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The 30 Day Mindset Challenge: Will You Succeed?

We are on the heels of June and I’ve decided to take on a new challenge.

For the entire month of June (30 days), I’ll be taking on not 1, not 2, but 7 new habits.

I definitely like a challenge, and for me – a successful mindset requires successful habits.

Hence I decided to announce this challenge openly to you and others, sharing all the details along the way.

But before I get into the nitty-gritty details, I need to talk about habits and why they are key to your brain & success.

Why Habits Are Key To Your Success

For you to make money trading and achieve your goals, you’ll have to wire in successful habits.

But you currently have a problem. Your brain will do what it is wired to do most of the time (think 90+% on avg).

And your brain is not programmed to make money trading. So you’ll need to un/re-wire your current programming while creating a successful trading mindset.

Now how your brain is wired (wiring = habits) can be explained by one principle – neuroplasticity.

What Is Neuroplastcity?

Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to wire and make new connections. Its also the reason why you can unwire connections and bad habits.

There are two key terms for understanding neuroplasticity. They are:

1) SDN = self directed neuroplasticity

and

2) EDN= experience dependent neuroplasticity

To help you understand the above, just memorize the following statements:

1) Neurons that fire together wire together

and

2) Passing mental states = lasting neural traits

Now one thing that is implicit in the first statement is the following:

Neurons that fire apart wire apart

You’ve probably heard something similar in pop culture, such as the ‘use it or lose it‘ phrase. This statement is completely valid regarding your brain.

Habits are what you create by repetitive actions over a consistent period of time. Creating successful habits requires mental toughness because you’re fighting against your brain’s conditioning.

Once you’ve created a habit, your cognitive bandwidth is now available for other important activities.

Think of what your trading would be like if every time you spot a great trade setup – you pull the trigger without worrying about a loss. How would that help your performance on a day to day basis?

Hence your direct path to successful trading is to build successful trading habits.

NOTE: If you want to learn my personal methods for wiring successful habits into your brain fast – check out my Advanced Traders Mindset Course.

Front End Work For Long Term Benefits

Building successful habits requires most of the work to be done on the front end. What do I mean by front end?

To wire in a new habit, you have to physically (and chemically) create a new series of connections. This takes (at a minimum) consistent repetition over time.

How long? For the expert at this – about 21 days is the fastest you can do this. 30 days would be more reasonable.

What if you are not working 4-8 hours per day trading at least 5 days per week?

You’ll need about 90-180 days.

From my experience as a trading mentor who’s turned many traders profitable, this is one of the biggest reasons why many never succeed. The habit wiring curve takes just a tad longer than most are willing to do consistently over time.

Do you change your pair, price action strategy or time frames if you don’t get the results you want in a few weeks or a couple of months? Do you just jump from mentor to mentor and course to course as you continue to struggle?

If so, then you have a problem because you’re changing critical behaviors before you’ve fully wired in the habit.

Hence you never get the benefits of wiring successful habits into your brain. And then you eventually wonder why you cannot trade consistently.

Sound familiar?

Thus most of the work in building successful habits for you will come in the front end. The good thing is once you’ve wired them in, the rewards (and potential upside) are unlimited.

That sounds like a pretty good trade to me now doesn’t it?

Why Delayed Gratification Is Key

In your journey to create new habits, you’ll be fighting against a primal instinct. This is via instant gratification and one reason why our brains work against us in trading.

The key is to flip the script and opt for delayed gratification. The problem for you is – in a time of instant gratification, most of what you are exposed to works against this.

So you have to go against the grains of every day society and culture.

The bottom line is – if you want ot succeed in trading or life, you’ll need to seek out delayed gratification. This will direct your mindset towards building successful habits over time.

As you begin to add positive habits into your life, you’l build up your self-image along the way.

Having a positive self-image will increase your confidence. Eventually you’ll start to think and believe it is ‘like you’ to succeed.

You’ll believe it is ‘like you’ to accomplish what you set out to do. This is one of the most important things you can build for your mindset.

“The habits you wire in today will become the vehicle for your success tomorrow.”

In the spirit of wanting to build my self-image, habits and mindset, I’m taking on these 7 habits for the month of June.

The 30 Day Mindset Challenge: Will You Succeed?

For the next 30 days (without breaks), I’ll be adding the following habits to my daily routine.

Here they 7 new habits below:

1) 1hr of writing/producing new trading content per day

2) 45 pushups

3) 25 situps

4) 25 squats

5) 30 mins reading a book or article about buddhism

6) 30 minutes reading a book or article on neuroscience and/or mindset

7) 30 mins – 1hr work on the new trading applications I’m creating (will announce at a later date)

Looking at the list above, that is a lot of new habits to take on. We’re talking about adding 3-3.5hrs of work to my day every day for the next 30 days.

Normally I do not recommend taking on such a big load of new habits or hours to your daily schedule. However I have confidence in my ability to manage my time and get this done.

Will you take on this 30 day mindset challenge?

If so, I’d recommend starting with 1 habit to begin with.

Start small and work your way up. There is no point setting yourself up for failure, so work on something you can achieve. Just make it stretch your comfort zone a bit.

NOTE: For a great article about the comfort zone and how it determines your success in trading, click here.

BTW – if some of you are thinking ‘only 25 situps per day?’, my apologies as a) I’m getting older and b) I’ve spent far too much time in the seat lately 😮

All kidding aside (partially kidding…), what new habit will you challenge yourself for the next 30 days?

Write it below along with why you want to work on this.

IMPORTANT: Make sure to work on a habit that you can control the execution of.

For example – you cannot control the market and profits. Hence creating a habit like ‘I’m going to make $5000 per day trading’ will fail because it’s based on something you cannot control (markets).

This is why you only work on habits that you can control.

Now make sure to share below what one habit you’ll be working on for the next 30 days. Be specific along with sharing what it will mean to you to build this new habit.

I’ll be posting updates on this once per week every Tuesday at 930am so make sure to check back regularly.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you. And I’m willing to bet you’ll feel like a more confident version of yourself for completing such a challenge.

Until then – good health and trading to you.

Trading Strategies

Why You Need To Build These Muscles To Make Money Trading

There you are, it’s your 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th loss in a row. It sucks, it doesn’t feel good, and you haven’t had a winner in a while.

Right now, all you want is a winner, yet you seem unable to get one.

After losing the umpteenth trade in a row, you are now actively asking yourself any one of the following questions:

1) What’s wrong with me?

2) What is wrong with my strategy?

3) Do I not know how to trade?

4) I can’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Why do I keep losing?

5) Should I do the opposite of my trade ideas?

Has this ever happened to you? It’s certainly happened to me.

Ironically, none of these are the correct questions, nor are they accurate reflections of your trading ability.

In fact, you could lose 20+ trades in a row, and still be a damn good trader who can make money that year.

The issue isn’t your strategy, or time frame, or instrument, or your ability.

The problem is your muscles are weak and they need to be developed.

No, I’m not talking about any physical muscle.

What I’m referring to is your trading mindset is lacking.

What it is lacking is the muscle (and skill) to understand and accept variance.

What is Variance?

In poker, there is a concept called variance. What variance describes is the mathematical possibilities about how you can win and lose.

For example, assume I’m playing Texas Hold’ Em poker. I have pocket kings, while one other opponent has pocket 2’s. Statistically over 1000 flops, I should win 79% of the time.

