What Is Your Plan For Trading Success In 2022?

Every Tuesday Chuck releases a new Trader Tip video on YouTube. What is your plan for trading success in 2022? Do you have a plan? Do you have a plan that's well thought out? Some of you say, Well, I don't need a plan. I know what I'm doing. I'll just trade and do the things I know how to do.

You can read the episode transcript below or watch the video that follows.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We look forward to being a continued part of your trading education!

Happy New Year, everybody. I have one question for you to start this year. What is your plan for trading success in 2022? Do you have a plan? Do you have a plan that’s well thought out? Some of you say, Well, I don’t need a plan. I know what I’m doing. I’ll just trade and do the things I know how to do.

Let me ask you a question.
I’m a big football fan. Imagine if you were a New England Patriots fan. And your coach was Bill Belichick. Maybe the greatest football coach of all time. Somebody is known to be a genius when it comes to strategy. So how would you as a patriot fan feel? If you heard Bill Belichick decided for the next game? Yeah, we don’t need to do any scouting. We don’t need to have a plan. I’ve been doing this for years, I’ve won six Super Bowls. I know what I’m doing. Just trust me. How would you feel as a fan if the coach even a Hall of Fame coach of your favorite team was coaching your team with no plan, with no advanced scouting, with no adjustments during the game you just won with gut feel? Fans would be outraged. Yet people go into trading all the time, with no plan.

One of my favorite quotes of all time is this quote right here from General Dwight Eisenhower,
in which he says “in preparing for battle, I’ve always found that plans are useless. But planning is indispensable. The very act of planning prepares us to win, even if the particulars of the plan change on the fly.” So when we plan we actually engage in subconscious programming. If we actually set a mental framework in ourselves that we can stick to when adversity comes. When greed comes when elation comes, we have a plan that we can stick to in spite of our feelings.

Now, the reason I’m bringing up this up now is this the beginning of the year, and this is one of the most important times of the year to have a great plan. Our trading plans don’t need to be amazing, but they do need to be consistent. We need to execute them consistently.

Now for some of you who do not have a plan, you’re going to look back on 2022 with an unbelievable amount of regret. Some of you are going to make decisions this year that destroy your retirement. Some of you are going to make decisions this year that destroy your business. Some of you are going to make decisions that prevent your kids from going to college. Some of you are going to have health challenges because you made poor decisions and you experienced an immense amount of stress. Some of you are going to deal with marital problems because your spouse is going to be unbelievably upset with you about the decisions you made. The decisions you make have consequences. And when you set out and have a great plan, you minimize the impact. You avoid the possibility of disastrous decisions. But when you do have a plan, you are preparing yourself for success. When you do have a plan, you’re preparing yourself to face whatever adversity comes your way and be able to follow your plan to have thought things through in advance to know what can happen and to know what action you will take when it occurs.

The plan will be the difference between an incredibly successful year and it is a year that could be disastrous. The great thing is, is that I can help you with your plan. This is one of the things that I do really well. And I can show you a process that helps you create great trading plans, helps you ask the right questions.

One last thought, you know when the low for 2021 was formed last year? 
It was formed in January 4, the first day of the year. Go back and look. The low for the year was the first day of the year. What that meant was that when the low for the year was in you would know for the remainder of the year the direction could only be up. Literally today, I promise you there are markets that put in their high or their low for the year today. And if you’re not prepared, you miss out on that opportunity. So let me help you be prepared. Let me help you have a phenomenal 2022.

We’ll see you Thursday.
– Chuck Whitman