Trading in the now

Trading in the Now

"Watch your thoughts: They become words. Watch your words: They become actions. Watch your actions: They become habits. Watch your habits: They become character. Watch your character; It becomes your destiny." - Lao Tzu

Trading in the NOW

In over three decades of trading, I have trained professional traders, money managers and independent day traders. Because we all operate with the same human brain, the issues that all traders face, from newbies to seasoned professionals, are all very similar. As a result, the best trader training practices involve the basic issues that are created from our neurological human condition. These basic issues allow us to create a core curriculum, core coaching and core online classes that address the common behavioral changes that impact our success.

At the same time, these shifts in beliefs and behaviors come down to a single moment. That moment is the moment when we are trading live and we click the mouse. It is in that moment, that critical millisecond, where we can discover the results of the foundational work we have done to date.

This is why some of the biggest impact we have had on both independent and professional traders is real time live coaching. Because, like a holograph, the traders beliefs and behaviors are contained and available in that microsecond of entering or exiting a trade.

I have seen traders who continually tweak their strategies. I have seen traders who have very successful systems be unable to execute them. I have seen traders who have a strategy that works, and yet trade impulsively time after time again. I have seen traders who will follow their systems and be consistently profitable for two or three weeks, and then blow their profits in just a couple of days.

All of these behaviors that no longer serve the trader happen in the blink of an eye, in the moment of that trade. What I am encouraging you to do is to bring your own awareness to that precise moment of the trade. What is happening in your physical body? What sensations are you experiencing? What feelings and emotions arise in that moment of the click? And as you evaluating a trade or making a trade, what thoughts are going through your head? In other words, what is happening right now!

At the Mind Muscles Academy, we have a process for increasing our awareness in that moment. However, you can work on this on your own by simply recording and becoming aware of that moment. Now that you have read this blog, your mind will be able to intentionally create the focus and awareness it needs in order to extract that holographic information that is packed into that single microsecond.

I am encouraging you to unpack that microsecond to notice what is going on physiologically, emotionally and cognitively. After entering a trade, notice each of these categories. Write them down. And as you record that moment and gather more data in all the moments that occur in a day/week/month, you will start to see patterns of the larger picture. Our Mind Metrics platform automates this process, but what is important is the process itself.

The next part of this process is to accept what you notice without judgment or criticism. Or, if you find yourself judging yourself for what you discover, then let that be okay! The more we can be just curious about our own internal state of mind in the moment of a trade and the less judgmental we are about what we discover, the more we are able to make the changes that create new beliefs and behaviors that serve us better and bring us to profitability.

We can’t change the past. I know because I’ve tried it and it just doesn’t work. I can’t decide in this moment to execute a specific behavior in the future. I’ve also tried that and that doesn’t work. However what does work is for me, in the moment, to create new behaviors that feel better and get me to my goals. The process of fully experiencing the “now” is a lifelong journey. However, improving our awareness and our acceptance, even a little bit, creates big benefits.

All the market research and strategy creation and improvement requires execution in the moment. If this is the case, then let’s concentrate on that moment and our state of mind in that moment. For many traders, this can be a revolutionary shift that makes all the difference.

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