I know how challenging the psychology of trading can be, especially doing it all on your own.
That’s why I’m excited about my new coaching and accountability program, giving you the benefits of private coaching at a fraction of the cost.
As a professional poker player, trader, etc, you work alone. So not only are you responsible for execution, you’re also your manager or coach. THIS reality is easy to forget but that role is vital to your success - so commit to being a better manager/coach for yourself.
If you're walking with a rock in your shoe and feel pain when you step on it, you wouldn't say the pain is the problem. It's the damn rock! Emotions are not the problem. Emotions are a signal of a "rock" (aka, flaws, biases, illusions, wishes) in the back if your mind.
One of the biggest, most basic mental mistakes is thinking you can always control your emotions.
This is a myth.
The emotional system is simply more powerful than the part of the brain responsible for controlling your emotions.
If anger, fear or greed become too intense…
Today is the two year anniversary of the release of this baby!
Couldn't be happier with how it's been received. Thanks to everyone who has sent me kind messages - having spent 4 years working on it, your feedback and hearing about your success makes the effort all worth it!
Today is the day! Three years in the making and I couldn't be happier/proud to say, The Mental Game of Trading is now available in softcover and ebook! (Audiobook will be out in a few weeks.)
#trading
#tradingpsychology
Pain and suffering is often part of pursuing a big dream. Plus it can accumulate and weigh down on you, making you underperform and your dream feel out of reach. But also can make you strong, like a sword forged in fire you wield experience others don’t have.
Having a big loss, bad day, poor performance can FEEL like a big step backwards, but that's a perceptual error. You've simply performed at a C-game level. Which EVERYONE has. No one is perfect.
The goal is to make your C-game less and less bad over time.
The best traders, poker players, athletes, don't just have a passion for making money/winning, they have a passion for the game, for learning the intricacies and for the work needed to be their very best.
Mistakes are going to happen. That's inevitable. But a common problem happens when your emotional reaction to that initial mistake leads you to make more mistakes!
This chart can help. I'll explain.
Discipline problems that are driven by FOMO, tilt, or fear are not discipline problems. They are emotional problems. Period.
So in order to have the consistent level of discipline you're after, you need to correct the cause of those emotions.
If you constantly jump from one trading strategy/system, or poker strategy/approach, you have a weakness in confidence. You're lacking the conviction to learn the strengths/weaknesses in an approach. You're looking for something that works, rather than developing real skill.
If you repeat a bad habit, you get better at it and make it more likely to reoccur...unless you figure out why it happened and come up with a better gameplan, which often will included understand the emotion compelling you to fall back into it.
Winning mental battles takes a toll. Yes it can build confidence, give you inspiration and hope for the future, but it also can be draining. Don't underestimate the need to recover after days where you make solid progress, or you'll take unnecessary steps backward.
So many of you perform at your best when your back is against the wall - why? Bc you have no other option but to step up and be your best.
But your motivation flounders after creating some breathing room - why? Bc you must choose where to focus your effort, and you suck at it.
If you continually struggle to maintain discipline in your process, routine, strategy or system, there is more emotion than you realize causing you to violate your rules/structure.
Find and correct the hidden emotion - that's the key to developing the right discipline.
If you're thinking or planning to do one thing, but then randomly do another you either have too much emotion or not enough emotion/energy to translate your thoughts into action.
Handy visual called Yerkes Dodson Law helps you to see why.
Energy/emotion is too low = you suck.…
Self-criticism can erode confidence when you can't let go of a mistake. Being pissed off at yourself for failing to do what you should have is lazy analysis. You need to figure out WHY it happened in order to truly learn HOW to be better next time. Curiosity is the antidote.
Repeating the same mistakes again and again is one thing, but convincing yourself you already know how to fix it, and repeatedly staking that claim, is quite another.
Repetitive mistakes that you've tried again and again to fix are likely more mental/emotional than you realize.
Don't be surprised if your mental game gets worse before it gets better. Once you start looking more closely, you might find the problems in your mental game are worse or more complex than you had originally thought.
Well this is cool. Just checked the sales rank and The Mental Game of Trading is
#1
in Futures trading for the first time since the book came out last year!! Thanks everyone!
It's weak to not know your weaknesses. Elite performers in any field know this and relentlessly seek to identify them and correct them. Regardless of the size of your goals be more like them, it'll take you farther in the long run.
