Who am I?
I'm in my early 40's and attempting a career change. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Business; a certificate in Kaizen: The Philosophy of Continuous Improvement; and most recently obtained an Advanced Equities Trading Certificate. I've always wanted to trade equities but thought it was something I'd have to live in Manhattan to accomplish. After the company I was working for shut its doors, I started researching to find out if this was something I could pursue online (it is) and decided it's now or never. I also hold down a full time gig working as a national account manager for a national lighting, electrical, and HVAC distributor and am helping them move the company toward self-performing projects. I enjoy both lines of work but trading tips the scale for me and is what I am most passionate about.
Why keep a journal?
My mentors encourage keeping a trading journal, which I did for roughly 6 months while I paper traded and moved into live trading with real money, but found it weighing on me more than I found it helpful. It turns out, what I was doing wasn't considered journaling. What I was doing was keeping a trade ledger. Journaling should be more about my thoughts and feelings on any given day; why I take the trades I take; what my plan was with the trade; how well I executed that plan; etc.. I had it wrong but am working to correct that now.
Why publish my journal online?
Trading is important to me and people don't seem to understand my passion or drive to become a successful trader. Less than 10% of people who attempt to take this on become consistently profitable. It takes dedication, focus, determination, hard work, and discipline. I want to document my success in a way that will always be around and if anyone were to stumble upon, they might find something of value to help them. I'm also using a public journal as somewhat of an accountability tool. When I look at taking a trade part of my evaluation is, "do I really want to post about this publicly?"