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If your new to trading then the above sign may mean something important to you. No this is not a sign for a job posting although if you have decided to wade into the trading pool it is a profession and/or obsession depending on how you approach it? This sign reflects the search that all traders inevitably go through on their path to success. This week I am going to tell you about an unlikely source of help that I had on my trading, never knowing at the time that this was helping me as a trader. Let’s begin.

Here’s the scenario, I was in college, yes it was many moons ago but thats not important at least I remembered the lesson :), and I was sitting in a class being bored to tears and thinking about nothing but when and where the next party was, meanwhile still recovering from the party the night before, that’s the college dream, right? LOL Anywho, I was studying to become a police officer and thus we had specific courses that we had to take, it wasnt all just bad guys and car chases, I wish someone would have told me that before I signed up but here I was anyways. The mandatory courses were physical education, sociology, psychology and a few law courses sprinkled in for good measure.

The particular day I am reliving from above, I was sitting in a psychology class at 8 am on a Friday morning, right after the nurses’ pub night which was always on a Thursday and was far and away the best party of the week and which this red-blooded male wouldn’t miss for the world. So there I was “nursing” a hangover and wishing I could be at home sleeping instead of listening to a professor drone on about all things psychological. I can say that this was not the worst class I had but it definitely hard to focus as the professor had a teaching style that was akin to watching paint dry. However, today’s lesson was particularly interesting. He was droning on about how we talk to ourselves and how we can manifest our realities just by talking to ourselves in a positive way versus a negative way. At the time I really didn’t give much thought to the lesson and kind of tucked it into the back of my mind.

Fast forward many years later and several career changes and here I am trader. As I had said above when I was new to trading I was looking for help to become a better trader, I was always wanting help and it came in many forms. The form I least expected was the lesson I got that so many years ago in that psychology class. The lesson that day was about self-talk and how it can change the outcomes of almost anything. Self-talk has a dual polarity, meaning it can work for good and bad and it is up to each individual to determine whether they want the outcome to be good or bad. Now, I know you are saying well everyone wants a good outcome and that is true but not everyone is willing to make it happen.

Here’s an example of what I am referring to. I have heard from all sorts of traders, where should I put my stop-losses because every time I put one in it gets hits and then goes in the direction I thought it would. Have you ever had this thought? I bet you have because I had it too when I was new to trading, it’s a natural thought to have but its not a thought we have to subscribe to. We have the power to upgrade our self-talk and improve our outlook which will improve our results. That statement puts it out in the universe that you expect to have your stop loss hit and this can be a self-fulfilling philosophy.

You see we have a choice, we can self-talk two ways.

“Where do I put my stop loss because they always get hit” or

“I put my stop losses in strategic places that allow my to prosper and also protect my capital”

Do you see the difference between these two statements?

We can make the choice to be positive or negative and it can have massive implications to the bottom line.

So, who knew that an old college lecture could be the help I was looking for in my trading journey and maybe you can use this knowledge nugget to help you along your journey.

Be Well and Trade Well,

Coach “Old Money” Holmes

Chart of the Day

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