Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Here are a few of the things that have caught my attention over the past week. I hope you enjoy. 

Listen to This

As I mentioned in last week's newsletter, I've been learning about mindfulness and practicing meditation using the Waking Up app. Each morning, I listen to one lesson on mindfulness and I do one guided meditation.

This week one of the mindfulness lessons had a huge impact on me and the way I think about life. The lesson is called "The Last Time" and it is a wonderful reminder that we do things and experience things a finite number of times. And we hardly ever know when the last time will be.

I would highly encourage you to take 4 minutes and 37 seconds out of your day and listen to The Last Time.

Trading Journal Software

Most professional day traders will tell you that one of the most important things a new trader can do is journal about their trades. Write down why you entered the trade, why you exited it, what you learned, how it played out, etc. Adopting this habit forces you to learn from your mistakes and it helps you identify the setups, patterns, and habits that increase your odds of success.

Since I started trading, I've been documenting my trades using pen and paper. This has been great for making me analyze what I'm doing but it's not great for identifying the commonalities between my winning trades and my losing trades.

So this week, I set a goal to find a better trading journal. After testing out 4 or 5 journaling softwares and playing around with a handful of trading journal templates on Notion and Excel, I have finally found a winner.

It's called TradeZella and it automates much of the journaling process. It syncs to your brokerage account and it automatically pulls in your trades. All you have to do is go through and add your notes. What type of pattern/setup was it? What were your expectations and how did it ultimately play out? What did you do well and what could you have done better?

Then, TradeZella crunches the data and identifies the commonalities between your winning trades and your losing trades. It tells you what times of the day you perform best, what strategies/setups are the most profitable for you, what mistakes are costing you the most money, and much more.

It's a little bit pricey at $49/month but the intel you'll gain from using TradeZella will quickly be worth significantly more than the monthly cost. 

New Favorite Day Trading YouTube Channel

Channel: SMB Capital: Trading Insights From an NYC Prop Firm

This week, I came across a fantastic YouTube channel for anybody that wants to become a better trader. The channel is run by one of the biggest proprietary trading firms in the US and they've created over 1,700 no-fluff videos to help you become a better trader.

I'd recommend filtering their videos by "most popular" and watching a few of the top-ranking ones. One of my favorite videos that I've watched is titled "Options Trading Tips: Ten Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started"

That's it for this week. Thanks for being here and reading along. I hope you've learned a thing or two that will make your life better. 

- Eric