Now this is where understanding variance is helpful. Just because I should win 79% of the time, doesn’t mean I’m going to win the next 79 out of 100 hands, or roughly 8 out of 10.

I could lose the next 30 of the next 100 hands, or even 50, or 21 in a row.

On a basic level, ‘variance’ means that any combination of wins and losses within the statistical norm can and will happen. So when we have a baseline expectancy or win rate, anything above or below this would be a representation of variance.

A good example of this is in a poker equity curve below.

It is this ‘variance’ and statistics that allows me to profit. It is also this variance which allows me to go on win streaks.

And it is also the same variable behind me going on a losing streak.

The ironic thing is no trader or poker player complains about variance when they are on a winning streak.

But god forbid we go on a losing streak, and our world + trading mindset crumble on the quick.

How Does This Relate to Trading?

Tying it all back, variance is how trading works. There is another name for this in trading called ‘random distribution’. This describes how your wins and losses will be randomly distributed.

The reason why this is such an issue for traders is threefold:

1) most struggling traders don’t understand or accept how variance works

2) most of you haven’t built the muscle (or skill) to accept variance

3) most of you haven’t learned how to detect whether your losses are due to variance (or something actualy ‘wrong’ with you)

Do you have any of the above? If so, it will negatively effect your trading mindset and hurt your performance.

In today’s article, I’m going to show you how the first point is killing your profits and why. I’ll also share how you can build your muscles to accept variance and detect if you are experiencing variance or a problem with your strategy.

How Variance Works (example from a top hedge fund)

Have you ever heard of Horseman Capital? Probably not. Yet they are one of the top performing hedge funds over the last 15 years.

Since 2001, they’ve beat out about 95% of all hedge funds on the planet averaging about 15% per year.

Here is their performance since 2001 below (source: Horseman Capital).

$1 million invested with them at the start of 2001 would be almost $7 million today.

One would think with an almost 695% return, they’d never have a losing month, a losing quarter, and certainly not a losing year.

You’d be wrong on all accounts!

How many losing months did they have during this time? 64 total

How many losing quarters did they have? 17 total

How many losing years did they have? 2

What was there longest losing streak (in months)? 6

Now here are a few questions that have to be asked in light of this

How many losing months would you go before you change your strategy, try something new, or question your abilities as a trader?

Could you make it 6 months before you changed things up or questioned your ability? I’m guessing few if any.

And herein lies the proof in the chocolate pudding…that you’re not accepting variance or fully relating to how it works.

If you change your strategy, time frame or instrument too soon, you’ll never see the profit side of an equity curve.

But there is an even far more grave issue with constantly changing your strategy, instrument or trading plan.

And that has to do with one word.

Consistency

If you are going to succeed at trading, you’ll need to execute consistently on a mental level.

Thus to trade consistently, you’ll need to develop consistency in your mind.

“You cannot be consistent in trading without consistency in your mind.”

This is how your brain works. Most of the time, you’ll execute the way your brain is most dominantly wired to do so.

If you are not executing the way you want to now – you simply haven’t wired your brain to do so.

The good thing is your brain has a key trait which allows you to wire and build the habits you need to trade successfully.

This trait is neuroplasticity.

There are two types (SDN & EDN). These stand for Self-Directed Neuroplasticity and Experience Dependent Neuroplasticity.

To read more about Using Neuroplasticity to Wire Your Brain For Success – click on the link.

Variance & Your Trading Mindset

Now let’s circle back to variance. If every time you experience a losing streak you change your strategy, you’ll wire inconsistency in your brain.

Again – you cannot have consistency in your trading with inconsistency in your mindset.

Have you changed your strategy after a 1-3 month losing streak? Have you completely doubted yourself after 10 losses in a row?

If so, it means you need to build your muscles. It means you need to develop your skill to understand and accept variance. And make no mistake, this is a skill in and of itself.

Hence before you go changing everything under the sun after a losing streak or drawdown, ask yourself if you are accepting variance.

Before You Can Accept Variance, You Must Be Able to Do This

Without a doubt, being able to accept variance will be critical to your survival.

It will mean not tossing out a perfectly good strategy just because you’ve lost 10 in a row.

It will also mean learning to deal with losses while focusing on process and execution, not results.

This will lead to building consistent mental habits to make money trading.

But there is a step before you can learn to accept variance and build up your muscles here. And that is, you’ll need to be able to understand the difference between variance and a problem with your actual trading or strategy.

What if there is nothing wrong with your strategy, but there is something wrong with your mental execution?

Or on the flip side of this, what if there is something wrong with your strategy, but you don’t know if it’s you or not?

How do you know? How could you know?

How Can I Learn These 4 Criteria & Build A Winning Mindset?

Luckily we’ve developed 4 criteria to help you with this. Using these you can know if your losses have to do with variance, or signal a problem with your strategy.

For those of you that want to learn more about these 4 criteria, then check out my ATM course.

This could mean the difference between winning and losing. It could mean the difference between you making money trading and giving up before turning profitable.

It could also mean the difference between a winning mindset and one that panics when things go south.

If you want to learn more about this critical subject, then check out my Advanced Traders Mindset Course. There are 20 total lessons like this which will change the way you think, trade and perform.

Now Your Turn

Have you had issues with consistency after a losing period?

Do you constantly change your strategy after a drawdown?

Do you doubt yourself or fail to pull the trigger after a few losses?

How many of these situations have happened to you?

Make sure to comment along with sharing any ‘aha’ moments you got from this article.

Until then, may you find consistency in your trading mindset which leads to confidence in your abilities.

Trading Strategies

Success Stories From Our Traders at 2ndSkiesForex

Without a doubt, this was a successful year at 2ndSkiesForex. As a team – our staff grew, we got smarter and accomplished many goals.

While this type of success is ‘satiating’, what really floated my boat was the students and traders. Many this year after hard work and lots of practice + training broke through.

One student got funded $100,000. Another finally broke through to profitability after blowing up several accounts. And one student did +25% over a 6 month period.

There are many more successful trader stories like this at 2ndSkiesForex. While I’d like to share all our forex success stories, we’ll share a few to start the year on a good note and hopefully inspire you.

Getting Funded $100K after 8 Months

Harkanwalpreet Singh joined 2ndskiesforex in December 2014. You can see his payment receipt + account with us below.

He is a member of our Price Action Course & in February joined our Advanced Traders Mindset Course.

After 2 months of training diligently, he funded an account for $10K with the AxiTrader Select program.

5 months later he got funded $100K by the AxiTrader program. You can read the article about him getting funded here.

Note how they state he ‘performed consistently during volatile markets and complex trading environments‘

Below is his email to me about getting funded (click image to enlarge).

Mr. Singh is not a common forex trading success story by getting funded within 8 months. Normally it takes 1-2 years of hard work before you see this kind of result.

Instead of just learning price action strategies and trading techniques, he worked on his trading mindset.

Many struggling traders fall into the trap of just working on one skill – learning price action and making trades.

He realized how important a successful mindset is and did our core mindset techniques for months.

The result is consistent performance, handling volatility, and getting funded $100K.

What I think is unique about Harkanwalpreet is his maturity. Not long after getting funded, some personal family issues came up. He decided to suspend trading till the situation would pass realizing how is mindset was affected.

Instead of just hammering on, he knew when to take a break and not trade. This shows awareness, discipline and maturity.

If he asks, I’ll be there at every step of the way, and may even fund him myself if he continues to perform.

