Michael Lamothe

Even a shepherd needs to be shepherded.

I've spent a lot of years trading, coaching traders, and writing about the mental side of trading.

And yet, I still wrestle with many of the same things I teach!

A position starts moving, and the questions begin.

"Should I cut this early?"
"Should I take profits faster?"
"Is the market telling me something, or am I just getting uncomfortable?"

Sometimes those questions are legitimate. Good trading requires judgment and the ability to adapt.

But I can also recognize when I'm starting to waffle. When I'm asking the same questions repeatedly, not because the evidence has changed, but because my emotions have.

That's when temptation enters the picture.

Something I've come to appreciate more deeply is the importance of the people I surround myself with.

When I'm around people who are successful, who share similar principles, and who are moving in the direction I want to go, it becomes easier to recognize the right path.

Not because someone else is making my decisions for me.

But because I'm not relying exclusively on myself to see clearly.

I'm fortunate to be surrounded by people like @markminervini, @MarkRitchie_II, and @Brandon_RTM3, who continue to challenge me, teach me, and help me grow.

As an author, coach, and someone with a lot of experience, I'm often in a position where others look to me for guidance.

But I need guidance, too.

There's a reason the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd resonates with me.

We aren't meant to find our way entirely on our own.

And I've found that intentionally building an environment where I can be taught, challenged, corrected, and encouraged makes an enormous difference.

No matter how much experience we have, we still need people who can help us find our way.

Blast from the past... In August 2012, I bought a stock called FleetCor Technologies (ethereum:0x236501327e701692a281934230af0b6be8df3353), now known as Corpay ($CPAY).

The setup was beautiful. I bought it on August 15, and my entry was nearly perfect.

At the time, I had only recently discovered who Bill O'Neil was, what CANSLIM is, and was learning from people who had considerably more experience than I did.

One of those people looked at the stock and said something along the lines of:

When it was about 20% within a few weeks, I asked one of these more experienced guys for advice. "It's just a credit card company for truckers. It's made a good move, but I wouldn't expect much more out of it."

I listened.

And I sold.

The stock went on to advance roughly another 100% without doing anything technically wrong.

Over the course of its run, it gained approximately 170%, barely touching its 50-day moving average.

I had identified a tremendous opportunity, executed the entry well, and then a lack of trust, fear, and personal laziness let someone else's opinion talk me out of it.

Looking back, I don't fault that person for sharing their opinion.

I was the one who made the decision.

And I learned something important from that experience.

There's a difference between learning from someone with more experience and handing over responsibility for your decisions.

Good traders should remain open to new information, especially when it challenges their thinking.

But an opinion about what a company *should* be worth isn't the same thing as evidence that a stock is finished moving.

ethereum:0x236501327e701692a281934230af0b6be8df3353 wasn't telling me to sell. Someone else was.

And I hadn't yet developed the confidence to recognize the difference.

Most traders don't need more advice. They need someone to hold them accountable.

Over the years, I've coached traders who knew exactly what they needed to do to improve.

They just weren't doing it.

When I worked with someone struggling with a recurring problem, we'd dig into their trading journal, trades, and statistics.

If they weren't keeping those records, that's where we'd start.

Because before you can fix a problem, you need to understand what's actually happening.

But identifying the problem is often the easy part.

The hard part is doing the work consistently, especially after you hit the first roadblock.

That's where coaching can make a tremendous difference.

There's someone expecting you to show up with your work.

Someone who can challenge your assumptions, help you recognize patterns, and hold you accountable when you start drifting.

Without that relationship, even excellent advice can become just another thing you heard from some guy on the internet...

It sounds great. You agree with it. Maybe you even get excited about making a change.

But then life gets busy. Trading gets difficult. The initial motivation wears off.

And nothing changes.

A coach can't do the work for you.

But having someone who expects you to do it can make a world of difference.

Put your trading emotions on trial!

When you're in a trade, your mind can play tricks on you and make some pretty convincing arguments.

"Maybe I should take profits now."
"Maybe I should cut this before it gets worse."
"What if I give back everything I've made?"

In the moment, these thoughts can sound perfectly reasonable.

But just because a thought sounds reasonable doesn't mean it's supported by evidence.

Here's something worth trying.

When you notice yourself questioning a trading decision, WRITE DOWN EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE THINKING.

Not what you think you should have been thinking.

Then, during post-analysis, put those thoughts on trial.

What evidence supported the argument?
What evidence contradicted it?
Was something about the stock or market actually changing, or were you just becoming uncomfortable?

And perhaps most importantly, what happened when you acted on those thoughts in similar situations?

Your trading journal and stats become the evidence!

Over time, you may discover that some of those thoughts were legit warnings worth listening to.

Others were just fear making a convincing argument.

And once you've exposed those arguments for what they are, they become a lot harder to believe the next time they show up.

If they don't have a leg to stand on, toss them in jail!

Trading small has saved me a lot of money over the years.

It's kept me out of serious trouble when markets got difficult, when I wasn't trading well, or when I simply didn't have a good feel for what was happening.

And I wouldn't trade that protection for anything.

But I've also come to recognize something about myself.

Sometimes I've continued trading small long after the evidence suggested I could be doing more.

My trades were working.

The market was offering opportunities.

I had profits to work with.

And yet, I was still approaching the next trade with the same caution I'd developed during more difficult periods.

There's a difference between protecting capital when conditions are poor and being reluctant to put capital to work when conditions improve.

That's something I'm actively working on.

I don't want to become reckless. I don't want to abandon the risk management that's helped me survive.

I want to become better at recognizing when the odds have shifted enough to justify increasing exposure and then actually doing it.

Because managing risk isn't just about knowing when to pull back.

It's also about knowing when you've earned the right to press.