Trading Success Starts With How You Live, Not How Much You TradeBTCUSDT Perpetual ContractBYBIT:BTCUSDT.PDavid_PerkHey whats up guys, today I wanna share trading routines which has helped me to bet back my life and saved me from the false trap and from possible disaster. Trading is reflection of our life. Literally how you live, will reflect in your trading results. When I was starting I had a 9 - 5 job and learning trading as a hobby. I was in shape, doing the gym 4 times a week, running, swimming in the sea every day, Kitesurfing, Eating healthy, reading self development books. I was in perfect position to simply acquire another skill. But, after some time as most of us, I wanted to get into full time trading. I thought that having more time for trading and working harder than everyone else will mean more money. Which could allow me to being my own boss and live the life in my terms and have some unnecessary material things in my live. So I did exactly that, I went full time (with only $10K ) and started to literally live behind the charts for 14 hours a day. Trying to catch every move up and down and with 28 FX pairs on my watchlist. All of that without any structure or fixed schedule. Plan was just to trade. This is will kill you 👇 Here is what has happened - I slowly socially disconnected from friends - I was visiting the gym less often, because I didn't want to miss anything on markets - When I woke up, I immediately sit to the charts - Some days I forgot to drink water and eat - Instead of eating healthy, fast food delivery became the choice - I was even eating by the PC and still switching between the pairs - Sometimes I didn't leave the flat for few days - My sleep was ruined. I went from regular 8 hours to 5 hours - I stopped reading books - I gained almost 10kg and my physique was overall bad - Developed back pain from sitting and shoulder pain from mouse Did I made more money ? In the end I made pretty much same as when I was trading part time. Only instead of having a few good winning trades in a week. I had 100 trades a month but was totally exhausted and my health was completely destroyed. overall result was similar in terms of %. But the cost I payed with my health , time and stress didn't worth What has happened later is unbelievable story and I will share it the one of the next planned posts. Follow me if you don't want to miss them. I speak from own experiences. And yeah I made every possible mistake. 📍 One year later I realized: - Life out of the charts is most important - Trading is a tool for our desired freedom and life, not a goal - Without strong body, health and good sleep you will not trade well - Discipline in the trading starts in the disciplined life - More time spent on charts and more traders doesn't equal more profits - 10K for full time trading is not enough Trading is lifestyle - Build your life around it Being disciplined is easier when you run on autopilot. Routine beats discipline. You have to create habits which repeats on the daily basis. So you eliminate hesitations of what to do next and just focus just on executing your daily schedule. And mainly not multitasking and focusing on one thing you planed to do at specific time. 🧪This is my current weekly schedule These are activities and times which keeps my balance between work / life and Digital worlds. It keeps me Fit, Mentally strong, Continuously improving myself and not being overtrained or burned out from any of these. 📝Weekly Preparation - Sundays (2 Hours) Every successful week and trading week starts with planing in advance. Hence every Sunday I spent 2 with planing. 1 Hour charts, checking news calendar, COT data etc...I do HTF top down analysis and mark out Monthly, Weekly, Daily levels. At this stage Im not looking for a trades, just updating the charts. I trade 4 FX pairs, 4 crypto. I don't spend more than 8 minutes with each chat. Goal is to project highest probability and direction of the next weekly candle. I got this tabs in my journal with the plan for each pair Second hour I plan my business tasks and family stuff for the week. Everything is planed so I do not have to overthink when Im going to sleep. 💤Sleep time 21:30 (7 Hours) Every successful day start with good sleep. Make sure you have down window from your business & charts. Put your brain to calm mode and mainly put your phone away at least 1,5 hour before you go sleep to avoid blue light. Always go sleep at the same time. You should aim for 8 hours. I sleep just 7 but it's enough for me. 🧘♂️Meditation(20 minutes) Waking up at 4:30 (without alarm). Quickly check my daily plan and immediately start with meditation. I project and visualize my day. It sets my intentions and I start the day strongly. Never touch your phone as first thing on the morning. Short content and news are programed to distract you. Try meditate and visualize your plan. You will see difference in a focus. When you meditate thoughts will be coming, just try to come back to present moment. You will become better and better when you practice this improve your focus and sleep. 🚶♂️➡️Morning Walk(1 Hour) Once I finish meditation and hygiene. Before the breakfast. Im going out for the 1 hour walk. Yes before the breakfast. Because if you are walking fasted your body takes energy from fats. So it's kind of fat burning walk. On a work out field I do a bit calisthenic few pull ups, pushups , squats, dips etc and a bit of stretching. I don't take Phone and No music, Nothing. Just me conscious absorbing waves of nature. It's also kind of meditation and again improving my focus. ✍️Book / Notes(45 minutes) When I come back home. I make breakfast it's mostly eggs or oats with protein and I read books and manually take some notes of what I found interesting. 