To me his forex story is a great marker of success and I’ll look forward to watching him grow.

Gaining +25% in 6 Months

Nazar Bent is from Canada and joined 2ndSkiesForex back in the summer of 2014. You can see his receipt of our price action course from June that year below.

As a student unhappy with his college studies, Nazar knew from the moment he started trading this is what he wanted to do full time.

Below is his myfxbook account since he started with us.

To summarize:

1) in the beginning, he struggled like most traders (red box), but he kept working at it

2) after finding a groove, he started to stabilize (blue box)

3) since February 2015, he’s gained +25% over 6 months (green box)

Below is a zoomed in screenshot from his Feb. trading on.

Notice the red box in the middle? This is what happened when trying a new strategy. After giving that up, his gains returned and trading stabilized.

What should be noted is his accuracy + risk to reward numbers. He’s only averaging about 23% for his accuracy, yet is still making money.

Why? Because he’s crushing his +R per trade with his avg. win 184 pips and avg. loss 36.9 pips. This goes to show you don’t need large stops when trading price action.

And his average trade length is < 1 day also demonstrating you don’t need to hold trades for weeks to make good money.

I’ll talk more about accuracy later, but below is his review of us on forexpeacearmy (click image to enlarge).

Notice how he mentions his trading changed when joining us. Also key is how he zero’s in on building a proper mindset and trading psychology.

I feel this is something we excel in with our heavy focus on building a successful mindset and unique approach.

Nazar is one of most dedicated students to becoming a professional trader. I’ve told him if he keeps it up, I’ll fund him personally.

What is interesting to note is his performance when he opened up a new account for me to monitor. His trading has been mostly flat (see below).

He’s openly admitted the psychological pressure of trading for me has affected him. This shows honesty and self-awareness which I appreciate in his candor.

My guess is he’ll break through come 2016 and get back to his typical winning ways.

From Blowing Up Several Accounts to +23% in 4 Months

Shahab might just be the most interesting student & character I have. Before coming to trading, he sold expensive cars to high profile clients around the world.

We’re talking Ferrari’s, Lambo’s, you name it. He’s used to dealing with decent sized numbers of $250K+.

He’s also a risk taker, meaning he’s completely comfortable taking massive risks. This definitely translated into his trading as his swings were massive when he first came to me.

He wasn’t taking trading or training seriously and within 1.5 years blew up several accounts. Trust me – he deserved every dollar he lost during this time and he knows it.

Then he contacted me about really digging in. So in the summer of 2015, we started doing 1-1 mentoring (which is not cheap at $10K per month).

He also lives in Canada and we often go out for tea or lunch, talking trading, mindset and success.

Shortly after, he found a groove trading some of our advanced price action models + his own system.

Here is his myfxbook account below.

‘Shahab503‘ is the name of his myfxbook profile. It’s also the name of his account with us below:

Now, there are several things that should stand out here from his myfxbook account above:

he’s day trading (done thousands of trades) & continues to have massive swings
he still shows the tendency to go over risk parameters and isn’t as conservative as I’d like him to be. This is an improvement in the right direction from where he was though!
he’s got a lot of open risk (yellow line) which is way outside my normal risk parameters. Again, the key issue of risk and money management keep coming up so this is something he needs to work on
his risk of ruin is just below 1% meaning there is a small chance he can blow up his account at this rate
accuracy is still under 45%, but his avg win vs. loss is balanced enough at +1.3 and he has a positive profit factor over +1

Hence I consider Shahab to be a work in progress. Considering he was blowing up accounts faster than you could drink a pint of cold beer, I’d consider his progression a success.

Do I think he’s in the clear? No, absolutely not as he still has unhealthy habits around risk. But what I’m focused on is his progression instead of just a static number.

He’s not just where he is now, but what he’s becoming. His trajectory is in the right direction and his trend is upward.

How he performs from here is up to him and how much he wants to engage his level of discomfort and discipline. But from where he was, I’m proud of his progress and have positive hopes for him.

A Common Thread

If you noticed, there are several common thread across these success stories. They are;

They all had rough beginnings and losses (like most of you)
They stuck through the hard times and showed mental toughness in trading. This eventually led to a change & breakout in their performance
Accuracy – they all had accuracy levels below 50%.

This last point I want to touch on briefly as it’s a heavily misunderstood subject.

Beginning traders think you need a highly accurate system to make money, but this simply isn’t the truth. There are a million ways to make money with varying levels of accuracy.

Generally the lower the accuracy, the higher the durability of a system as it doesn’t need to consistently win to make money. And let’s be clear, you are going to have losing periods (perhaps months) where you aren’t making any money.

If you system is dependent upon high accuracy, during this losing period you’ll likely experience a massive drawdown. These large drawdowns are psychologically harder to overcome.

Most professionals are between 35-50% accurate throughout all their trades over a year.

My accuracy for 2015 was about 46% but my +R per trade was above 2, so this shows a positive expectancy with proper control of risk.

What Level of Accuracy Should You Expect As A Beginner?

As a beginning trader, you should expect your accuracy to be between 30-50% while learning the ropes (perhaps lower). This is because you are still building your skill set and not trading sub-consciously, so performance will be affected.

Think of it like learning how to shoot a bow and how seldom you’ll hit the center. Yet with practice + training, you can start to get 9 and 10 points more often.

Hence do not be discouraged if your accuracy is low. Accuracy is not static and fluctuates on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis.

There are days when I’m highly active intra-day and can lose my first 5-7+ trades before hitting my first winner.

Akin to trading, professional poker players can play 40,000 hands before making new equity highs.

What this tells you is drawdowns, losing periods and corrections are natural. The difference is most people do not endure these times and give up or change their strategy.

What they miss is the breakout which comes through training, experience and diligence. Hence try not to look at your current state as your overall numbers. Success is a moving target just like your accuracy.

Be more concerned with progression, trajectory and process.

In Closing

I hope you found these forex trading success stories above inspiring and what is possible. To be clear, these stories are not written in stone. They could go backwards and not make it to the next level.

But they show you what’s possible, why psychological endurance is needed, and how important proper price action training + a successful mindset are to making money trading.

With that being said, will you become the next successful trader story?

Will you get funded $100K this year and start making consistent profits?

If you are looking to be the next forex success story, then check out my price action course where we change the way you think, trade and perform.

Make sure to leave your comments below as I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Until then, may this be a year filled with good health, abundance and success.

Trading Strategies

Successful Forex Trading: Why You Don’t Have What It Takes

“It’s got me thinking, maybe I don’t have what it takes to be successful at forex trading.”

Half question + half truth, I hear this a lot from traders struggling to make any consistency or profits.

Ever asked this question? I have in my early years (many times). The answer though will shock you.

What I’m going to say is not ‘politically‘ correct in the forex trading world. I’m guessing most ‘gurus’ will not tell you this either.

The truth is, right now, in all probability, you don’t have what it takes.

And I don’t mean in the sense of the Henry Ford quote “If you think you can or cannot do it, you’re right.” That is not what I’m talking about.

What I’m saying is direct and crystal clear – most likely, you do not have what it takes to make money trading.

Wait, what? You’re a trading mentor, why are you saying this?

Because the answer – that you don’t have what it takes to make money trading, is true. Now if that seems depressing, daunting or scary, then you need to know this other key point.

The flip side to this coin, is you actually have what it takes to make money trading.

