2 reasons:
1) I need to get my dissertation done this year. If all goes well I plan on defending next fall.
2) I need to concentrate on the mental aspects of trading.
I won't bore anyone with the dissertation details. Next year you can read it if you like. =)
I have been reading Mind Gym : An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence
(some of you may remember Don M.' s plug in December). I haven't had time to finish it yet, but what I have read has helped to reinforce the mental aspects of everything and the importance of a proper mindset for success in all endeavors (assuming some level of player competence).Last week was a great example of one set of bad habits: I refuse to take the credit for doing well and beat myself up when I don't. After an amazing day on 1-4 I wrote: 'I wish I could that I was in the zone, but the trades felt more like a fluke.' I didn't post several days last week because I had several trades that didn't work out well first thing in the morning and I had this sense of the markets being in control rather than me, so I quit for the day.
There is a mindset that has been lingering for as long as I have been trying to trade. The best way to describe it is that I feel like I am knowingly walking off the edge of a cliff and expecting everything to be all right. It is almost a compulsive reaction or fear of thinking or analyzing too much, accompanied by thoughts of 'Gotta play to win' and 'No one knows what will happen'. Yet in the back of my head there is an over-riding sense of dread and the expectation that the trade will fail.
Heh. That is the mess that is my head. Not a healthy mindset.
Why all this? Again - I am not real sure. But I intend to work thru it and wrestle it to the ground. I am guessing part of the problem is an intense focus on myself rather than on price action. Of course, when I am doing anything well I am fully conscious of myself and how far I am able to push myself, but I am even more aware of and responding to what is going on around me. Take any activity and think about what happens. For example (because skiing is still on the brain) - I consider myself a competent skier. When I am skiing well I am aware of my body - but I am not questioning my body's response or ability to respond. I am not looking for outside confirmation or affirmation of my response. My body senses ice - I don't check the temperature, the position of the sun, or wind direction for confirmation. Nor do I push way beyond what I know I can handle or beat myself when an edge slips out from under me. I trust myself and respond. And have fun.
The analogy isn't perfect, but I think the principals hold.
As I mentioned a few post ago, the last year has also seen some great 'in the zone' moments. Enough so that I these will provide the healthy mental trading backdrop for visualization. The Mind Gym : An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence
has several exercises and I plan on blogging about these as I work thru them. This will be a 100% effort over the next several months. Making that backdrop real and readily adoptable is the goal.Trade well.
yeah buddy. its funny we wind up in the same place. i have enjoyed going over scotts affirmations the past few weeks. while listening to them i am visualizing the ideal chart over and over again until i fall asleep.
ReplyDeletewhen i don't place trades and just peek at the market a few times a day, i see it is possible to do this. i need that belief when i am trading. but, it always gets destroyed as soon as my first loss comes.
am i crazy (or maybe just because i am watching and not participating) or is the market acting properly these past few weeks. the stocks going up keep going up and the ones going down keep going down?
this break i have been on has been better for me than actually trading. getting my mind right will work wonders once i get back on the horse.
"Heh. That is the mess that is my head. Not a healthy mindset."
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't sound like a mess to me. It sounds healthy. Your feelings are guides and the subconscious cannot be wrestled with. It sounds as if your feelings are trying to warn you. If you are losing consistently your feelings are trying to warn you as you ARE heading for the cliff. That's what it's supposed to do.