Your personal psychology plan: self-assessment and improvement loop

What you will learn

• How to run a structured self-assessment across the main psychological areas of this course.
• How to calculate the cost of rule breaks from your journal in R.
• How to turn your costliest pattern into if-then plans.
• How to run a monthly improvement loop and keep the plan alive.

Explanation

A personal psychology plan is a short written document that names your typical behavioural weaknesses, the rules that counter them, and the way you check progress. It complements, but does not replace, your trading plan (beginner trading course) and your personal risk policy (risk management course).

Step 1: Self-assessment

Rate yourself from 1 (strong) to 5 (serious problem) in six areas: loss aversion and holding losers; biases such as confirmation and recency; overconfidence after wins; FOMO and chasing; tilt and revenge trading; physical state and routine. Base each score on journal entries, not on how you feel about yourself.

Step 2: Cost of rule breaks

Tag every journal trade as "rules followed" or "rule broken", and note the type of break. Then compare the results in R. This puts a number on your psychology, which is far more motivating than a vague feeling.

Step 3: If-then plans

Psychologists call specific plans of the form "If situation X happens, then I do Y" implementation intentions. They work better than general goals such as "be more disciplined" because they define the trigger and the response in advance. Choose only one or two weaknesses at a time.

Step 4: The improvement loop

Use a simple four-step cycle every month: Plan (choose the focus and if-then rules), Do (trade with the rules), Check (measure adherence and the cost of breaks), Act (keep, adjust or replace the rules). This cycle is often called PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act).

Worked example

Hypothetical example: a learner reviews 30 trades from one month. 1R = €50. Fees, spreads and taxes are excluded.

1. 24 trades followed the rules: total +4R. 6 trades broke the rules: total −9R.
2. All trades: +4R − 9R = −5R. Expectancy = −5 ÷ 30 ≈ −0.17R per trade (−€250 in total).
3. Rules-followed trades only: +4 ÷ 24 ≈ +0.17R per trade.
4. Average cost per rule break: −9R ÷ 6 = −1.5R (−€75).
5. Break types: 4 FOMO entries totalling −6R, 2 moved stops totalling −3R. FOMO is the costliest pattern, so it becomes next month's focus.
6. If-then plans: "If I feel I must enter now, then I wait for the next candle close and run the entry protocol." "If price has already moved more than 1 ATR from my planned entry, then I skip the trade."
7. Target for next month: adherence of at least 90%, so no more than 3 rule breaks in 30 trades.

Remember lesson 8: 24 trades are a small sample, so +0.17R is not proof of an edge. The clear finding is the cost of the rule breaks.

Common mistake

Practice activity

On paper: (a) Rate yourself in the six areas from 1 to 5. (b) A hypothetical journal shows 40 trades: 34 followed the rules for +6.8R, 6 broke the rules for −7.2R. Calculate the total, the expectancy of all trades, the expectancy of rules-followed trades and the average cost per break. (c) Write two if-then plans for your highest-scoring area.

Key takeaways

• Assess yourself with journal evidence across the main areas of trading psychology.
• Measure the cost of rule breaks in R to find your most expensive pattern.
• Turn that pattern into one or two specific if-then plans.
• Review monthly with Plan-Do-Check-Act; completing this course is a start, not a qualification or a guarantee of results.

Next step

Continue with the course "Forex & Currency Trading in Depth", where you can apply your psychology plan to a fast, leveraged market.