Debrief or Die

Debrief or die. That's what I said, I said debrief or die. Now, every week, I bring incredible information to you that helps you take your trading performance to an elite level, but if I'm being honest, some weeks content is better than other weeks. This week's content is one of them you're gonna want to really pay attention to. You're going to want to watch this two or three times and you're going to want to do what I tell you in this Trader Tip Tuesday. Got it? I'm telling you, this is really important. So let's get to it.

I've been reading a book over the past few weeks that actually brought up the content of this book. This book is called Positivity and I read a summary on it and I'm going to be reading it next week while I'm off, but already get the gist of it. So in this book Positivity, it was written by Barbara Fredrickson, who's a professor at University of North Carolina and one of the things that she determined was the ratio of positive comments, positive thoughts, positive actions in our life, to negative thoughts, negative comments negative actions, has a profound impact on the quality of our life. So specifically, with these ratios, if you want to be a peak performer, if you want to live an amazing life, a life that flourishes, a life filled with joy, a life filled with contentment, then the ratio of positive thoughts, positive emotions and positive actions needs to be three to one or greater. Three to one. If your ratio is two to one, you're managing to get by, you're in the fight, some days are good, some days are not so good. If your ratio is one to one, then you are struggling and you find little signs of hope and if your ratio is less than one to one, then you are susceptible to depression, suicide, and a whole variety of really low vibration emotions. So one of the things I'm passionate about is finding proven techniques that help us increase the quality of our life and not just our life here, but our life eternally.

When I read about this and the positivity ratio, this really cued me back to what we do in our daily trading debriefs. Because it's really fascinating when you look at how we have our trading briefs structured, so we're gonna go over that today. One thing I want to share with you is Paul Tudor Jones, who many people consider him to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, trader of all time. This is something that he said to me. He said, the discipline of doing my daily trading journal is the single greatest factor in my success. The single most greatest factor. He said, you know, Chuck, it's funny because he's like, I get busy, I've got other commitments and it's easy for me in a given day to skip my debrief, to not do my journal. Because I found I can skip it and I can get away with it for a day or two or a few days or few weeks, but what I find is that all of a sudden, I find myself struggling. My trading performance will fall off and I'll be sitting there wondering, why am I struggling? And you know, it hit me, I'm either not doing my daily debriefs or my debriefs are shit. I'm rushing through them and I'm not giving them any thought. Because I have realized that my daily debrief is the single greatest factor in my success. The daily debrief is the place that I capture everything that I'm seeing in the market, analyzing in the market and this work I'm doing is training my brain to make my brain more effective and more efficient in analyzing the market. It's also giving me the opportunity to process all of my emotions and to give a clean end to the day in which I can leave the day, knowing that I did my very best, regardless of the PNL, regardless of the PNL. Okay, you're hearing this from one of the greatest of all time. Somebody that many people think is the Michael Jordan of trading, that his debrief is the single most important factor in his success. Now, most traders don't even do a debrief at all. When they're done, they just leave. Well, that's a disaster waiting to happen just right there, but going one step further, there's the process around how we do the debrief and that's gonna bring us full circle back to this concept of positivity, because I'm going to share the way we do the debrief and I want you to notice something.