On tough days, it’s easy to force things trying to compensate for not feeling great or being off. That rarely works out. By trying to force A-game you make C-game more likely! Instead aim for B-game, be solid, avoid big mistakes and you give yourself a chance to find your best.
Being disciplined for the sake of discipline sucks the life out of trading, poker, golf, etc. You only need to be as disciplined as is necessary to achieve your goals.
Your goals determine the scope of your self-discipline. Make sure your goals are clear!
You are not the problem. Your reactions, negative thinking or inability to stop making the same mistakes over and over - those are problems. Not you. Hate them. Don’t hate or criticize yourself. Thinking this way gets YOU focused and curious on fixing the right problems.
To be a great competitor or trader you need to be a great at handling losing. I’m not suggesting you feel good about losing. You can even hate it, but you still must handle losses the right way, otherwise you’ll cause additional losses and derail progress.
Don't shy away from the pain/discomfort often associated with pursuing your own greatness - whatever that is for you. This pain can be intense, but it's short lived. The pain from knowing you backed off and didn't give it your all, is less intense but lasts a lifetime.
Qualified for the Philly Open today! Tricky course playing tough. Hit a ton of great iron shots today, which was very different than the last few events. Finals in 3 weeks💪
If you're struggling with discipline take a look at your goals. Be honest: how connected you are to them? Sometimes big audacious goals are inspiring, but when you hit predictable trouble/challenges/setbacks in the short-term, they lack the power to keep you on track.
Our mind has an incredible ability to come up with the right bullshit logic to allow us to violate our rules, get distracted or avoid doing what we ought to. BUT there is not an endless supply. Write them all down & it's easier to recognize a legitimate reason vs a bullshit one.
Friday is a day when a lot of my trading clients make mistakes. They want to end the week positive, they've had a good week and want to lock it up, they're fatigued and don't realize they're at greater risk of mistakes...
Be prepared to battle your C-game today!
As traders and poker players you're paid for performance. Like an athlete you need to work hard, and then be sure to rest. Otherwise all that hard work is wasted.
If you've working really hard on your mental, made some solid progress, but continue to have big setbacks where it feels like nothing has changed, look for hidden wishes or hopes.
You might be wishing variance didn't exist, hoping to have a big month, wishing you didn't have to…
Accumulated emotion is a hidden danger. The emotion that builds up during the day, and day over day, is subtle and often unseen.
When your baseline level of emotion is higher, it's easier for even small things to trigger intense fear, anger and overconfidence.
Traders don't miss next month's Boston IBD BlueSky event. Incredible all-star list of traders speaking - I'm honored to be part of it.
@markminervini
& I will have a great a conversation about “Psychology to Win…In the Markets and in Life”
Register here:
Before we left for Worlds, we received these bracelets for the team.
Thank you Teddy, Corey and
@jaredtendler
for your good luck charms. They’ve been working. 💙
If you start each day with the “today is a new day” mentality WITHOUT actually learning from yesterday, you're likely to make the same mistakes again.
Be optimistic, not delusional.
If you tend to overthink, obsess, or perseverate with your thoughts or decisions, look for the underlying fear that's driving the excess thinking. Your mind goes into overdrive seeking out information. When your mind is uncontrolled like this, fear is driving it.
Optimal performance happens when you're at the top of this curve. After a weekend, your energy may be flat and you might need to take a few a losses or make some mistakes to spark some frustration and get your head in the game.
Why waste money/opportunity like this? It's lazy.…
I'm a competitor at heart and I love to win. Having this championship ring arrive today is super gratifying. Thanks so much to the
@aXiomaticGaming
and
@TeamLiquid
family for the wonderful gesture! Mean a lot.
(From the CS:GO team winning the Intel Grand Slam last year.)
One of the biggest, hidden costs, of fear and procrastination is that it keeps you on the sidelines. So not only does that make your procrastination and fear stronger - you also fail to build skill or gain experience that could help you solve those problems.
It’s been a while since I won a golf tournament. This is satisfying. Qualifier for the
@GAofPhilly
mid-am and for the championship proper it doesn’t make a difference if I finished 1st or 22nd, it’s still feels really good to play well in tough conditions and get the W!!!
Preparation is your primary tool to reach a high level consistently.
