Lost (last) Month...

 In skateboarding as in trading, it would seem that taking a slam every now and again is inevitable.  So it was with last month – my lost month.  I returned from my trip to Washington with all the trading confidence in the world.  A week of unnecessary meetings was troubling and the sudden loss of a valued colleague led to my biggest slam of the year.  But really it was all about me.  Skaters fear locking up on the coping of a ramp or pool more than any fall.  A big backside air with a lock-up leads to the full body slam. 

Going big in trading leads to similar slams.  Overtrading, failure to follow trading plans, or trading too many lots in the Forex world is the quickest way to suffer a fall.  February was a month punctuated by a handful of these trades.  Most of us who follow the EURUSD know that the year has seen a bit of a downtrend, a few up moves along the way, but mostly a grind down.  My mistake was to not follow my typical trading rule – never trade against the trend.  I did and I slammed!

But the Grinder Trader does not give up.  A simple refocus on my trading rules, a decrease in lot sizes and improving trade selection has helped me recover a large portion of the losses.  I know that I will get to the big airs – I just have to grind it out.