5 Ways To Enhance Your Trading Psychology (Tips)Welcome to mindset Monday, where I will share something trading psychology-related.
In this post, I will be breaking down 5 things that have helped my trading psychology over the years. Trading is not only a game of strategy, but there is a level of self-awareness involved as well. The 5 things that have helped me are basic brainwave science, limiting social media, diet, letting go, and having a trading ritual. Let’s discuss them further.
1. Your Brainwaves & Binaural Beats
Did you know? When you wake up your brain is in what’s called “Alpha” state? Believe it or not this is actually not ideal for trading. When your brain is in Alpha state, it is actually in a more relaxed mode, Alpha is typically a state someone is in when they meditate or are about to fall asleep. It takes the average person 30-60 minutes after they wake up to transition out of Alpha and into the “Beta” state. Beta waves are what your brain is in when it feels “on.” When you are doing homework, working out, or even at a work, your brain is in Beta. How does this relate to trading? Well, back when I was obsessed with charts (in a dangerous way) I would wake up and just hop on the chart and try to trade. I would literally hop out of bed and look at my laptop. I now allow myself one full hour to transition into Beta before I begin trading, this allows me to operate at full capacity and stay sharp and alert. I also use an app on my phone called binaural beats. The app will actually play Beta waves through headphones, and while your listening to it will help your brain switch into it faster. I recommend looking into binaural beats apps, a quick google search will explain more to you. In trading, it’s important to find as many ways as possible to stay mentally sharp. This is one I use.
2. Limit Social Media
I’ve seen it and I’m sure you have, the people on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms flashing pictures of how many pips they are catching and how they are scaling accounts by 5000% in 8 days. That’s great and all, but this could potentially DESTROY you when you sit down and look at the charts. As humans, we are always comparing ourselves to other people, and when we see someone else doing better we either get down on ourselves, get inspired, or think that we need to do that too, or we aren’t performing up to par. Trading is unlike anything out there. You aren’t competing with anyone, it’s about you and the chart, your mind needs to be clear to tap into your zone. The issue with social media is people get googly-eyed at money and the lavish life but trading is not about that, it’s simply about building habits, when you take your mind off of your execution and systems and you start thinking you need to scale up quicker, you are going to be trading simply off emotion and probably make mistakes. Silencing my social media from flashy traders was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
3. Your Diet
What you put into your body can affect your mind greatly. If you eat more whole foods, and get some exercise regularly these actions lead to a good feeling. Your brain will release more serotonin, this will help increase your mood. When you feel good about yourself. You usually have more confidence, and when you have more confidence, that is going to come through in your trading and your life, you’ll feel more confident in your intuition and decisiveness, and as traders, all we do every day is make decisions!
4. Let Go
Let go of everything, let go of yesterday’s bad trade, let go of an argument you had with a loved one, try and let go of any stress you may feel. Meditate for 15 minutes if you need to. Beat the crap out of a pillow. Release that energy because if you don’t you may exert it onto the chart. Every trade is a brand new trade, the market doesn’t care about your problems, it will tick on with or without us. I have tried yelling at EURUSD when it stops me out, and I found that I never get a response from my computer screen. If you’re having a bad day, just step away and get a fresh start tomorrow.
5. Consistent Ritual
Man, I can’t emphasize this enough, when you have a strategy, the name of the game just becomes execution really. You need to train your brain/subconscious to simply repeat your strategy over and over. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to trade from the same location. If you trade at home, do it in the same spot every time. Do something that puts your brain into “trading mode,” for me, it is making a cup of tea. I wake up, eat food, and once that cup of tea gets made, I started thinking “it’s game time.” Did you know that Tom Brady takes a nap two hours before every game? This is an example of his ritual, yours can be anything you want, affirmations, visualizing, anything you feel you can do before sitting down that will trigger your “trader state of mind.”
I’m not a psychologist, but I hope this article gave you value, or maybe just gave you a break from reading posts about charts and setups. Just sharing my experiences.
Let’s Elevate,
Gio
P.S. Every week I share a forex outlook, educational content and trade ideas, right here on tradingview. Make sure to follow so you don’t miss them!