In arenas such as poker and trading, where so much is out of your control, a strong routine is your opportunity to gain command of the internal factors you can control and directly impact your performance.…
In key moments, it's all on you. There's no one else who can help you.
It is in those moments where you prove the value of your preparation and work. Success validates what you've done in the past, but the common mistake is thinking this predicts what's to come.
When mental game issues are intense, think of yourself as injured. That idea helps you rebuild strength and capacity in the right way, like you would a physical injury. Worst thing you can do is expect too much too quickly or push too hard because you'll reinjure yourself!
Impatience is a problem that many traders struggle with but few are able to identify the cause. While it may seem like a discipline problem, excessive emotions are most often what is actually driving to get into or out of a position too quickly.
Fear, anger, desperation,…
When you begin to truly resolve the underlying cause of FOMO, revenge tilt, a lack of confidence, etc, be on the lookout. Your old problems will continue to pop up, you’ll have the reflex to get frustrated and open a hand to wide, FOMO into a position, or get down on yourself.…
I’m a big proponent of having a solid warm-up routine as part of your daily preparation. But you also must carve out time to upgrade your skills and expertise over time. You need to continually prepare and do the work to level up, rather than just assume you'll improve naturally.
Not everyone realizes that goals direct your focus. If you’ve been easily distracted or having a harder time focusing deeply, take a look at your goals. They need to be updated or refined.
Imagine how frustrating it would be for a Ferrari to only be able to drive around town at 40mph…some of you are condemned to that metaphorical reality because you don’t have the structure/discipline/process to live up to the potential you have inside.
You can't always be your best. As long as you are motivated and focused on improving, your “best” is a moving target that you should aspire to keep reaching, even though you'll often fall short.
As you make progress mentally/emotionally, problems can continue to pop up and fool you into thinking that nothing has changed. This is a tricky stage of progress.
You must continue to apply the process/correction that got you here. You need to do this a lot longer than many…
US Open application complete! 77 days until I get to tee it up in Local qualifier (1st of 2 stages). Last year I missed getting through by three shots, played really well but made too many small mistakes. Will be working hard on my game to get ready for it.
Intuition can only be developed through years of experience. Knowledge and raw intelligence aren't enough.
If you've been trading or playing poker for <1 year, don't trust your intuitive sense of what's right, your emotions are manipulating you.
Quick 🧵
Whether you've had a great week, a bad week, or anything in between, today presents the same opportunity to improve your decision-making, execution, and mental game. Get after it💪
I've released a new Quick Guide to The Mental Game of Trading to make it easier to understand my system and how you can use it to improve discipline, confidence and reduce greed, fear and anger. Save the jpg below or download a PDF version w links here:
1st thing I've done is create a Quick Guide for book. A few readers suggested that I laid out my system in a clearer way to make it easier to navigate through and know what work to do. I actually made 2 versions based on client feedback.
If your bankroll takes a major hit and you need to come back from it, it’s like an athlete coming back from an injury. There will be good days and bad days. Be patient and on the bad days aim for B-game. Don’t worry about A-game. There's a lot of value in minimizing the setback.
You can't buy skill. You can pay for resources to help you of course, but the skills you develop you earn through the time and effort and focus you put in. Pretty cool to think about. Increased skills earn you greater potential, that no one can take from you or easily aquire.
Emotions can subtly accumulate as the week goes on. Take an extra few minutes today to ensure that you don't have any overconfidence, greed, fear, or anger built up from previous days. It will affect your emotional stability today.
Many of you are unknowingly gambling with your mental game.
You're going after quick fixes and easy answers to complex and challenging problems, like impatience, tilt, fear, FOMO, you name it. You're hoping to strike gold and have these problems instantly fixed.
Just like in…
Negative thoughts at a basic level are a distraction. When you engage in the thoughts, or they start to accelerate, fight for a more accurate perspective. Don't give them any validity.
This is how you build mental strength/toughness.
Hindsight does not create foresight.
Recognizing after the fact what you should have done, doesn't mean that you'll make the correct decision next time. Foresight comes by analyzing what happened and turning it into a strategy that gets you to do something different next time.
The truth is hard sometimes.
Can you honestly say you’re working hard enough? Smart enough? That you’re doing everything you can?
The truth can be hard, but it’s much harder to live with the reality that you’re not giving yourself a chance to realize your full potential.
