Trading has to be one of the most mentally demanding professions on the planet. Therefore, it is imperative to have stout composure and focus in order to trade well. The most key component to any trading plan should be mindfulness or sometimes called mindful thinking. For those of you who have done any kind of meditation, it is apparent that our thoughts simply occur. Some thoughts arise in our conscious as we focus on certain tasks, ideas, etc. However, there are a large number of thoughts that run through your subconscious mind; meaning that you are unaware of them. The problem is that most of these thoughts directly affect our emotions and actions. Feelings of anxiousness, anger and fear arise from these subconscious thoughts; these thoughts then steer our actions in another direction. The biggest result of this for traders is diverting from the trading plan; this is why a sound mental game should be the most important factor in ones trading plan. There are a number of things that can effect ones mental game: being undercapitalized, margin calls, missing a trade signal, family matters, phone calls, news, losing streaks etc. The list goes on and on. However, what may be concerns or distractions for one trader may differ for another – mental game is an individual battle. Therefore it is important in my opinion that Traders work on their mental game as the most vital aspect of their trading plan. No trader truly knows how they will deal with a situation until they actually experience it. However, running through worst case scenarios in your mind and writing out ways to address those situations prior to them ever occurring is a way to minimize these distractions. It is also a way to avoid potentially detrimental mistakes. A prime example would look like this: you just spent the last year building a trading plan and paper trading it. You feel that you are finally ready to start trading with real money and your trading system is very good. Your first trade goes great and you feel that all your hard work has paid off. However, the next 6 trades are losers. You are following your written trading rules but you begin to think that perhaps maybe your plan was not as solid as you thought it was. You then think that perhaps you need widen you protective stop or take profits sooner. Then on trade 7 you get a little bit of profit and you take it; not nearly enough to make up for the previous losses. You then sit back in awe as the market continues to run and you are left on the side line missing out on additional profits that would have made up for the previous six losers and then some. Or even worse you widen your stop and take a bigger loss than you had previously determined was acceptable. Then when the next signal arises you decide to pass and that trade turns out to be a very substantial winner. The scenarios go on and on. Therefore it does not matter how great your “Trading system” is; if you do not include mental preparation in your trading plan and do not have control over your head game it is easy to turn a great trading system in to a bad one.