Trading psychology - Coaching for traders

"To make your trading dreams a reality requires changing the Dreamer into a Realist."
Kenneth Reid

TRADING PSYCHOLOGY COACHING PROGRAM

To make your trading dreams a reality... you must become a realist. Successful traders have four real-world skills that they bring to the trading game every day:

1) A Realistic Appraisal of Risk; 2) Emotional Stablility, 3) An Effective Trading Edge and 4) A Winning Trader's Mindset.

These elements work synergistically. By itself, the will to maintain a Positive Mental Attitude(PMA) is generally not sufficient to overcome the tendency for traders to develop a Toxic Mental Attitide (TMA). Your Winning Trader's Mindset must be supported by realistic risk appraisal, the ability to remain emotionally stable in a climate of uncertain outcomes and losses, plus effective trading techniques . A sub-standard method will cause you to over-think and over-react.

1) REALISTIC RISK ASSESSMENT

realistic risk assessment Unrealistic trading leads to emotional meltdown Naive traders fantasize about making a great deal of money trading. Winning traders have a healthy respect for the unpredictability of the market and pay more attention to risk than reward. Interviews of successful fund managers and independent traders bear this out. Over time, all traders will become realists, but if one achieves realism at the cost of emotional wounding, your trading career will be cut short. The earlier one learns to respect risk, calculate it in advance and WAIT for the low-risk setup, the greater one's chances of long-term success. Trading without a healthy sense of risk is fantasy-based, it leads to primitive emotional reactions and impulsive, irrational actions.

2) EMOTIONAL STABILITY

stable traders brain trader's emotions According to Mark Douglas, the main characteristic of highly successful traders is simply a lack of fear. Many new traders have experienced this state of fearlessness, simply due to being naive about the real risks in the market. But naivete is not a permanent substitute for getting control of one's feelings.

We can't change a feeling directly, but we can change the thoughts and behaviors that stimulate feelings disruptive to trading. Winning traders know their own emotional triggers and take steps to manage their state of mind so as to prevent behaviors that other traders will naturally exploit.

There is a genetic configuration that codes for the ability to remain cool under pressure. The U.S. military uses it to help identify Top Gun candidates. If you don't have this gene, you will need to take other steps to control your emotions. You can read about one solution here.

3) EFFECTIVE TRADING 'EDGE'

Effective trading edge? Technical, chart-based screen trading is the standard today. Every trader the world over has access to timely information and an unlimited assortment of indicators. Having underestimated the difficulty of trading, however, many traders never develop a professional-grade trading plan or the tools and risk management techniques to apply it.

A trading plan (method) defines what Mark Douglas calls your "edge." This is the advantage that increases your odds of success above a coin flip. Because Market Wizards rarely disclose their actual trading methods, apprentice Wizards may get the mistaken impression that method is not that important; but it is crucial. If you don't have a defined plan, your trading is likely to be overly discretionary. This can lead to an emotional guessing game that you are sure to lose.

By the way, if your trading plan changes every week, then check yourself for a condition called Adult ADD that I believe affects many struggling traders.

4) TOXIC MENTAL ATTITUDE vs WINNING TRADER'S MINDSET

Toxic Mental Attitude (TMA)
A "Toxic Mental Attitude" is a combination of thoughts (beliefs), feelings and impulse-driven behaviors that get in the way of successful trading. A TMA is a whole-brain experience of negative behavior, negative emotion, negative thinking, which then leads to .... more negative behavior, and so on.

It starts from the lower brain and mid-brain, where the impulses and emotions are generated, and extends to the front of the brain, where we hold our beliefs, goals, strategies and expectations. Then it loops back and starts over.

trading psychology Because it is a whole-brain experience, a trader cannot simply will himself/herself out of the TMA Loop. Willing it to go away is like breaking off a weed stalk and never getting down to the root.

How can you tell if you have a Toxic Mental Attitude? You will be:

1) Trading Not To Lose;
2) Trading Not To Miss Out, and/or
3) Trading To Be Right.

If you are Trading Not To Lose, you will not be able to stay in a winning trade, so you will be a Breakeven Trader, or worse.
If you are Trading Not To Miss Out you will chase price and buy too high or sell short too low.
If you are Trading To Be Right you will have poor risk management and end up taking large losses.

Ironically, in each case you will create the very thing you were trying to avoid.

Winning Trader's Mindset

Winning traders think differently than losing or breakeven traders. The quality of the self-talk builds confidence and discipline. They never undermine themselves. They constantly work to understand themselves better.

Winning Traders have a plan and encourage themselves to stick to it. They are patient with their winners and quickly cut losses. They manage risk by setting defined profit targets and stop loss levels. An anticipated and defined loss is much less painful than a surprise loss that then spirals out of control.

Winning Traders focus on Mastery, not Dominance; on Skill Building, not the Bottomline.

Winning Traders cultivate flexibility, but they are not vague.

Winning Traders know what they know, they know what they cannot know, and maintain confidence in the face of not knowing.

I have developed a technology for my coaching clients called Total Brain Conditioning.^TMIt works to erase the effects of a Toxic Mental Attitude and helps restore a Winning Trader's Mindset. To try this powerful technology for just $99, click here.

Because I work with all levels of traders, from beginners to top hedge fund traders, my Coaching Program is customized just for you. Together, we will analyze your entire trading situation (mental, emotional, tactical, behavioral, biochemical) and formulate an individualized program that will take you to the next level in just six weeks. The cost is $1499, a fraction of what some traders lose on a single bad day. My program isn't canned, it is customized just for you. Together, we will analyze your entire trading situation (mental, emotional, behavioral, biochemical) and formulate an individualized program that will take you to the next level.