I'm a n00b to your board, but I learned a long time ago that if you look at trading as a life or death situation, IT IS a life or death situation. Back off and rethink your gameplan. I speak from experience--14 years on the bond floor(I've seen every mistake many times), 4 years trading for myself(just a couple regrettable "I'm smarter than the Market" mistakes). If you think it's war, you're never going to have any fun. If you look at trading as a game that you can compete at, you will enjoy it, and should be successful. It's a hard transition, but once you learn to listen to when to trade as opposed to where to trade, you will find the game a whole lot easier. It might sound strange, but if you pay attention, the market will always tell you where it wants to go. Provided that you don't tell it where it should go. As far as martial arts, I'd say it will definately make you feel better mentally, and keep you in shape. But there's only one thing that will teach you to trust your trading instincts. No book will teach you this--I've read them all. Never forget--the best trades always start out looking like the worst trades. J
d'accord Joe, you're right. One of the main principles of Zen, of Martial Arts, of Trading...etc. is attention! Good books help to think about it, but experience is always a better way to take something in... bye, zentrader
To the original poster: Yes there are many similarities between trading and martial arts. However, as another poster commented, it is important not to take onself to seriously that you miss all the enjoyement and possibly the profit. That being said you can use martial arts theory to formulate your strategy. You mentioned Aikido, a martial style which is considered "soft" where one redirects the opponent or attackers energy against themself or harmonized with it. This could be viewed as buying and selling a breakout. Conversely, buying a dip or selling a rally could be compared to the "hard" styles of Karate or Taekwondo in which you strike directly at your target. The important point IMHO is not to fall into a single doctrine of thought. If you study Aikido you may think only of entering the market "with" the price action. This would hinder you from seeing the opportunities which exist by trading "against" it. A complete trader just like a complete martial artist should be able to do BOTH, whenever the situation is deemed appropriate
I have often compared Trading to Sports and in my opinion it is identical and Martial Arts is by far the best comparision. To many trading psychologists approach trading from a Zen like attitude but I completely disagree. You do need to be calm but you also need to be lightning fast, powerful and move with conviction. Martial Arts teaches this very well. I personally have a Black Belt in Shotokan Karate (many years ago) but I still find the training is paying off big time today. I highly, highly recommend Martial Arts lessons for any and all aspiring traders. Forget the damn psychology books! Brett Stienburger is ok though because he was a sports psychologist.
Regardless of the art you pursue, most of them attempt to train the student in developing focus,etc. I can't see how it can hurt your trading. At the least, you will burn calories which helps you cope in the drudgery of looking at the screens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mushin Re: Aikido being soft- there are schools who follow the founder's "way" when he was in his 60's- alittle softer more flowing while there are still a lot of schools who follow his way when he was younger- a variant of Daito Ryu Jujitsu which was very hard used in Imperial Japan. In mosty schools however, you attack hard you get thrown hard and since most people attack soft bec they have to go to work the next day, they get thrown soft. This does not mean Aikido is soft. It just means you attack soft.
IMO it has nothing to do w/ sports, martial arts, etc. It has to do w/ drive, determination, focus, etc. Success breeds success. If you've been a successful athlete, business man, black belt, etc, you know what it takes to create success. But if you're a strugling trader, signing up for kung fu isn't going to teach you how to spot trades. That being said, the physical activity will help your brain function better, etc. Being physically fit makes everything relatively better.
Sorry but all the drive and determination in the world won't help you as a trader. I see too many people that come from successful business, engineering, professional etc.. backgrounds get chewed up and spit out regularly by trading. Trading takes a very specific mentality and ability, no different then being big, strong and fast in professional football or tall, strong and fast in professional basketball. You've either got it or you don't it's really that simple.
@Joab, it seems that you know about Karate as a "sport", but nothing about Karate as a (martial) "art". Zen setups are the underlying of Karate and other (japanese) martial arts... bye, zentrader