No "Chewbaca Howl" this week

My arrogance last week has been replaced with humility this week. The market is handily beating me so far.

I finished Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom by Van K. Tharp about a month ago and I began reading Trading for a Living by Dr. Alexander Elder this week. I've learned a lot from both books.

I am in no way prepared to make a living from trading yet. I hope to be able to however, in 5 to 10 years. But in preparing for that kind of life, there are many things that I never took into consideration. Both books addressed these issues and more:

• My records were good, but they didn't really tell me anything.
• My risk was way above what it should be for each trade, and a string of losses could have possibly wiped me out.
• I was way too emotional about the market and couldn't believe how it seemed to move against me every time I traded.
• I had too many different things influencing my trading (screens, other traders, news, daily fluctuations).

I think I've really matured this year as a trader (hopefully by year-end my returns will reflect my new-found maturity), but needless to say, I have a long way to go.