Confused? Keep reading as I’ll clarify in this article. In fact, I’ll take both sides of this coin, and show you why I’m right on both accounts.

First we’ll jump into the original sentiment – that you don’t have what it takes.

Then we’ll dive into why you have what it takes, and how you can re-wire your brain to making money trading.

What you’ll end up with is:

a) an understanding of why you think ‘maybe I don’t have what it takes to make money trading‘

and

b) how you can transform this sentiment while leveraging your firepower

Let’s begin.

Why You Don’t Have What It Takes

I’m going to start off with a number: 200,000. That is how many years ago some of our earliest ancestors (Homo Sapiens) emerged.

190,000 years later we shifted from hunter-gatherers to form small bands of farming collectives.

During the last 9,900 years, a ratio about our everyday existence held steady. It is a ratio that is still affecting you today while you trade.

What is the ratio you need to know about?

That 1 in 8 people died from protecting their families, loved ones, and fellow neighbors.

In the last 100 years, that ratio fell from 1 in 8 to 1 in 100. However, you, myself, and pretty much everyone today is still acting as if it was 10,000 years ago.

Our brains and nervous systems today still ‘react‘ as if 1 in 8 of us will die today.

Why is that?

Evolution. For 99% of our existence, our brains ‘evolved’ to protect us from threats. The goal was simple – survive to continue our existence.

This is an understandable goal. However it is probably the most dominant reason why you struggle with trading today.

Why?

Teflon & Velcro

What does teflon and velcro have to do with your trading today? I’ll get to that in a moment.

Just understand, for 9,900+ years, there was a rule our brains operated by. It was Eat Lunch, Don’t Be Lunch.

This rule got so hard-wired into our brains, it now dominates the neural real estate you think, act, love, work and trade with today.

Every buy and sell decision you make is influenced by this rule and wiring in our brain. In fact you are probably aware of this right now.

Ever heard of the fight or flight response? It’s a survival reaction we have to either fight or flee when facing extreme danger.

Problem is, this doesn’t help us make money in forex trading. In fact, it makes it damn near impossible!

It is also responsible for a bias you have, which is at the root of this question ‘Do I have what it takes to make money trading?‘

What is this bias you have?

The Negativity Bias

Because of the rule (eat lunch, don’t be lunch) that dominated our mental activity over thousands of years, we developed a bias.

Every human brain has this bias wired in today. You were born with it, and likely will die with it.

In fact, this bias is so strong, if we mapped out all the neural connections for detecting threats, attacks, fears, doubts, & critiques, the ratio would be over-whelming.

You’d be outnumbered by a long shot, and not the kind of odds you’d bet against.

As it stands today, your brain will react with lightning speed to a threat (<.1 secs). How long would it take you to ‘respond’ to a positive stimuli?

About 5-7 seconds. Why?

Because threats could have killed us, jokes (maybe bad ones) will not.

Thus a negativity bias was born and dominates your trading today.

Take a look at that definition above and read it again. Let it soak in.

Now, if you are giving more weight to your negative experiences than positive ones in trading, how do you think that will shape your brain, neural wiring and mindset?

Before you fully ponder and answer this question, let’s get back to how this and our evolution affects our trading mindset.

Lamentably, there is nothing in our evolutionary history which was built towards trading successfully.

This is why when the price action moves against your trade, you are ultra-sensitive to it. It is also why every pip the market moves for you elicits a much smaller reaction.

Velcro & Teflon: Why Your Brain Isn’t Wired for Success in Trading

Back to the analogy of velcro and teflon, positive experiences slide off your brain (like teflon) while negative ones stick (like velcro).

The best example of this is – what days can you recall the quickest and easiest with the most details? Days you won a ton of money? Or days you lost big?

I’m guessing for every 1000 that answer this question, 9900+ will say the ‘big losing’ days. This is your negativity bias at work. This is thousands of years of evolution at play.

You are fighting an uphill battle from the beginning.

It is also the reason why it’s true that you don’t have what it takes to make money trading.

The way your brain is likely wired right now, you don’t. Most of our evolution as humans is against us trading successfully.

There is no bias for you – only against you.

Hence when you think (maybe I don’t have what it takes to make money trading), technically, you’re right. Most likely it is your unconscious mind communicating something to you.

GOOD NEWS!

You also have what it takes to make money trading.

Wait, what? You just gave me 1000 words why I don’t have what it takes to make money trading.

How can I not have what it takes, and have what it takes?

There is more irony in this statement than you know. But first, I’ll share with you why you have what it takes.

EDN & SDN

The great thing about your brain & genes, is also behind the reason why you have what it takes to make money trading.

The initials above (EDN & SDN) hint at this.

In one word – neuroplasticity. There are two key forms of neuroplasticity which are your weapons to re-wire your brain. They are:

1) EDN = Experience Dependent Neuroplasticity

2) SDN = Self-Directed Neuroplasticity

EDN is a shortened way to say your brain learns, adapts and changes from experience.

It means you can wire in new habits and correct mental errors to your trading performance right now.

A great way to remember EDN is through the following statement:

Neurons that fire together – wire together

Another translation or implication of this is: the most dominant neural networks will 95% of the time determine how you trade each day.

Regarding SDN (self-directed neuroplasticity), the best way to remember it is:

Consistent passing mental states create lasting neural traits.

Hence, if while you are trading, you are constantly:

-angry
-frustrated
-doubtful
-fearful
-or stressed while trading

You’ll only make these neural networks stronger. This only increases the chance you’ll make bad trading decisions.

And it certainly won’t help you protect your mental capital.

Wait, I thought you said this will help us make money trading?

It can and will. If you want to go beyond the negativity bias for trading, you have to employ different neural networks.

It also means you have to change the mental activity while you are trading.

The good thing is, this is not a long step for you. In just 20 minutes a day, you can re-wire this bias for success. I’ll tell you how at the end of this article.

Both/And

Remember how I told you it seemed strange to say you have what it takes, and also do not have what it takes to make money trading?

Both of these are true. The answer is not binary, or either/or.

Your brain has an evolutionary bias that means it’s next to impossible to make money trading.

But your brain also has built in mechanisms (neuroplasticity) which also make it completely possible to make money trading.

One interesting thing about the negativity bias is what it does to your brain and thinking. When this bias is dominant, you tend to see things in binary. You see things as either/or.

How Does This Affect My Forex Trading?

It means…

-you’ll see every loss as ‘bad’, not as a learning opportunity

-when your stop loss is hit, you wonder if you did something ‘wrong’, not as it being a part of trading

-breaking even is viewed as something is wrong, not how close you are to breaking through

Hence when heavily influenced by this negativity bias, it means you’ll either think you have what it takes, or don’t. If you tend to think in either/or most of the time, or make these statements a lot, this bias is strong in you.

It is also probably why you are not trading and thinking in probabilities (only black and white).

An upgrade to this is seeing things as both/and.

This translates to:

-finding the ‘positive’ in things which seem ‘negative’

-understanding that a losing streak is part of the game

-looking for solutions instead of focusing on the problems

If you are wondering which side of this coin you are on, listen carefully to what you say to yourself while trading over the next few days.

Are you saying more of the ‘either/or’? Or are you finding ‘grey’ areas between contrasting points? The best place to look is in your thoughts/mental activity while trading, and you’ll have your answer.

NOTE: A great way to rewire this either/or negativity bias is via meditation.

