One of the common questions voiced was: How can you tell when a trader is passionate about trading vs. addicted to it? The first step in dealing with any addictive pattern is identifying it–and identifying it as a problem. Here are a few questions that you might ask yourself: *
Trading journals are used for many purposes, from tracking markets and trade ideas to working on performance. The recent post on the learning process of chess masters suggests a particularly powerful application of trading journals. Suppose you were to treat each market day (or week, depending upon one’s time frame and frequency
I describe a technique that I use when a trader falls into overconfidence after a winning streak. We use guided imagery to visualise a scenario in which the most recent period was a losing one. Would the trader still put on the trades being contemplated? If so, would the sizing
The Market Wizards books were enormously influential in helping us think about trading success. There are many great lessons offered by the Wizards and their paths to success. The relatively unwritten story is how few of the Wizards have sustained a high level of success. In recent years, we have
Interesting research suggests that people are less able to think in creative ways when they are in negative mood states. People are also less productive when they are down in the dumps. When we become negative in the face of disappointing returns, we can unwittingly create a downward spiral, where we limit
Traditional trading psychology has tended to focus on the emotional side of human nature as a source of performance success: both controlling emotions and maintaining discipline and using our feelings as intuitive sources of information. Both are essential; indeed, it is only by becoming observers to our emotions that we