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Protecting a good month, what I do once I'm well ahead

the one thing I've learned the hard way is that a good month can disappear in a couple of bad days if I'm not careful. After a strong run, I'm more relaxed and the risk goes up without me noticing.

My approach now is to protect progress with a simple step. Once I'm ahead by a certain amount for the month, I reduce my risk per trade by a third for the rest of it. The aim is not to make more, but to avoid giving it back. If I'm still running well after another stretch, I might keep it there, but I don't raise it.

I also think about what the month's result means. It's not a reason to change my plan. The same strategy that got me there is the one I keep. And I don't set my targets on the month's total, since that leads to chasing it near the end.

Then at the start of the next month, I reset. Back to normal risk, a clean slate. It keeps me from carrying emotions about the previous month into the next one, in either direction.

Reducing risk by a third after being well ahead is a good rule. I do something similar but tie it to the R I have gained in the month instead of the money. Once I am up a certain number of R, I drop the risk, and if I give back a set number of R from the peak, I stop for a few days. It keeps a good month from turning into a frustrating one because of a couple of careless days.

Agree on not setting targets on the monthly total. When I had a monthly goal, I would push near the end of the month to hit it, or relax too early once I got there. Both caused problems. Now I just follow the process every day and look at the month afterwards. A good month is the result of good days, not something to protect by changing how I trade. It is simple, but it removed most of the end of month pressure I used to put on myself.