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As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. But sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out. We all know that. This is especially true in trading, and boy, it is really frustrating when your options trading strategy fails.

Any trading strategy accounts for multiple variables beyond our control, so you might even think, “Why bother? The markets are doing to do whatever.”

Well, I have come across thousands of traders and investors in my nearly three decades of trading, and I can tell you those who plan strategically have fared the best. They are prepared for what may come, because they know it’s not about being right. It’s about flexible. They have a plan, and they have a backup plan.

When you’re options trading strategy fails – and at one point, it will – don’t just throw in the towel. Take a moment to analyze what happened. How did market conditions change? What are the technical and sentiment indicators telling you? And what can you to respond and shift or completely change your strategy?

Admitting you were wrong is not easy, of course. There is money involved after all! But this game is not about feelings. It’s about adapting to the market environment as it is.

If you’re using technicals to analyze stocks and you can’t find clear signals to guide you, use different tools than you normally do. (This is also when being a member of a chat room is helpful. You can get some clear-eyed advice from fellow traders and learn valuable lessons from their experiences.)

For example, if you’ve never used oscillators before, give them a try. Oscillators show you shifts in sentiment in the indexes and thus help you analyze the strength of an index’s trend.

To be a successful traders, you must be willing to accept that change is not an option, it’s a rule.

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