I actually did, trying to figure a way to fold an antenna dish and a new way to fold an umbrella, fascinating and fun.
The subject of this thread was remarkably important but it seems that so many people missed the key takeaways -- about being a peak performer in in life, not just trading. "When I started to care less about what my performance was, and more about the process, I began to be better." -- R.A. Dickey Pretty incredible story but at 13:42 in the link below is where R.A. Dickey talks about that and how he had hung on too tightly to his identity. As traders, too many folks have their identity tied to their performance. Many traders look to their performance to validate themselves -- and their confidence comes from this validation. Where this gets to be a problem is when you're going through rough times. This was Ronda Rousey's problem in MMA. Her confidence was shallow -- it was not a rock solid belief -- but was a product of her winning and the media hype. Once Holly Holm shattered that with a kick to the head, her career was over. Ronda no longer had the external validation to provide her with the belief in herself. As many of you know, Ronda lost her next fight in 48 seconds and that was it. The knuckleball is a great example of where you can't control the outcome -- you can only control how you release it -- you have to surrender to the outcome. Similarly, your job as a trader is simply to execute and manage your trades according to your plan, not your P&L -- and accept / surrender to the outcome. Once you can do that, you can free yourself from so many of the emotional pitfalls that adversely affect most traders.
Your mind / mindset is the most important and powerful tool you have in your trading toolbox but we spend so much time on other stuff: indicators, staring at screens, following others in chatrooms, social media, etc. Now, keep in mind, a great mindset can't overcome a poor system / strategy, but a flawed mindset will cause a great system / strategy to become a losing one. The great traders invest a lot of time in having the proper mindset through a combination of things such as sleep/rest, exercise, proper diet and hydration, meditation, positive self-talk, relaxation exercises, hypnosis, visualization, journaling, planning and whatever else is required to make sure they are in the best mental state to trade. Whenever I struggle, I usually find that I'm not doing everything I can and should do to be in my peak mental state. Accordingly, if I have a bad trade or miss a trade I feel I shouldn't have, rather than just beat myself up for it, I try to ask myself what could I have done better to make sure I was mentally prepared for that trade? I can trace nearly all of my mistakes (and really just about all of my losses) to a lack of proper mental preparation / not having the proper mindset. Accordingly, the mental preparation is the key component of "the process" for me.
agree. I spent significant amount of time doing mind exercise. Centering our minds at all times are important for trading ( and everything else).
What gets you into the purported 5 – 10% of consistently profitable traders? I have a relative who has bought a program from a coach. Thousands of dollars. Hope it works for him but looking at the trading plan he is generating… it is a long shot. The plan is all technical at this point and has nothing about psychology or the process of becoming a trader other than perhaps keeping everything (risk, etc) as a percent of your account. Which might logically help one deal with their psychology and confidence, but… does that really do it for most people? So many fail... IMO and personal experience (IMOAPE?) psychology is the larger part of what gets you in with the consistently profitable. Of course technical skills are essential. “Not thinking about the money” is a mental choice. Until I learned this I often had the deer-in-the-headlights experience. And during this phase of my trading I was unable to actually learn from my mistakes. I don’t know how else to describe an inability to improve which makes no sense. Once I learned to detach from outcomes, everything in trading shifted and I was able to see the obvious and act on it. For me this answered the thread here on ET “Why is the obvious not so obvious?”. In terms of the ‘money’ I care a lot about the money when I review on weekends. But while I am trading… I have a habit well-formed of not thinking about the money. But what do you think of while trading? I’m now thinking of this a bit differently after talking to my relative. Talking to him helped me shift my psych a bit. My relative describes himself as a perfectionist. Something I am decidedly not. And perfectionists are said by many to have a difficult time learning to trade. How to incorporate this trait into trading? So when I trade... I turn off being smart (in the sense of over thinking… my relative had a perfect SAT score). I turn off thinking about the money (I already have this skill). And I ‘turn on’ perfectly executing placing orders, stops, & targets – based on my plan. It is weird for me acting like a perfectionist, but I’m experiencing it as fun too. My experience of trading has improved as well as my P&L. ……. A verifiable consistently profitable trader who posted on ET once said “After detaching from outcomes, letting profits take care of themselves… trading became the most relaxing thing I do all day and a joy.” ……… Yes. 'Letting profits take care of themselves" And I could learn from my mistakes and keep learning. Might not be intuitive, but works for me.