What is it that you need to change to get better at trading? What can you do to increase your profits and confidence? What is required for you to decrease your losses and your emotional swings? What do you need to stop doing? What do you need to start doing?

Answering these questions is not easy. Below you will find a simple but powerful exercise that will help you work out what you need to stop and what you need to start doing. It will also show you what you need to do more of.

Get a big notebook, one that has full pages. Number the pages of the notebook, at least the first 61 pages (handwriting is okay). Do not skip any numbers – page two should face page three, page four should faces page five and so on. On page one write your name. Leave page two blank and divide page three vertically into two columns. Put the headings “Failures” and “Successes” above the columns.