Meditation helps you create a whole-brain state which heavily reduces the chance you’ll fall into the either/or state or negativity bias.

Click on this link to learn a meditation practice for trading.

In Conclusion

As you can see now, successful forex trading is challenging not because there is something wrong with you, but a simple fact of evolution. We currently aren’t wired to trade successfully.

It is also true you have inherent mechanisms in your brain to make money trading.

You can:

-learn the skills needed
-can pull the trigger when your price action setup is there
-can stick to your plan & fill out your journal
-can make money trading

Evolution isn’t in our favor, but it’s time we shed this negativity bias which 90+% of the time no longer serves us and stand out from the crowd.

To do this, you’ll need to build a new bias. You’ll need to re-wire your brain for success in trading and life.

If you want to know how, then check out my Advanced Traders Mindset Course which focuses specifically on this.

Now Your Turn

Have you asked yourself this question? Ever wondered if you can make money trading?

What ‘aha’ moments did you have from this article as I want to know so make sure to comment below.

Until then – may good health and successful trading be with you.

Trading Strategies

Trading Psychology: Are You Over-trading & How Do We Define It?

I got a forex trader psychology question from a new student of mine who’s been struggling for years. He’s experienced a common problem you yourself have likely faced.

Here is what he emailed me below:

“I know this varies greatly based on internal and external factors, but about how many trades do you take on a daily basis on average?”

The real question he was asking is under the surface. But it’s a common issue many traders face, which we’ll get into shortly.

Before I do, here is their response below to my follow up prodding and questions:

“One of my weaknesses that I battle with (although getting better) is over-trading and feeling the need to be in the market.

To combat it, I stick to the H4 and Daily time frames. But again I get impatient sometimes…“

Over-trading

This is something many traders struggle with. The reason why you over-trade has two major underlying reasons.

Befor we dive into those, I’d like to point out some key things they said.

They are:

1) “Feeling the need to be in the market”

2) “I get impatient sometimes”

Note those two statements down for now as they are critical for this article.

But before we get into the reasons why you over-trade, we need a working definition of ‘over-trading’.

My definition of over-trading is as follows.

Assuming you are working with a trading plan, ‘over-trading’ is either:

a) taking any trade/s outside of your trading plan, or

b) taking any trades which cause you to exceed your maximum risk limits

If you hit any of the two qualifications above, you are (in my book) over-trading.

Notice I mentioned nothing about a) the number of trades and b) the time frames. This last variable is highly relevant.

As I mentioned in my last article, there is a common trading psychology narrative around price action. This is because the majority of those ‘gurus’ teaching price action all copied what they learned.

They are derivatives themselves, or derivatives of derivatives.

One key piece of mis-information from this entire camp is ‘higher time frames are better than lower time frames’. They also state ‘lower time frames are just noise and higher time frames give better signals’.

Despite the fact professional bank traders trade intra-day, they still proselytize this meme.

(does he look like he’s being impatient and over-trading? source: smb-training)

GUESS WHAT? You can over-trade on any time frame. The time frame is not the root cause of over-trading. A lack of discipline is.

If you have not wired your brain to mentally execute your trading plan, the time frame will make no difference.

Just like if you have the habit of over-eating, you will do so whether you are at a restaurant or your own kitchen. The habit is within you and doesn’t just disappear when you change environments.

Neural networks are clusters of neurons in your brain. They take time to change. If you are dominantly wired right now to eat too much, you will regardless of where you are. The same goes for over-trading.

Notice what my new student mentioned earlier, “I stick to H4 and Daily time frames. But again I get impatient sometimes.“

For him, the time frames are completely irrelevant. His impatience takes over regardless.

I do not find it ironic that all those who copied their ideas about price action, also repeat the same notions about over-trading.

If there is no real engagement with their minds and the markets, one will never come to the idea that over-trading is not time frame dependent. That is why this meme is repeated.

If you want to dissolve the underlying root of over-trading (discipline & mental execution), you have to re-wire your brain.

Before we get into how you can do that, I’d like to address a few points about my definition of over-trading.

Having A Daily Risk Limit

For my members, I recommend having three to four risk thresholds as part of their trading plan. They are:

1) A max risk per trade
2) A max risk per day
3) A max risk per week
4) A max risk per month

A max risk per trade should be based upon your risk of ruin.

NOTE: You cannot calculate your risk of ruin if you are risking a fixed dollar amount per trade.

I’ve written extensively why risking a fixed percent per trade is far superior to a fixed dollar amount.

If you have a risk of ruin that is zero, mathematically you a) cannot blow up your account, and b) will make money.

A max risk per day should be a daily risk limit to avoid losing too much on any given day. The max risk per week and month are also based upon the same concepts.

If any one of the above is ‘optional‘ in my book, it is the max risk per week. Keep in mind, none of the above defines how many trades you should (or should not) take in a day to avoid over-trading.

If a basketball player is on a hot streak, you keep feeding him the ball as those streaks are critical to winning. Professional poker players know this as well – when hot, keep putting your chips down.

The same goes for trading. Not pulling the trigger when you have a setup (with all conditions in place) simply limits your upside.

Why would you ever do that? If the price action context is prime for you to make a ton of money that day, you should be attacking the markets.

On the other side of the coin, I’ve had days where I started out with 6, 7, maybe even 9 losses in a row. But I’m not phased by this.

As long as I haven’t hit my risk limit per day, I’ll keep attacking the markets, sometimes buying and selling in the same day.

Ironically, on many of those days, one or two big winners either brought me back to break even, or helped me end up in profit for the day.

Had I succumbed to some notion about ‘over-trading = x trades‘, every one of those days would have ended in a loss. On top of that, each one would have ended with a much greater negative impression in my mind.

Yet how much confidence do you think I get from losing 9+ trades in a row, and still making money to end the day?

Just like a quarterback doesn’t stop throwing the ball because he’s had a couple interceptions and bad passes, the same goes for trading.

Your goal should be to win each and every day while maintaining your trading plan, risk limits and mental execution.

With all the above said, two things have to be addressed regarding over-trading.

Discipline & Wiring Your Brain

IMO, you should not be trading the markets without a trading plan.

Make sure to read my article ‘what if your trading plan is costing you money?‘ Inside this plan should be specified the 4 risk limits from above. On top of this, so should your strategies and instruments you trade.

“Your trading plan needs to define your actions & mental execution every time you sit down to trade.”

However, these plans are meaningless if you haven’t built the discipline to execute them.

In some sense, I get the reason why some ‘gurus’ say ‘avoid the lower time frames as you will over-trade there‘.

Part of the proselytizing here is because it fits their story about higher time frames. Saying lower time frames are the boogeyman for your trading is a way to continually market & perpetuate their narrative.

But in reality, telling you to avoid the lower time frames is based upon fear.

That you will be powerless if you enter the seductive Scarlett Johannson-like bedroom of the lower time frames.

That you will become a helpless meth-like trading junkie should you go there.

One of them even uses this image to portray what happens when trading the lower time frames (see below).

FYI, I trade the 5 min charts (sometimes the 1 min charts) when trading price action intraday, and I’ve never looked like that. My mind is as calm as a hindu cow whether I’m trading the 5m or daily charts.

The time frame is irrelevant because I’ve wired discipline into my brain. Many of my students also trade the intra-day time frames, and none of them look like this (SHOCKING!).

I met a prop-firm day trader at the Singapore Trading Seminar I did this July. Guess what?