Four simple questions that we ask, four categories of questions. This is the structure of our daily debrief that will set you up for success. The first question, the first component is the what was great? So we're gonna ask ourselves the question, what was great as a result of the way we executed our trading processes, today, or this week, or whatever period is your debriefing would just say it's the day. So what was great today as a result of the way that we executed our trading processes? Then notice the next question, what else? What else was great? I noticed the next question. What else was great? So the questions are implying that there is at least three great things about today's trading day, not one, not two, but three. You ask a lot of people what was great about today, oh, I don't know. I had it today sucked. It's an attitude of a loser. It's the attitude of somebody who will not make money trading. Remember, even things that are perceived as negative can actually be viewed as tremendous positives. Let's say you made a trading error today. You didn't follow your rules. Well, what was great, buy how to trade today and copper, which didn't follow my rules and it was a reminder of how important it is to me to focus on the process, not the result. To focus on the process and not the potential of the trade. That's great. Why? Because I know that if I follow my processes day after day and trade after trade, I will make a lot of money. See how we spun that from something that could be negative, I lost money and made an error, stupid, stupid, stupid, to I've learned from this, and it's a reminder of why I never want to do this again and I can see how successful I will be as a result of this change. Powerful. Okay, so we've listed three things and guess what, you could list four, five, six, ten, as many as you want, but you want to try and flood this every day with the great things you're doing. They can be small, I got to my trading desk on time, I reconciled my statements and made sure that all my positions balanced before the open. It could be I filled out my trading checklists for every trade today. It could be I took three deep breaths and centered myself before I actually made my trade. It could be I had a phenomenal entry, recognizing selling coming in into daily resistance. These are all little things that are great that if you repeat these again and again and again, you are going to succeed. It could be I've done my daily debrief seven days in a row and doing it seven days in a row is a sign of my commitment, my consistency and my outstanding performance. That continuing to continue this streak is going to assure my outstanding success. These are the kinds of things that make a difference.

Okay, so now we're going to move into the next component. The next component is what could we have done differently in our trading process today or this week or whatever, to produce a better result? What could I have done differently in our trading process that would have produced a better result? So notice, this is the question that most people would look at and say this is my weakness. This is where I suck. This is my mistakes. We have reframed this. We have changed the vocabulary. So this is not a mistake, this is not a loss. This is not an error. This is not a failure. This is an area of growth. This is a challenge to be accepted and overcome. So we're going to list what could we have done differently. I could have followed my rules, rather than fall in love with the price action. I could have made sure it met my minimum reward to risk criteria, I could have made sure that I did my three deep breaths before I made this trade. I could have made sure as we came into daily resistance that I was checking intraday timeframes, for signs of selling to know to get out of my position. All different things, but things that we can recognize, that we can use and improve to be better going forward. Now, I want to pause right here because I want you to look at the ratio, right, we talked about this book Positivity, the ideal ratio is three to one or greater. Okay, we listed three things that were great and one thing that we could do differently. Three that are great, one that we could do differently.

All right, let's move into the third component. This is a very, very powerful question I don't see people ask. It's a simple question. You ask yourself the question and this doesn't matter if you trade one product or 500 products okay, this question is always applicable. What position is working now and why? Now let's stop right there, what positions working now and why? This is a powerful question because what is it suppose? it supposes that there is always a position that is making money. There is always a trade that is making money. He would go back and this is one of the things used to bother me the most when I would trade in a pit on the floor. I would stand around and these guys would fucking bitch all day long. Can't make any money in this market. This market sucks. It's so fucking dead. I'm like shut the fuck up. Why they were sitting there bitching that there was nothing to do. I would be grinding out $500, $200, $700, $2,000 and they would go home bitching that they couldn't make any money in a day that I make $5,000. Was a quiet? Yes, I made $5,000. $5,000 over 250 trading days is one and a quarter million dollars and I ground it out while they bitched. If you say you cannot make money in this market or you cannot make money with your strategy, you're asking the wrong question. The question should be what positions working now and why? This is a brilliant question because first of all, I'm an options trader. I believe all have you need to understand options. I cannot emphasize this enough. I have certain students that drives me fucking crazy that they won't embrace options. I make you're playing a game of checkers when we are playing chess. Let me play you in checkers. Imagine okay, we're gonna play, you're gonna have checker pieces and I'm gonna have chess pieces and you're going to be bound by the rules of checkers and I'm going to be bound by the rules of chess. Who is going to win? I'm going to kick your fucking ass because my pieces are more dynamic than yours are you trade flat price I trade options. I'm going to kick your fucking ass because I have more flexibility. This brings us to this question of what position is working now and why? If the markets dead, there are option positions that are making money when flat price people cannot make money and guess what? They don't have to be stupid risk positions either that you're short strangles or short Teenies waiting to get your ass kicked. That's not what I'm talking about. You can make money in any market if you understand how to use options. I've proven that year after year after year. So cut the bullshit, cut the fucking excuses and ask this question. What is working now? Now when we go to the why, the why is also powerful because in some cases, something stupid might be what's working and you don't want to do it. The thing that's working might not be something that's in your edges and you might not want to do it, but that's okay because you acknowledged you recognize that there was something that was working. This opens your mind that yes, there are things that are working. If things are working, you can find something that works.

