Category Archives for Trading Psychology
Pandemic, Panic and Peace
Panic…our brains were created to look for threats on the savannas of Africa. Our brains evolved before the internet when threats to our lives were very immediate and real. However, our evolution
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Pandemic Panic Prevention
Your environment is designed to put you in a state of panic. The entire world is gearing up to stimulate your fears. Newspapers, TV news, politicians, magazines, online blogs and social media all gain
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Extreme Events: Preparing Your Brain for Black Swans
This post was updated on January 5, 2021. “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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He Had Everything But Success
He was upset. A former Mind Muscles Academy student called me out of the blue. I hadn’t heard from him for about six months. He was frustrated and angry.He had strategy clarity. With support of our Strategy
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Trading Behaviors: How to Outwit a Lazy Brain
Why is it so hard to break old trading habits that no longer serve us? Why do we as traders wake up the next morning and regret making trading mistakes that are so persistent, that we repeat them over
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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
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Why “Will Power” Will Drain Your Brain Power
Carl Richards makes it simple. Carl Richards has an uncanny way of taking complex financial issues and putting them in simple compelling sketches. You can see samples of his work at: https://behaviorgap.com. This
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They Are Sabotaging My Success
“My wife doesn’t support me. After every trading session she looks at me with critical eyes.” “My parents want me to get a real job. They believe trading is just like gambling and I’m addicted.” “All
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Does Your “Control” Illusion Create Trading Losses?
The mind trap we’re going to look at today is “Control Illusion.” This means that if your subconscious mind believes that it is in control, as a trader, you ascribe more value than is actually there. This
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Are You Smaller Than Your Money?
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.” – Marianne Williamson First,
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Do you have a Trading Addiction?
How do you know if you’re addicted to trading? Signs of a trading addiction Some of my clients are addicted to trading. Yes, addicted. Addicted in the same sense as alcohol, gambling, sex or nicotine
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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
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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
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Your 2018 Persistent Trading Mistakes Will Persist in 2019
Yes, your 2018 persistent trading mistakes will persist in the year 2019. For those of you who know me well, this headline probably gave you a big jolt. My trading methodology and coaching practice is
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Our Trading Brain and Trading Loss
A slow motion, step by step playbook. Why is trading loss the biggest pain point for traders? In a survey of over 1000 traders, the issue of handling trading losses is always at the top of the list.
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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.
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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 the
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Pathways to Progress: Your Guide to Steady, Consistent Results
For over 25 years, I have watched both independent and professional traders flounder. It is the source of one of my biggest frustrations to see capable, intelligent and skillful traders spend thousands
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Building New Neural Networks
An Introduction to Mind Muscles™ The markets are the markets. There is nothing most of us can do to change them. It is difficult to change the behaviors of people we know well, let alone the masses
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From Simulated Trading to Real Trades, From Small Trades to Big
The challenges facing traders going from simulated trading to real money trading; and from small to large positions. I had a client who I had worked with some time ago who emailed me and said that since
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