📈4x Backtests (30 minutes) Backtesting is not optional and it's not only for developing and testing a new strategy. It's training for traders same as training for UFC fighters. There is no point when you should stop your training even when you are profitable. But I don't want to spend 2 hours on the weekend backtesting. So I do 4 backtested hindsight trades in day. It takes less than 30 minutes and Im building my library of trade examples and mainly my Risk reward and Win ration statistical data which keeps me confident on what Im doing. And practicing market context 🇬🇧London Session (2 Hours) This is my main trading time. I update the charts every day and look for the setups. Im swing trader so it doesn't mean Im actively entering and exiting many positions. It's a time when Im fully focus on trading and price action. I don't go below M15 TF. But it doesn't mean that I have opened another Tabs or multitask with other things. Full focus just to charts. I simply follow my mechanical strategy . Click the picture bellow to learn more 👇 My setups occurs often on Tuesdays , Wednesdays, Thursdays. I often skip trading on Mondays and not opening new trades on Fridays. Friday NY session Im not even by PC. 💪 GYM / SAUNA (80 min) Every weekday after London Session I take a break form the PC and I leave the house to the Gym. Focusing on strength and mobility training a bit cardio also. Im not trading every day as in my 40s recovery is not so fast as it was in my 20s. So every second day I do Sauna which has many health benefits. 🫁Breath-work (15 min) before the NY session. Im doing a Breath-work. You can find these guided breath works on the YouTube. Perfect training for your parasympathetic system it switches you from reactive to a strategic thinking. It's basically a small ritual that empower you and again increase your focus. 🇺🇸 New York Session I always have charts updated from the London and got set alarms n the price levels. So just some final updates and being focused on price action. If I have trades from the London. Im looking to other pairs, but I never want to have trades on more than 4 instruments at the time. So NY session is kind optional for me, sometimes Im not even by PC and as I got Tradingview notifications if the levels are hit. I execute from the phone, while Im outside with the family or friends or doing some other activities. I don't trade NY session at Fridays. 💊 Social Media (30 min) You might thinking why I have social media in my plan. Well at 5PM when Im done with trading and business It's the first time I go to check social media for some time. I scroll a bit to feed my dopamine, look what new on X etc... and thats it. Social media are big distraction and checking them multiple times a day is bad. Hence I got plan for them for 30 minutes a day and thats it. All notifications are turned off and I don't let myself bother and interrupt during the day. ✍️ Journaling / Daily Planing (30 min) Every day at 7:30 PM. I do journal with pen and paper. Writing down what Im grateful for , what I have achieved, where I can improve and planing next day. Since Im done with this. I don't think about a business and charts anymore. It used to be difficult when you have running positions, but I got stop loss and risk under control . I know how much I can loose if Im wrong. So no need to check anything anymore. I can live present evening with family. 🧩Weekly Review (2 Hours) I mostly stop trading at Fridays London session. Then gym and massage and thats when my weekend starts. But on the Saturdays early mornings before my family wakes up. I do My Weekly review. Going thru my trades and charts and comparing it with the plan. Doing the self reflections, noticing what I did right so I can repeat it next time but also what I did wrong and trying to find where I can improve. I also review my week from personal development side and checking if Im still on the right path with my longterm goals. ⁉️ This is questions Im asking myself when going thru past trades. - Was there a type of trade that did/didn’t work well? - Was there a particular market that I did/didn’t trade well? - Was there a particular day/time that I did/didn’t trade well? - Did I enter trades too soon? - Did I enter trades too late? - Did I take profits too soon? - Did I take profits too late? - Did I put my stops loss too tight? - Did I use an unnecessarily big stop loss? - Did I take take any trades with poor Risk:Reward ratio? - Did I risk too much? - Did I risk too little? - Did I deviate from my trading model? - Did I deviate from my plan? Since I live balanced life for past few years not only that my trading has exponentially improved but Im also more healthy , less stressed and overall happy and enjoy the life. ‼️Note : Life happens and not every time it goes as you plan. There will be things, people or situations which will take you away from your journey. If that happens come back to schedulle as soon as possible. Learn to say No, without explaining yourself. Prioritize your time and goals. If it's not within your long term journey say NO. No-one except your kids or family and your health is more important than your mission. Adapt, useful , reject useless and add something specifically your own - Bruce Lee David Perk and Dave FX Hunter