16. Hundred Day Challenge. Week 4 Review.

Apologies for the late post. It’s always hard to write after a tough week, especially when the damage was completely avoidable, and you know you are entirely to blame. That, my friends, is the story of Week 4. It started poorly, and ended even worse.

The total damage done this week was a significant loss of -$1,285.61.

Where It Went Wrong: Losing Control

The trouble started immediately. We opened the week with a large loss of $650 on a WBBL match at North Sydney Oval. I assumed the smallest ground in the country would automatically deliver a massive total, but the pitch deviated, tempting me to back the bowling side (the Sixers). A few dropped catches later, and I was completely gone. Lizelle Lee bashed the bowling into the stands, and the price never recovered.

I wasn't too upset with that initial loss you're going to lose, and lose quickly, every now and then. It’s what happened next that I am filthy about.

From there, I compounded a bad trade with more bad trades. It was, essentially, going on tilt, but in a somewhat more controlled manner. Instead of locking in smaller, consistent wins, I started swinging for the fences. I lost another stack on the very next WBBL game and then compounded the issue in the Test match between Bangladesh and Ireland.

A few days into the week, I was down $1,700.

Finding the Brake

At that point, I made the tough decision to take a 24-hour break to settle my mind. I quickly realised it was almost impossible to claw back to breakeven for the week, and that even attempting to do so would likely just dig the hole deeper.

This meant down-staking and focusing entirely on finding my confidence again. This conscious downshift paid off, as I managed to fight back about $500 in the final two matches, including the BBL and the last Windies/NZ game.

Overtrading Check

Looking back, we took giant leaps in one department: Overtrading. The past few weeks have been littered with this sin. This week, the total number of games I shouldn't have been involved with was only two. Unfortunately, these two games still cost me $230.

I’m genuinely unsure if I've actually improved my selection discipline, or if this reduction is simply due to the fact that there's more quality cricket available right now, removing the need to overtrade. There's also the counter-argument that you are much more likely to overtrade when you are down and on a desperate chase. The fact that I kept that number low while being $1,700 down might actually indicate progress in control.

The Path Forward

While I am deeply disappointed in myself and my trading execution this week, there is still a clear silver lining. Losing is something I have to get used to; failure is a necessary part of this business. But the goal going forward is simple: lose smaller and fail better. I am confident that better process is just around the corner.

Let's see what next week brings with the start of the Ashes.

Cheers, and onwards to a disciplined Week 5.