He didn’t look like that at all! He was one of the nicest, most relaxed and intelligent guys I’ve met.

It is true, day trading does increase CL (cognitive load), but it doesn’t turn you into a crazy person.

Photos from the Singapore Trading Seminar

Me showing a live trade and explaining the price action behind it

I’m guessing the proof is in the pudding. Many of you are already trading the higher time frames, and still have issues with over-trading. The underlying root cause is discipline in trading, and that comes down to how your brain is currently wired.

If you haven’t wired it into your brain yet, you won’t be able to execute discipline while trading. It’s as simple as that, regardless of the time frame.

If you fear something will happen, you create psychological tension around this fear. This only INCREASES your negativity bias, which further perpetuates this behavior.

In Conclusion

We have to adopt a different working definition of ‘over-trading’. We have to get beyond the time frames cause over-trading notion.

I define over-trading as a) taking any one trade outside your trading plan and b) taking any trade which causes you to go over your risk limits.

When we look at over-trading in this context, the time frame you trade, nor number of trades matter.

Your goal should be to execute your trading plan as is (and nothing more). And that needs to include your risk limits while pulling the trigger when you need to.

Do you want to increase your price action skills to trade on any time frame? Check out my Trading Masterclass Course which teaches you the same trading psychology strategies I use every day, regardless of the instrument or time frame.

Need to become disciplined in trading? Visit my Advanced Traders Mindset Course to learn specific forex trader psychology techniques on building discipline.

Now Your Turn

Have you noticed you over-trade even on the higher time frames?

Does this new definition of over-trading help change your perspective?

Make sure to share your thoughts on signs of overtrading below.

Until then – may good trading and a successful mindset be with you.

Trading Strategies

Trading Psychology: 5 Unique Insights from 10,000 Mantras

4 hours in, sweat on my forehead, a sore left knee and one feeling of exhilaration, I completed the 10,000^th mantra.

Yes, for over 240 minutes (minus the necessary 1 minute ‘loo break’) I chanted the same 9 Tibetan words 10,000 times in a row.

Personally, I thought it would be a tad easier, but the reality (and surprise) was much more challenging vs. how it appeared ‘conceptually’.

What I learned from sitting on my derrière, all 240+ minutes, reflected back some gems about trading and the mindset of breaking through.

Here are the 5 unique insights I got about trading psychology chanting 10,000 mantras in one sitting.

#1: 2,000 Punches & 1 Month of Meals

I recently started martial arts again (which I’ll be writing about in more detail soon), but am taking Wing Chun classes.

I am NOT taking martial arts because I want to be able to fight well, nor am I taking Wing Chun because I want to be Ip Man 😮

Photo of Ip Man training Bruce Lee

I’m taking it as a mind-body training with the goal of elevating both to the next level.

In my first class, I was practicing the basic punch and it looked sloppy (that’s putting it mildly).

The senior student helping me (who is awesome) said this while working on my punch, “to really get this down, you’ll want to do a lot of punches, like 2,000 punches until the muscle memory is fully wired in.”

It is pretty easy to balk at feeling like you have to do 2,000 punches before you can throw that sucker well.

But if that is what it takes, I’ll do it, and I’ll use the One Month of Meals Method which goes like this:

If you were to walk into your kitchen right now, and right in front of you was all the food you’d eat for an entire month, you wouldn’t feel hungry.

The irony is, you’ll eat that amount of food every month, and already have been for decades. Yet done one meal at a time, it’s quite workable.

And that is how you should approach big projects which require tons of reps.

Trading is no different. I often give my students homework on what they should practice.

One such method is to practice a trading strategy, or even a price action skill to hone their trading and improve their performance.

For this, I suggest Forex Tester 2, which is like the driving range for traders. Below is a good video explaining some basic methods of how you can use Forex Tester 2.

For those interested in getting a discount on Forex Tester 2 – click here.

Now consider the following – most professional golfers hit about 300-500 golf balls a day, either on the course or a driving range.

With that piece of info in your brain, how many reps and practices are you doing per day?

For a good article on what it means to trade like a sniper – click on that link.

Getting back to the practice, while doing my 10,000 mantras, I grouped them into 5 groups of 2,100. This was much more manageable because I’ve done rounds of 2,100 before.

Why 2,100?

When you do a mantra practice like this with high reps, you have what is called a ‘mala’ which is like prayer beads you see in many religions. Below are a couple of mine.

Normally in my tradition, they have 108 beads as do the two on the right (108 being a special number).

I have a smaller mala (blue one on the left) which has 21 beads on it. So for each round of 108 on my main practice mala, I turned the 21 bead mala 1x. Once I completed a full round on that mala, I knew I did 2,100.

Five rotations later, I did 10,500, but only counted 10K because I’m guessing I didn’t do a few quite so well.

If I was counting down, that would be like looking at an entire month of food in front of me.

But breaking it into smaller meals made it more digestible.

So whatever your goal is with trading, break it down into smaller bite-sized chunks, then shoot for those as they become much more manageable.

#2: You Must Challenge Your Self-image to Grow

Your self-image is the overall corpus of how you see yourself. It is the sum of your habits, attitudes and beliefs. It is essentially what you think it is ‘like you’ to do.

Think you’re good at playing basketball? That is part of your self-image.

Think you’re not the best dancer (as I certainly am not)? That is part of your self-image.

Your self-image has boundaries whereby the lower and upper boundaries of your self-image determine your success in trading.

If your self-image was already setup to succeed in trading, you’d already be there.

To change your self-image requires it to be challenged, and it has to be done so via a new self-image which is in direct conflict with your current one.

If you haven’t had the experience of consistently profiting from trading, then currently it is not in your self-image to trade successfully.

GOOD NEWS – YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR SELF-IMAGE!

How do you change your self-image? By challenging it, by finding its limit, by building experiences of going beyond what your self-image thinks it’s ‘like you’ to do.

If you think you cannot do 300 push-ups in a row right now, you’ll need to build up to that. Only until you’ve done it several times will your self-image think it is ‘like you’ to do it.

That is where testing yourself enters the picture.

The self-image will only grow (think expand) in terms of what it can do, through testing & challenging it.

Whatever thoughts enter your mind, whatever doubts, fears, worries, excuses, or moments where you want to quit – that is your current self-image resisting.

It will resist change and want to stay where it is, and this is what you have to fight against.

Hence the formula is simple – if your current self-image doesn’t fully know it is ‘like you’ to trade profitably, you’ll need to expand it till it knows it inside and out.

NOTE: For those wanting to learn strategies and techniques to grow a self-image for successful trading, check out my advanced traders mindset course.

#3: Concentration Oscillates, Coming Back is Key

Go for any long run, or do 1,000’s of reps of anything in a row, and your mind will wander.

Shoot, let’s be honest here – how many paragraphs or lines in this article did you read before you got distracted and thought of something else?

This Sunday, while chanting the mantras, it became appallingly clear an imperfectly trained mind will result in an oscillating level of concentration.

During the 4hr chanting bonanza, my mind cycled across a giant spectrum of concentration, between a zen like focus while walking across a tight-rope 1,000 feet in the air vs. a monkey on crack after eating 9 tablespoons of sugar!

And of course everything in between.

There were definitely periods of being highly focused while others of barely being there.

The point being – unless your mind is perfectly trained, your ability to concentrate will oscillate.

