't just always make 5% more than you made the previous year. You'll have some years that are better and some years that are worse.

I Think it would have helped me sort of just accept that state that I was in which was part of my learning curve and this is true for a lot of beginner. Traders You might have a little bit of beginner's luck or just a good start and then you go into an extended draw down. There's a combin of reasons why this happens, but even for Traders who have been doing it for a really long time. just as an example, 2018, I made $499,000 498 2017 I was at 335,000 so you know 2017 was a great year and then 2018 was even better 2019 I finished at 365,000 right? So you see I was you know 335, 498 and then 365 and then if I had, let's just say stopped in 2019 because I was like oh man, I'm you know I'm on the way down I this year's Nzo is the last.

I should just give up because maybe I expected I would keep making 500 a year. Maybe I changed my lifestyle to be spending up to this new amount that I was making in 2019. I wasn't happy with it and if I had left, I would have missed out on everything that came in 2020, 2021, 2022 Etc You never know what's coming next, but this thing of day trading, it is 100% a marathon. So in all of my years of trading, there have been a couple of little windows that have had tremendous opportunity, and if I had missed those, the amount that would have cost me I mean you know you could actually add it up just based on if I hadn't been there those years, but it's really substantial.

So I want to encourage new traders to think about things in this way. Trading will have ups and downs. What you need to be able to do when the market is cooling off, you need to be able to ease off the throttle and slow down. pace yourself, Settle in and expect that you're going to kind of be in the trenches for a little bit.

Just go slow. In real practical terms, that means when the market cools off, you're going to focus on base hits. So how do you know if the Market's cooling off? Number one: you're going to notice your winners are getting smaller. Number two: you're going to notice that red days are more frequent.

Number three: you're going to notice that the red days are getting bigger if you notice those three things. That is a really good indicator that we're coming into a colder period in the market for your strategy when we're coming into a cold period. It's really important to adapt quickly because what a lot of Traders end up doing and I've done this many times myself. you've I'm sure seen it in my recaps is the market cools off, but I refuse to to slow down I don't adapt I get stubborn I get frustrated and what happens? Big losses, Big draw.

Downs So what I've gotten better at is really recognizing those early indicators. Those are like the caution flag going out on the track. It's time to ease off the throttle, cool off, and Pace myself. So what that means is basically I come into a cold Market hopefully with my account at all-time highs I Notice the first you know winners are getting smaller, losses are getting a little bit more frequent, and they're getting a little bigger and right away I Ease off and become more defensive.

so I go off the offense and I get a little defense right I Slow down, reduce my share size, increase my quality threshold, and just trade less. All right. Quality standard goes up. Trade frequency goes down.

now. how do you adapt back to when the market picks back up? You could be in a cold market for a week. It could be a month. It could be six months I've it could be a year.

I've had long stretches of being in a cold market and you have to show up every single day, because even in a cold Market you'll have intermittent opportunities where there is some action. But here's the indicator that things are starting to pick up. Number One: You're going to notice your average green days are starting to get bigger in size. Number Two: You're going to notice that you've been selling some of your winners too soon because they go a lot further than you expect.

Okay, you feel a little silly because you're like man I left some money on the table, but when you start seeing that more frequently, you're going to want to start thinking how can I hold these positions a little longer to get bigger piece of the action? So number one, you notice your green days are getting bigger. Number two: you notice you're selling a little bit, uh, maybe a little too soon. And then number three, you're starting to hit some occasional home runs. You know you're like whoa.

That was a surprise trade that I was in and this thing just really opened up. And perhaps number four, you're not having very many red days. Maybe you've had 10 green days in a row? Things are starting to connect. This is the time to get off the defense and start to get more aggressive.

What does that mean? Increasing share size, increasing quantity of Trades reducing the quality threshold just a little bit right in a hot Market A B quality setup will do a whole lot more than a B quality setup in a cold market. So this is the very subtle touch and it really requires you to be so dialed in to trading the market you're in. And this is a thing that a lot of new Traders may not be there yet because this is where experience really pays off being in the market being involved in the market. The longer the more screen time you have, the better.

And like I said, you know, with my first trades being when I was a teenager in high school, I have a lot of experience I've got a lot of time in the market, so I'm not perfect. There's a lot of traders that make more money than me. I'm not saying that I'm amazing, but I I have the benefit of a lot of experience and that combined with um, you know, just sort of that. I Guess that experience sort of creates that educated intuition that just that gut feeling you know you don't have.

The gut feeling comes from somewhere and it's from all that experience. So I hope you find this helpful. I I Really encourage you if you're a new Trader to adjust your expectations and to be okay with the fact that this year, wherever you are in your learning curve may not be as good as last year. you will have years that are better.

You will have years that are worse as long as you're keeping your head above water. That's what counts.