This was a good week and I learned a lot. Not only did I have a productive week at work, I also increased and improved my trading and completed the SMB Capital Trader DNA program.

I made more trades this week than I had before – both in quantity and in size. I got in the arena and placed my stakes. I had been thinking that I needed to increase my size and stepped up my buys in both trades I took. I also took two trades this week, instead of just observing the market from the sidelines. I didn’t miss a single SMB AM meeting, and I also attended the Saturday morning review session, all of which provided insightful learning opportunities.

My trading is far from perfect, as I’m still new to intraday trading, but I am getting better. I started scaling up positions that I was right on, slowly increasing my trade size. My goal is to increase size step-by-step for the next two weeks, when I should be getting out of my biggest position which I am holding until earnings on the 29th. This will free up a lot more capital for me to trade with, and by stepping up as that date approaches, I should be mentally prepared to trade the bigger size when I have the opportunity. More A+ trades and bigger size are the two things I’m actively working on, with the focus on going bigger once I identify my A+ trades.

I also hit a major milestone in completing SMB’s Trader DNA program. This is a 10-week program that I started July 2nd and completed in just over a month. The program content was extremely useful and I’ve already almost made back the cost. That said, I’m not done with the program. There is so much content to review, particularly an extensive list of trade setups, and I still have a lot to learn. But I feel really positive about the experience – DNA was exactly what I was looking for, at exactly the right time, at a reasonable price. I’ve learned about setups, psychology, review, stocks in play, journaling, studying, and so much more.

Part of me is a bit sad that I’ve completed the program, as I looked forward to the study sessions every weekend, but now it’s time to take it to the next level and put what I’ve learned to use. I’m figuring out how I can trade beyond the first hour of each day, which is often the most chaotic part of the day, so that I can take advantage of longer term intraday setups. Right now, my thinking is that if I take a position in the morning, I can monitor it off an on throughout the day, and then take a break from work near the end of the market day to close out any positions. This is less than optimal, as I will undoubtedly miss optimal exits, but I don’t want to hold positions overnight and I do want to take advantage of the intraday plays.

The biggest lesson of the week was not to put off doing my Daily Report Cards, but to do them each night after I trade. I repeated some mistakes that I had made the previous session that I may not have had I done the Report Card before the second session. So, I will get better at doing those on the same day, or at least before the next trading session.