Train To Be Clutch

Denise Shull Market Mind Games - Psychological Leverage

Asch Conformity Experiment

Kobe Bryant's Lesson for Traders

Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain

An extremely dense lecture that is helped along a lot by the illustrations that accompany it. What I found interesting about this is that my brain is engaged in ways that I do not fully understand or appreciate during the trading day. And perhaps, by considering the brain's chemistry and physiology we can make improvements to our lives through more conscious living.

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Rogue hormones - Bad trade? Blame the adrenal cortex

This article originally appeared in the Economist here: 

IF THE losses at UBS that surfaced this month were caused by a “rogue” trader, would that make his colleagues stable? Not if research being undertaken by John Coates, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and a former derivatives trader, is anything to go by. His work suggests that hormones drive investment decisions to a far greater extent than economists or bank executives realise. When traders are on a winning streak, their testosterone levels surge, sparking such euphoria that they underestimate risk. When they are acutely stressed, the adrenal cortex produces a flood of cortisol, a hormone that can make them overly fearful and risk-averse.

Joshua Foer: Step Outside Your Comfort Zone and Study Yourself Failing

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Weekend Watch: How to stretch your memory and focus

via @the99percent

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National Health and Fitness Day

Courtesy of Google. Its long and I wouldn't (didn't) watch the whole thing, but there is some good stuff in the middle (around the 25min mark) about eating in the afternoon. This is especially important for traders, because we often are very ready to collapse around this time. Maintaining your energy and focus enables you to prepare for the next day and operate at peak performance.

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Weekend Watch: How to Complain by Author Guy Winch

Skills For Gaining Control

 This is a follow up post to "Getting to Know Your Intersections"


Skills for Gaining Control


When you're trading with a green light consistantly keep doing what you're doing or think about sizing up or trading more markets.  But I'm not writing about that now.  Today I want to focus on what to do when you're trading with a yellow light or even worse a red light.   When you've lost control or are about to lose control its imparitive to your wealth and mental capital you get back to your green light.  The following ideas I've taken from athletes like Michael Jordan, coaches like Phil Jackson, various articles I've read over the years on performing at a high level, and various traders I respect. 

Steps for Managing Emotions When Trading the Markets

Getting to Know Your Intersections

This is a follow up post to: The Process of Trading One Trade at a Time: Step 1 Self Control 

One of my trading mentors taught me this exercise and I've used it ever since to train other traders.  "Know in advance the intersections of your trading."  These are the times you ought to check your internal traffic light.  You have to know when adjustments are needed before they happen not after its to late.  Its one thing to tell yourself you have an internal traffic light but its another when you spell out your internal traffic light in your trading plan.

The Process of Trading One Trade at a Time: Step 1 Self Control

As a follow up to my post The Process of Trading One Trade at a Time here is the first step: Self Control.


Step 1: Self Control- Staying Calm In Any High Pressure Situation


You are the only thing in trading you can control. Therefore, in order to control your performance you must control yourself.  "Am I in control of myself?" ought to be the first question you ask yourself before each trade.  In order to answer that question you must be objective and give yourself feedback. Are you in the zone? Relaxed? Focused? Following your trading plan? Confident in your trading? Disciplined?  Asking yourself these questions, thoroughly checking in on yourself, and giving yourself objective grades on how you are performing gives you a higher level of awareness that you need in order to properly analyze your trading.  Master traders recognize when adjustments are needed and what adjustments to make. 

Weekend Watch: Innovating in Music

Here's an amazing example of innovation in the field of music. How could you innovate and create in ways that others have not yet thought of in the field of trading?



No position at this time. Position declarations are believed to be accurate at time of writing but may change at any time and without notice.

The Process of Trading One Trade at a Time

When you trade well, you focus totally on each trade.  You are in control of yourself, think clearly about what to do next, and only when under control can you give up control and go to trust.  But it doesn't just happen magically.  You have to work the process, perform at a high level and repeat to improve. 

Playing the Game One Trade at a Time

Today I want to talk a little bit about the mental side of trading.  A few recent events triggered my memory of a trader I used to train.  For the first few months he looked like he had very promising future.  He could scalp quickly, he showed up early/stayed late, studied hard, managed his risk, didn't speculate and was consistently profitable for his first three months.


Then the frist day of month four... WACK!  His first real big down day. In the red for over 10k... and the market just opened.  He priced some options incorrectly in the morning and paid a really high vol for some worthless options.  Instead of collecting himself and getting right back in to his ryhthm, he rapidly begins to lose control and starts bleeding money.

Five Techniques to prevent Short Sighted Decision Making

In trading it's extremely important to have a plan AND then execute the plan.  One problem I find while training new traders is that they make short sighted decisions in the heat of the moment. 


If you've been trading for a while I'm sure you can relate trading to the article below. Taken from the PSY BLOG: 

Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling

Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity and managing emotional risk

Awesome talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity and managing emotional risk.  Not only do I relate her views to trading but also to life.  The longer I live and trade I realize that people/traders who can manage their emotions and their mind are the most successful and happy.  Olay! Enjoy :)