What’s important to note is, the periods of focus aren’t a problem. It’s when you are highly unfocused that the worries, fears and doubts creep in.

Your brain on average produces between 50,000-70,000 thoughts per day. If you aren’t focused or controlling that mental activity, then it is controlling you and coming from your unconscious mind.

Ever been in a trade you initially felt great about, yet all of a sudden, it’s only moved a few pips against you and you feel under a death grip of worry it’s going to stop you out?

That is your unconscious and limiting beliefs taking over your conscious mind, and if you don’t correct it quickly, or know how to deal with it, it will take you underwater.

The key lesson here is to keep coming back. If you have a plan to bring your mind back when it wanders, some sort of mental cue you engage, that method will pay dividends in building this muscle.

By coming back, you train your mind to develop stronger and stronger levels of concentration.

And make no mistake, the science is clear – those who have greater focus and clarity form better memories and make more calculated decisions.

If you practice mindfulness meditation, even after a short period of time, it can re-wire your brain, and improve your concentration.

Better memories = greater pattern recognition while trading and the results from more calculated decisions are obvious to any trader.

Want to increase your edge and profits while trading? Keep coming back.

#4: My Ass Hurts & Why That’s A Good Thing

Ever sit on your rump in one place for 4 hours in a row, moving only once? Doesn’t feel good, eh?

At the end of the 4hrs of chanting mantras, my ass hurt, but in many ways, it was a badge of honor and a good thing.

There is a great story about a Buddhist master and his ass:

******
He was at a riverbank saying goodbye to his greatest student with whom he shared everything he knew, experienced and understood.

After a final embrace, he bid his student farewell, who then picked up his backpack, and walked away over a stone bridge to the other side of the river.

Just before the student was finally gone from sight or sound, his teacher called him back.

Walking back to find out why, his teacher’s eyes were clear and penetrating while he said the following, “You being a special student deserve one of my greatest teachings of all. Make sure you cherish this one deeply and never forget it.”

With his student attentive, ready to receive such a great and profound teaching, the master turned around, pulled up his robe, showed his bare ass and said “LOOK!”

“You see this ass? The one with lumps on it from sitting and meditating all these years? You now know what I have gone through to realize what I did – all through persistence.

You need this mindset! This is the essence of what I have taught. Practice without stopping, and it is only a matter of time. Exert yourself with mental toughness and the no-obstacle mindset. Do this until you’ve mastered what you set out to do.”

The first time I read this story, my initial response was laughter wondering what this student was thinking when he saw his master lift up his robe and show his full moon.

But after that moment of humor and imagination, I realized any high level of skill I’ve built in my life has been through tons of practice.

Watch a professional athlete today and you’ll see them practicing more than they are playing. Football players play one game a week and practice for 5-6 days. Basketball players practice at least 3-4x for every game they play.

“The ratio is clear – always practice (and train) more than you perform, no matter what the skill.”

Discipline and an unrelenting practice builds mental toughness, along with a mind that only knows success. Do this and it is only a matter of time before you find the pot of gold waiting for you.

At the end of my 4hr session, my ass hurt. However, in my mind, that was a good thing as it was working towards my commitment and goal.

Hence the question has to be asked – is your ass hurting today?

#5: You’re Either Committed to Succeeding, or Quitting

The stats suggest about 7.5% of all traders accounts at the end of this year will be larger than what they started with.

That may seem daunting, and the number is not exactly enticing. I think one of the problems is there are many people telling you it’s ‘easy’.

Anyone telling you it’s ‘easy’, or portraying images of people sitting on beaches with their ever so light laptops, hands folded behind their backs as they smile with glee, enjoying the lifestyle of a professional trader from some remote beach isn’t being honest.

They are selling a dream, and targeting those of you who do not want to work for it, who want it easy. Essentially they are looking for (no pun intended) easy prey.

Trading is a mental performance discipline, and by default will challenge your mind, brain and mindset to go beyond what it already knows and what habits you already have.

Anytime you push yourself to go beyond what you can easily do now, you’ll run into a little voice, and it’s often a naysayer type voice (negative).

It’s the one that tells you why you cannot, should not, and will not do it. It is great at coming up with excuses, finding reasons why you should take the next off-ramp, how there really is no benefit in crossing the finish line.

The difference between those who break through vs. those who break down, is the former group fights back against that little negative voice.

The latter individual listens to this voice, believes it, and gives into it.

I’ve never met anyone who feels confident about themselves, while continually NOT finishing what they started.

“The strength, confidence and rewards go to those who punch through, who test themselves, experience their limits, and keep going.”

I’ll be completely frank, I had anywhere between 10-20+ moments of that voice popping up in my head, like a dude wearing lederhosen in the middle of the New York Stock exchange, clearly standing out, trying to get my attention.

And let me tell you, he did a pretty convincing dance.

But regardless of what that voice in my 10lb dome said, my mind was resolved from the beginning – that is part of becoming successful.

If you listen to that voice and believe what it’s saying, it will win.

And it is an expert at weeding out half-hearted commitments.

What it really comes down to is – you’re either committed to succeeding, or quitting.

In Conclusion

There is nothing easy about becoming a professional in any skill, let alone trading.

The path to a successful trading psychology and mindset come only through training.

My guess is if you incorporate some (if not all) of these 5 insights into your trading practice (and life), you’ll see the benefits to your performance and profits.

For those wanting to train your mindset, build up your self-image and learn how to pull the trigger, check out my advanced traders mindset course where I teach you how to do this successfully.

With that being said – is your ass hurting today? Are you committed to succeeding?

Please make sure to comment below and share this with anyone you know can benefit from it.

8 Resources for the Trading Mindset, Meditation & the Brain

About a fortnight ago I did a trading seminar in Toronto.
I spoke about Neuroscience, the self-image, comfort zone and the trading mindset which had a strong impression on the attendees.
One of them emailed me the following question shortly after:
“Could you point me towards some resources on the trading mindset, buddhist meditation and personal growth?”
I really appreciated this question because part of my work here is to have a positive impact upon people.
Changing someone’s brain and mindset is no small thing.
Most people repeat the same mistakes in trading (and life) because it takes effort and hard work to re-wire the brain.
But doing so in a positive and meaningful way can impact someone for life, just like many people along the way have impacted mine – sometimes from meeting them just once.
And such an impact and change will undoubtedly improve our trading mindset.
In answer to this individual (David), I decided to share 8 powerful resources for buddhist meditation, mindset and personal growth.

#1: Calm.com

What is it? A website that plays calming background music and imagery.
Sounds can have an effect on our brainwaves, breathing and heart-rate. Mozart and Beethoven are notorious for helping to create alpha waves within our brain (~4-10hz helping to keep our minds relaxed but attentive).
I personally use this first thing in the morning to start my day off right and create a calm environment for trading.
You can select from a suite of background images and sounds whichever appease you best.
Click here to check out what they have.

#2: Lion’s Roar

A great website for learning about meditation, buddhism, perspectives on culture and life where you don’t have to be a buddhist to benefit from (nor become one).
The website’s tagline is ‘Buddhist Wisdom for Our Time‘ and I often find some great articles or books in here which reflect a great perspective on an every day challenge we all encounter.

#3: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Book) by Daniel Amen

Dr. Amen is one of the pioneers that has done SPECT analysis on the human brain (over 80,000+ brain scans) and has helped us see the brain (and it’s health) in a completely new perspective.
His book Change Your Brain, Change Your Life really demonstrates how the brain impacts our behavior (more than we likely imagine).
He also offers some really good tips on how to improve brain health and has a fantastic ted talk sharing a few key points from the book.