Okay, that's moves it to the next question. Do I have it on? If not, why not? Most of the time, I see traders lose money really three ways. I see them lose money three ways. They get blown out on some immediate event. That's one way they lose it. They get ground down where they've just had loss after loss after loss and they don't have any edge in their strategy. Or they get stubborn, and they fight a trend. They get caught in the loss trap and they won't give up. So what's interesting is in this question, do I have it on? If not, why not? If I'm shorting, look at the stock market in the last five weeks, it has been going up, up and up and up last actually seven weeks, right, since November 3 has been just going up. Okay, so I've had some friends asked me like, What do you think of this market isn't as crazy? This is stupid, we've been bearish all year. But guess what? It doesn't matter. It does not matter that I think that things are overvalued, it does not matter that everything that's going on right now leads to recessions and eventually the market falling apart. It does not matter. Because the key question is, if I'm short the stock market right now, the money that's being made is on the long side, what's positions working now? Being long stocks. Why? Because everybody's banking on there's a soft landing coming. The data is at least for now supporting that. Okay, so do I have it on? No, I'm short stocks? If not, why not? Because I think they're stupid. Okay, now we have a frame. Now I'm admitting to myself that I have the position on that is consistently losing money. Now, what am I here for? Am I here to be right? Am I here to look like a hero? Am I here to look like I'm really fucking smart, or I'm here to make money? Why am I here? If it's not working, I need to ask myself the question of why do I have it on? I probably need to get out of it. So this sets you up, it opens your mind. There's always something that's working and then you can have a clear dialogue about whether you should have it on or not. It's okay if you don't, but at least we're aware there's something working and you don't have it on. Rather than bitching, there's nothing to do, or you can't believe how stupid things are.

All right. Last question. What will be great in my trading in the future because of my effort today? So result of what you did today, what you what the good things were you did what you learned what will be great going forward as a result of how you traded today and then we go one step further. Because what's so important in our life, is we've got to take the things we do, and we need to connect them to purpose. Without purpose, there's no energy. Without purpose, there's no follow through. Without purpose, you will cave, you will quit when it gets hard. So asking ourselves the question, what will be great in my trading as a result of how I traded today? And then the purpose question is what we great in my life as a result of my trading today? So I'm extrapolating out of just trading into my life. If I show this kind of discipline on a daily basis, my life is going to be amazing. I'm going to have financial abundance, like I've always dreamed of, my family is going to thrive as a result of what I'm doing. I'm going to be healthier, I'm gonna be happier, I'm gonna be spiritually connected, whatever it is, can connect it. This whole debrief model doesn't take very long, but every question has a very specific purpose to help you get where you want to go. If you are truly committed, if you're truly committed, no bullshit, okay, if you're truly committed to being a great trader, then you will take what I showed you today, and you will do it every day. How often? every fucking day. No excuses. When the trading day is over, you do your debrief. You follow this. If you follow this format, day after day after day, it will make a massive difference in your trading and in your life.

So, I think I've made myself pretty clear today. This is the last Trader Tip Tuesday of 2023. 52 Trader Tip Tuesdays this year. Lots of phenomenal wisdom, lots of phenomenal tips to help you be a great trader and to live a great life. I'm looking forward to doing many more of these with you, 52 of them to be exact, and 2024 to help you take your performance to an elite level, to an outstanding level, not to be mediocre, not to be good, but to be outstanding. I look forward to us doing this journey together and 2024 and seeing where we take it. God bless all of you. I hope your holidays are amazing. I hope you have an amazing new year and I'll see you next year when we're going to kick some ass. Happy Holidays!