Category Archives for Mind Traps
Your Past Trading Mistakes Will Persist in the New Year
Yes, your persistent trading mistakes that dogged you last year will persist this year. For those of you who know me well, this headline probably gave you a big jolt. My trading methodology and coaching
Read on...
When Will You Finally Be OK?
This message is for anyone who, at the deepest level, knows they are not OK. You know you are NOT OK. You may even have known this from your earliest memories. You have noticed how others belong in a way
Read on...
The Cocky Clanger | Mind Muscles™ Academy Practice Guide
Mind Muscles™ Academy Practice GuideMind Adventure: Create Your Personal “Cocky Clanger” to stay Confident and not CockyProblem: Hubris (Overconfidence)Desired Outcome: Awareness and neutralizationMind
Read on...
Boredom – a good way to sabotage your trading career
How to turn the most powerful attribute of an independent trader into the most profit-draining behavior. This is one of our Mind Muscles Moments, which is a very laser-targeted piece talking about a critical
Read on...
Doubling Down in Desperation
Here is a list of reactions to a losing position.Before you read them, I want you to do a quick check of your physiology, emotions, and thoughts. And as you read these, notice any changes as you recognize
Read on...
Levels of Change and Persistent Trading Mistakes
You know what to do and in the heat of the moment, something happens. Not a little something, but a big something. Not a one time something but a repeated something. Not a controllable something, but an
Read on...
Is Every Tick A Referendum On Your Worth?
Roger’s physiology made a dramatic shift. I watched my trader coaching client as he leaned forward with his fists clenched. He had just shorted 20 ES contracts and the market had just broke through
Read on...
The Trader’s State of Mind – Does it Matter?
Does the Trader’s State of Mind really matter?I have heard this argued both ways. It is been argued that the trader’s state of mind, or more formally, the psychology of a trader, is less critical
Read on...
The Path to Emotional Control
Traders have a major problem. After over two decades of trading on the floors in Chicago and San Francisco, building my own options and equity trading firm, training traders to trade my own capital, coaching
Read on...
Shred Your Stories
“The mind has a job. And that’s to give us all the stories that prove that what it thinks is true.” Byron Katie The world comes at us with a seemingly infinite amount of data every day.
Read on...
Trading Psychology: The More We Care, The Worse We Fare
I remember going to a student’s office where he was an active day trader. At one point, the trader was short a large number of futures contracts and as it approached his stop he started tapping
Read on...
The Path to Trading Mastery is Often Sabotaged by Subconscious Emotions
Traders have a major problem. After over two decades of trading on the floors in Chicago and San Francisco, building my own options and equity trading firm, training traders to trade my own capital, coaching
Read on...
Money: How it sabotages your trading success
Live trading with real money changes our brain chemistry. Many traders have the experience of being able to trade successfully in a simulated or demo account. However, when they start trading live something
Read on...
You Can’t Solve Irrational Trading Behaviors with Your Rational Mind
You can’t solve your irrational trading behaviors with your rational mind! When we deviate from our trading plan or our carefully constructed intuitive and discretionary trading processes, we do
Read on...
How most traders fail: The roller coaster of hope and despair
Yes, most traders fail to realize their dreams. Yet most traders continue to try harder doing what they have been doing. Although it doesn’t seem rational, we as humans with our human brains continue
Read on...
Caution! Don’t use this trading indicator
Do you enter trades that with hindsight don’t make sense? And this happens time and time again? You may berate yourself, try to apply more discipline or agonize over the “error.” Imagine a world
Read on...