#4: Lumosity

Plenty of gym’s out there to train your body and muscles, but what about your brain?
Enter lumosity.com. Developed by a team of Neuroscientists who made brain entrainment fun and enjoyable.
A ton of my students use this every day and have shown not only better scores in their testing (via lumosity), but continually report a sharper memory, increased focus, and quicker response times.
Your brain needs training, and this program gives you specific tasks to work on memory, speed, problem solving, and more.
Want to train your brain? This is one of my recommendations.

#5: Wheat Belly

Wheat what?
Belly.
As you might have guessed, this book is about wheat and how gluten affects your gut and brain.
This one was an eye opener for me as I LUV’D my bread (part italian) and pretty much ate it (or some form of gluten) every day for decades.
I cannot tell you how much I enjoy sinking my teeth into a good slice of freshly cooked bread.
BUT…I want a healthy brain and gut, and my desire to have those is stronger than my desire to be without them.
I know bread lovers, this one is trodding upon diet which is generally the ‘out of bounds’ area for traders, likely to incite a ‘what the F do you know, don’t tell me what to eat’ type response.
So I’ll just say read it, decide for yourself and I’ll support whatever decision you make.

#6: How to Meditate by Pema Chodron

Pema Chodron is a Western Buddhist teacher who has an amazing ability to teach meditation and buddhism for the every day person in our every day language and experience.
The subtitle to this book (How to Meditate) is ‘A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind‘.
And that is what we have to do when trading – make friends with our mind.
We cannot beat ourselves down, we must build ourselves up (and our self-image).
We have to learn how to relate to our minds beyond the western psychology and ‘talking about our feelings‘ method.
Western psychology is being replaced by modern day neuroscience and eastern meditation/school’s of thought.
This book takes the latter path but does so in a way that anyone today can relate to.
If you want to become more friendly with your mind and have it start working for you, meditation for trading is one powerful method available .
So check out this book which offers some great insights on the process.

#7: Through the Wormhole by Morgan Freeman

Yes – that same Morgan Freeman (the actor) has a great show called ‘Through the Wormhole‘.
It’s available via iTunes and covers some fascinating topics while asking the hard and provocative questions, such as:
-What Makes Us Who We Are?
-Mysteries of the Sub-conscious
-Is Luck Real? (traders will love this one 😉
-Can Our Minds Be Hacked?
I think you’ll find this show interesting because many of the minds, scientists and thinkers will without a doubt challenge the way you see yourself, your mind and your experience in the world.

#8: The Advanced Traders Mindset Course

Wait…you can’t mention your own course.
Yes…I can.
I’ve spent the last two decades studying Neuroscience, particularly focusing on improving cognitive performance.
Over the last 15 years, I’ve been meditating every day, completed a 1 year meditation retreat, and used this for my trading process and mindset.
I’ve worked with a teacher who constantly challenges me beyond my comfort zone and help me continually grow.
In 2014, I spent over 700+ hours building this course for one purpose – to change the way you think, trade and perform.
Students in the course are no longer seeing their trading and mindset the same.
They are having the ‘aha‘ moments and finally understanding the how, what and why they have performed the way they do.
Many have completely changed their performance numbers around with one student up +12R for the month of May.
I’ve even had many students wanting to teach this to their kids.
This training is that powerful.
For those wanting to achieve peak performance in their trading, visit my ATM Course page and reserve your seat for the next release (only available for a short time).
Did you find these 8 resources useful?
Also what resources do you use to help with your trading mindset and personal growth?
Please share this article with anyone you think would benefit from this as we all need better brains and minds for trading and life.

Featured Article, Forex Strategies, Trading Mindset & Risk Management

Don’t Make This Mistake In Trading

You followed your trading plan. You got in at a great trade location. You were calm as a hindu cow throughout and executed perfectly from A-Z.

But…that noise your platform makes when you lose money…you heard it, and your account is now smaller.

‘I did everything right, it looked great, and yet I lost money. What went wrong?‘

Nothing. You did nothing wrong…up until that point right there.

Why?

Because you made the one failure almost every losing trader makes. You missed one essential element that will drastically affect your trading performance.

Reinforce what you did correctly.

‘What does that mean?’

It means regardless of how much you won or lost on a trade, you reinforce what you executed correctly.

‘What if I only did one thing out of ten correctly?’

Doesn’t matter – reinforce it.

‘How does this help me when I lost money? I want that money back.’

Ya, no shit! So does everyone else in that situation.

‘Ok tell me – why do I need to reinforce what I did correctly when I lost money?’

Because beating yourself up damages your self-image. Because not reinforcing habits doesn’t help to reproduce them.

By thinking about and reinforcing what we did correctly, we increase the likelihood we’ll repeat them.

“We cannot control the movement of the market, but we can control our thinking process.”

And what we think about from the beginning to end of our trading day matters. It heavily determines our performance.

The more we control what we think about, the less mental errors we’ll have while trading. And that leads to greater performance over time.

It also leads to a stronger self-image that believes it is ‘like you‘ to trade successfully.

This tip is just one slide in twenty-six from just one video of the Advanced Traders Mindset Course.

Want to change the way you think, trade and perform? Enroll now and join hundreds of members in ATM Course.

NOTE: Course registration closes in 3 days!

I know, sorry to give you such late notice, but I have been talking about it for 5 weeks now, and it’s been plastered all over my site.

Remember, one of the key dividing lines between success and failure in trading lies in your mindset. Make yours a successful one.

Tag Archive for: advanced traders mindset course

Why Habits Are Key To Your Success

What Is Neuroplastcity?

Neurons that fire apart wire apart

Front End Work For Long Term Benefits

Why Delayed Gratification Is Key

The 30 Day Mindset Challenge: Will You Succeed?

Will you take on this 30 day mindset challenge?

What is Variance?

How Does This Relate to Trading?

How Variance Works (example from a top hedge fund)

Consistency

Variance & Your Trading Mindset

Before You Can Accept Variance, You Must Be Able to Do This

How Can I Learn These 4 Criteria & Build A Winning Mindset?

Now Your Turn

Getting Funded $100K after 8 Months

Gaining +25% in 6 Months

From Blowing Up Several Accounts to +23% in 4 Months

A Common Thread

What Level of Accuracy Should You Expect As A Beginner?

In Closing

Why You Don’t Have What It Takes

Teflon & Velcro

The Negativity Bias

Velcro & Teflon: Why Your Brain Isn’t Wired for Success in Trading

EDN & SDN

Both/And

How Does This Affect My Forex Trading?

Now Your Turn

Over-trading

Having A Daily Risk Limit

Discipline & Wiring Your Brain

In Conclusion

Now Your Turn

#1: 2,000 Punches & 1 Month of Meals

#2: You Must Challenge Your Self-image to Grow

#3: Concentration Oscillates, Coming Back is Key

#4: My Ass Hurts & Why That’s A Good Thing

#5: You’re Either Committed to Succeeding, or Quitting

In Conclusion

#1: Calm.com

#2: Lion’s Roar

#3: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Book) by Daniel Amen

#4: Lumosity

#5: Wheat Belly

#6: How to Meditate by Pema Chodron

#7: Through the Wormhole by Morgan Freeman

#8: The Advanced Traders Mindset Course

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