Identifying Your Trading A-Game, B-Game, and C-Game – Jared Tendler

Identifying Your Trading A-Game, B-Game, and C-Game – Jared Tendler is a foundational exercise for anyone committed to Mastering the Mental Game of Trading: A Comprehensive Guide to Jared Tendler’s System. By categorizing your performance into three distinct tiers, you gain the clarity needed to recognize when you are operating at peak efficiency and when emotional triggers are clouding your judgment. This mapping process allows traders to move beyond vague notions of “good” or “bad” days, providing a technical framework to evaluate execution. Whether you are struggling with Managing Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in Crypto Markets or simply trying to maintain consistency, identifying these levels is the first step toward professional-grade mental discipline.

Understanding the Levels of Performance

Jared Tendler’s system requires traders to objectively evaluate their mental and technical performance. Unlike traditional journaling that only tracks profit and loss, this method focuses on the quality of decision-making. By breaking your trading down into the A, B, and C games, you can create a clear map of your current skill level and psychological thresholds.

• A-Game: This is your “flow state.” Decisions are made based on your best technical analysis, intuition is sharp, and emotions like fear or greed are non-existent. You are focused on the process rather than the outcome.
• B-Game: Your execution is standard. You follow your rules, but you might feel a slight pull of emotion or lack the “creative” edge found in your A-game. You are susceptible to trading anxiety if the market becomes overly volatile.
• C-Game: This represents your floor. Here, your “mental muscles” have failed, and you are trading based on raw emotion. This is where revenge trading and impulsive entries occur.

Actionable Insights: How to Map Your Game

To identify these levels, you must look for “tells” in your behavior and physiology. For instance, in your C-game, do you notice your heart rate increasing? Do you start “hope trading” when a position goes against you? Identifying these signals early is crucial for handling trading drawdowns effectively. Using a pre-market routine can help you assess which “game” you are bringing to the desk before the opening bell rings.

The goal is not just to stay in your A-game, but to move your “C-game” forward. This is known as the “Inchworm” concept. By eliminating your worst mistakes, you naturally pull your entire range of performance higher. You can learn more about this in our guide on Building Trading Discipline: The Inchworm Concept Explained.

Case Studies in Performance Mapping

Example 1: The Scalper’s C-Game
A high-frequency crypto scalper identified that his C-game always manifested as “oversizing” after a losing trade. By recognizing this “tell,” he implemented a hard rule: if he felt the urge to double his position size to “get back to even,” he had to shut down his platform. This intervention prevented the catastrophic losses typical of C-game performance and protected his capital while scaling his size safely in his A-game.

Example 2: The Institutional Trader’s B-Game
A futures trader noticed that in his B-game, he often exited winning trades too early out of a subtle fear of giving back profits. By identifying this as a B-game behavior, he realized he wasn’t yet in a “revenge” state, but he lacked the emotional intelligence to sit through normal market noise. He used this realization to refine his exit rules, ensuring his B-game execution didn’t bleed his expected value (EV) over time.

The Importance of the C-Game Floor

Many traders focus exclusively on their A-game, but why your trading strategy fails is often due to the C-game. If your C-game involves total emotional collapse, no amount of A-game brilliance can offset the damage. Identifying the triggers for your C-game allows you to build “mental circuit breakers” that protect your account when you are most vulnerable.

Conclusion

Identifying your Trading A-Game, B-Game, and C-Game is a transformative practice that turns psychological management into a technical skill. By understanding your “performance range,” you can mitigate the damage of your C-game while consistently striving to refine your B-game into your A-game. This systematic approach is a core pillar of Mastering the Mental Game of Trading: A Comprehensive Guide to Jared Tendler’s System. Remember, professional trading is not about being perfect every day; it is about managing your worst days so that your best days can truly shine.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How often should I update my A, B, and C game descriptions?

You should review and update your game maps at least once a month or after a significant market shift. As you improve, your old A-game might become your new B-game, and your C-game errors should ideally disappear, requiring new descriptions for your current floor.

2. Can I jump straight from C-game to A-game in a single session?

It is very rare and often dangerous to try. Usually, the best approach is to move from C-game back to B-game by regaining emotional control. Attempting to force an A-game “flow state” while in a C-game state often leads to further frustration and revenge trading.

3. What is the most common sign of a C-game?

The most common sign is the abandonment of your trading plan. Whether it is fueled by FOMO or panic, once you stop following your tested strategy and start trading based on “feeling” or “necessity,” you have entered your C-game.

4. How does the Inchworm Concept relate to these games?

The Inchworm Concept suggests that to move your A-game forward, you must first focus on moving your C-game forward (eliminating your worst mistakes). By “pulling the back end” of your performance range, you naturally create room for your peak performance to advance.

5. Why is identifying the B-game so difficult?

B-game is difficult because it feels “normal.” You aren’t making huge mistakes, but you aren’t performing at your best either. It requires high emotional intelligence to spot the subtle hesitations or lack of focus that characterize a B-game performance.

6. Can a pre-market routine help me stay in my A-game?

Yes, a pre-market routine acts as a diagnostic tool. It helps you identify if you are starting the day with emotional baggage, which allows you to adjust your trading size or expectations accordingly before you put capital at risk.