Everyday gives you the opportunity to be better. Struggling? Handle it better. Winning? Handle it better - be more precise, stay even more patient/poised/present.
Not saying it’s easy to be better, but it does start with a choice.
Think about the Inchworm this week - it's not about inching your way forward, it about improving all aspects of your range of performance/execution, especially the backend or your C-game.
Many of you have improved C-game a lot and it's time to push B and A-game higher too!
If you're thinking negatively/pessimistically about what you can't do, you're overconfident.
That's right, overconfident.
You THINK you know what you can't do, but you can't know that yet. Only after you've given full effort can't you determine you capacity, not before.
Everyday is high stakes. Your goals, improvement, skills, and money are on the line every time you sit down to trade and play poker. Let that fuel your highest level of performance and help you to see more clearly what needs work.
When you're prepared for intense emotional reactions, you have the opportunity for progress. Literally in that moment focusing your mind on the reaction, seeing it for what it is, where it's weak & correcting it with the right logic. These moments are powerful and must be earned.
Mental endurance is a topic that isn't talked about enough in trading, poker and golf.
Mental endurance is key is because, for all of us, the only thing guaranteed every day is C-game. A-game is earned and you need to build endurance so you can reach and sustain A-game longer.
This lesson I've learned in the gym can help you mentally.
For the last 2 years I've been working hard to get my 45 year old body in top physical condition so I can compete at a high level again in golf. But I would regularly get injured every 2-3 months, and particularly soon…
When FOMO, tilt or fear are triggered, you’re not choosing, allowing or letting those emotional reactions happen. Think of them more like a reflex - think rubber mallet to the knee.
The choice comes in what you do next. Ideally, you have a strategy in place to both…
Classic signs of Perfectionism and high expectations:
*Feel like nothing is good enough, even after winning
*Never applaud good results, or not for very long - the goal post is always moving
*Have a hard time moving on, letting go, or getting over a mistake
*Become self-critical…
Shutting down for the next two weeks to rest up, work on some personal projects and enjoy some relaxing time with family and friends.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday and new year! Let’s make 2023 a banner year!!!
The biggest mental game mistake that I see isn’t tilt, fear or overconfidence. It's the faulty way that traders, poker players, athlete’s, etc view their problems. The problem isn't FOMO, fear of failing, hatred of losing, overconfidence, boredom, distractibility, you name it.
Transforming deeper pain into progress is energizing.
Dig in, what you find may be ugly and emotional but you’re not creating anything new, you’re uncovering what’s been undermining your efforts to perform and progress.
Struggling or being overwhelmed is often viewed as being a bad thing, like you’re doing something wrong. No, it’s means you’re in the thick of it doing everything you can to succeed. Making progress is often hard.
If you’re constantly looking for better ways to trade or play poker, jumping from one strategy/style to another or defaulting to advice from experts who you think know better than you, you have a weakness in confidence.
When reaching a new high point you might get anxious bc mistakes and blowups typically would follow and you anticipate that happening again.
Correction: Aim for B-game. Don’t keep pushing for top end performance, take a step back and gather yourself for the next climb higher.
Looking for easy answers to complex problems is gambling. The real work is messy, confusing and overwhelming at times. DON'T let that deter you. Progress is out there for those willing to dig in and stay in for as long as it takes.
Accumulated emotion is a hidden monster. Ideally, you would truly be reset for the next day, but very often both pos and neg emotions carries over. That means less emotion is needed to cause problems, and being optimistic that "today is a new day" doesn't change that.
Very excited to announce a new 5-part webinar series partnering with
@TraderLion_
- Trading Psychology Masterclass.
I'm working my butt off to create something really special. More details here, including a limited discount/special:
Time does not heal all wounds.
Many of you have scar tissue from past failures/mistakes. Much like scar tissue in the body, we find find ways to compensate but the real magic is when you work through those pain points to regain full functionality. The mind is the same way.
I'm from Newtown, CT and for those that don't know, 11 years ago a gunman killed 20 first and second grade kids and 6 adults. Immediately afterwards, Alex Jones, through his online show Infowars, questioned if it was a staged event by government to push through gun legislation.…
Break some bad habits today.
Which like means you need to work through some emotional reactions too, come prepared. Right now they have the upper hand.