I was wondering if anyone has used EMDR to reduce trading anxiety or stress? EMDR is a new approach along the lines of NLP. As we know prolonged trading can be very stressful, each trading decision and its subsequent result has an affect on our psyche. EMDR seems to be quite effective in undoing some of the negative emotions associated with trading, especially if these negative emotions have accumulated over many years. Please take a look at the two web sites listed below, in particular David Grand's work should be of great interest to us traders. http://www.emdr.com/ http://www.biolateral.com/products.htm
I used EFT at one time, probably still should really. It is an energy therapy, I think NLP is too. The problem I had was that I did a treatment one day for anxiety about trading and the anxiety went away but the passion went with it!! It did help in the longer run, I slowed down, went from "frantic to get rich next month" to "willing to do a lot of research and get things going eventually". I'm still in that mode and happy with it. These energy therapies are very simple to use and very effective, the problem is that the people that you have to deal with to learn the good stuff all want to take you to the next level where you "channel spirit guides" and what not. That S^$t is ugly and can turn real bad on you, nobody with a passing aquaintance with Jesus would ever get into that stuff for sure. The EFT is basically harmless and very effective but still has to be approached with caution. Max
Have you tried EMDR yourself? I checked out David Grand and his Biolateral products. Looks interesting. I own a similar product - a Traders Affirmation CD that is purposed to do the same thing - relax and make you focus on trading. It has soothing sounds in the background, plus one-sentence affirmations related to trading. It's quite good. But sometimes after listening to it for a while, you kind of know what affirmations are going to be said next. I'm not sure if this loosens the effectivity of the method.
I have had three EMDR sessions, I can tell you from experience that its a very effective technique. I have also done a fair bit of thinking about the use of EMDR in trading. If you read the two articles listed in David Grand's website about Sports Psychology and Performance creativity enhancements, I believe that EMDR can have similar benefits for us traders as it does for professional athletes. For example he talks about a golfer who made couple of bad shots and then ever since had trouble with the three wood or the professional baseball player who dropped a few balls and then had a great deal of trouble with his game. I think similarly in trading, trading losses or missing a good trading opportunity or not cutting losses short (you get the point) have negative emotions tied to them. I think cumulatively they have a substantial negative effect on our trading. Thats where I believe EMDR can undo some of those emotions and thus anxiety associated with trading. However the golfer still has to make the shot, EMDR will not make the shot for him. Similarly in trading we still have to develop good trading systems and put them in practice but I believe by using EMDR I am more effective in following my trading strategies and it helps me in thinking clearly. ps. maxpi thanks for sharing ETF with us.
I have used those type of tapes with just about zero success for other "problem" areas of my life. Basically, if you believe that stuff, it will work. Skeptics need not apply.
What about a nice workout at the club, followed by sitting in the Hot tub? The spoos traders that I knew at the MERC always headed to EBC (East Bank Club) afterwards to unwind and keep their stamina up (heh, to say nothing of the stunning gold diggers, I mean women.) I guess in the age of electronic trading, sitting in a chair produces a different kind of stress... nitro