The seventh commandment of profitable trading is to write your plan. You wouldn’t go headlong into a business without any plan at all. You would have to have a business plan about what you would do, how you would make money, what your processes would be, and what your backup plans were.

Most people go into the markets with no plan: no rules, risk management, and if-this-happens-then-I’ll-do-that. The trouble is the market is about money, and money is emotional. If your emotion goes up, your intelligence goes down fast and a lot. People make dumb financial decisions when they’re stressed.

If you make your decisions in advance when the market is closed, and you’ve got it written down, and it’s a plan, and then you follow your plan, the emotions don’t get in the way. If your plan was “Okay, I’m following this set of rules/this system. I will add money to my account on this date every month until I’ve got this much in my account. I’m not going to withdraw any money until I’ve got that much in my account, and then I’ll only withdraw a certain percentage. I will not open any new trades if there’s any death in the family or any emotionally compromising situation. Every day, at this time, I’m going to check my trades,” and so on.

It’s planned. You know what you are going to do in advance. Thus, when something stressful is happening in life, it doesn’t compromise your trading decisions because you already made the trading decisions. That could reduce the stress levels and reduce the emotional impact.