VIRTUAL TRADER

---

On Being An Efficient Trader

Streamline Your Trading Routine

by David Mabe

---

Become a more profitable and efficient trader by automating your trading. Find out how.

How many times have you been trading and come across a great entry price, only to have the price cruise on by before you can get your order in? Worse, you discover you were just seconds too late on your trade of the day as the price is already extended beyond your entry point. This is a frequent event in a trader's life and can often lead to frustration, which can cloud your thinking and even result in overtrading.

When I'm too late to get in on what I think would have been a great trade, I used to get frustrated. Now I take a methodical approach to analyzing trades I miss by answering the following questions:

1. Was this a trade I could have reasonably seen in time to trade it? No matter how efficient your daily routine, you'll always miss some trades.
2. Given my current trading routine, is this a trade I should have seen in time? If so, why didn't I?
3. Is there part of my daily trading routine that I could make more efficient so I can be prepared for more trades like this?

Answering these questions turns a frustrating event into an opportunity to improve. One of my goals as a discretionary trader is to use automation to streamline my daily trading routine as much as possible. There are a variety of aspects of your trading routine that can be streamlined and in many cases completely automated.

...Continued in the September issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES

---

Excerpted from an article originally published in the September 2008 issue of Technical Analysis of
STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2008, Technical Analysis, Inc.

---

Return to September 2008 Contents

---