To make your trading dreams a reality requires that the ‘dreamer’ in you transform into a confident, skillful and emotionally balanced realist. I know that process has already started or you would not be reading this.
The following information on Trading Psychology is the life work and passion of Dr. Kenneth Reid. Kenneth is a practicing psychotherapist, trading coach and trader. He also works as a Senior Analyst and Editor for three national stock market newsletters with thousands of subscribers. He has appeared on CNBC and written for Forbes.com and SmartMoney.com.
TRADING PSYCHOLOGY COACHING PROGRAM
To make your trading dreams a reality requires that the ‘dreamer’ in you transform into a confident, skillful and emotionally balanced realist. I know that process has already started or you would not be reading this.
Successful traders stand on three legs: a positive mindset, a technical trading edge and a stable biological foundation in the brain itself. A confident mental attitude must be supported by effective trading techniques and the ability to remain emotionally stable in a climate of uncertain outcomes and losses.
WINNING TRADER’S MINDSET
Winning traders think differently than losing or breakeven traders. The quality of the self-talk is much more positive. Winning traders have a positive view of the market and have confidence in their ability to extract profit by following their system in a disciplined manner. But which comes first, the winning or the winning attitude?
It is impossible for most people to maintain a winning attitude in the face of excessive losses. It is less well known that it is also impossible to maintain a winning attitude in situations where rewards are random, i.e. where you win and lose with about equal frequency. In fact, the 50/50 win/loss situation can be much more psychologically damaging than simply losing all the time.
When we lose too much quickly, most traders reach the point of maximum pain and stop trading. When we win and lose about equally, we tend to try harder to master the situation. If we fail to master the market after expending a great deal of effort, a negative belief system forms in the background that makes losing even more likely and we start to spiral down. Why?
The pain of losing makes many traders over-anticipate losses and become nervous, fear-based traders. Once you are afraid of losing, afraid of being wrong and afraid of missing out, your trading will be focused on avoiding these experiences. You won’t trade to win, you will trade not to lose; trade not to be wrong and trade not to miss out.
Paradoxically, this approach will produce the opposite result from what you intend because you will be avoiding those situations that actually present the greatest possibility for monetary reward.
Those Type-A traders who are not afraid of the market get caught in another trap. When they lose, are wrong or miss out they get angry and become reckless, increasing risk to dangerous levels. The trader “Sandy” described on the home page represents this type.
You can’t banish fears or aggression by applying will power alone. They arise from a part of the brain (the amygdala) that does not respond to verbal encouragement or advice. Moreover, attempting to install positive beliefs on top of a residue of deep negativity is like painting over rust. Eventually, the corrosion will leak through.
SOLUTION: An overly negative expectancy about trading needs to be cleared out and positive beliefs reinstalled. I have developed a multi-modal technology for my clients called Total Brain ConditioningTM to address these issues. A key part of the TBC protocol is a customized audio neuroprogram designed just for you that targets the key issues that are sabotaging your trading. To sample this powerful technology for just $99, click here.
WINNING TRADER’S TOOLSET
Having underestimated the difficulty of trading, many traders have never developed a professional-grade trading plan or the tools 
and risk management techniques to apply it. Because many highly successful “Market Wizards” never disclose their actual trading plan, or even discuss it, Junior Wizards may get the mistaken impression that it is not important. But it is.
A trading plan (method) defines what Mark Douglas calls “your edge.” This is the advantage that increases your odds of success above a coin flip. You should be able to write your plan out in one paragraph.
If you don’t have a defined plan, your trading will be overly discretionary, and you will rely too much on intuition. Trading will become a guessing game.
If your plan is too complicated, you will confuse yourself and suffer a paralysis of analysis. If your plan is too simple, it will lose too often and will create emotional damage.
If your plan changes every week, then you should check yourself for a condition called Adult ADD that I believe affects many struggling traders.
Contrary to what you will be told by most trading “authorities,” the size of your wins vs losses is not as psychologically important as the ratio of wins to losses. A trading method that wins 50-60% of the time is not psychologically tolerable for 90% of traders.
SOLUTION: Develop (or acquire) a set of professional-grade trading tools and learn to master them.
To sustain a career as a trader, the vast majority of individuals need a system that wins 75% of the time or more, or you will be at risk of aversive conditioning or random rewards syndrome, which will compromise your effectiveness as a trader. And of course, the losses must be kept small. Making the switch to a high win/loss ratio is a key part of my coaching program. If you already have a system you like, we start there. If you lack a robust system, I will help you acquire or develop one.
WINNING TRADER’S BRAIN
According to legendary trading coach Mark Douglas, the main characteristic of highly successful traders –so-called Market Wizards–is simply a lack of fear. Many new traders have experienced this state of fearlessness, simply due to being naive about the real risks in the market.
After a period of trading losses, however, traders usually find themselves caught in a web of negative emotion that creates a negative expectancy about the market, about their trading ability and about the outcome of each trade. This negative expectancy undermines all aspects of their trading and creates a disastrous self-fulfilling prophecy. This accounts for the high failure rate among aspiring traders.
The reason some so-called “Market Wizards” don’t fall into this syndrome is that there happens to be a gene pair that codes for the ability to remain cool under pressure and this may be why the Wizards can remain fearless even during periods of deep drawdown. It would be a mistake to think that most traders can imitate this Zen Warrior-like state of mind.
SOLUTION: Aspiring traders, and all other traders who are not living up to their potential, need to learn about peak potential technology that optimizes cognitive functioning and emotional regulation. This may involve biofeedback, neurofeedback, neurotransmitter adjustments and/or nutritional supplementation to get the brain optimized for trading. Email me for a free 15 minute consultation if you want to know more about this.
YOUR ROAD MAP TO SUCCESS
I offer a complete 6-Week Coaching Program for just $1499, a fraction of what some traders lose on a single bad day. My program isn’t canned, it is customized just for you. Together, we will analyze your entire trading situation (mental, emotional, behavioral, biochemical) and formulate an individualized program that will take you to the next level in just six weeks.
Clients who work the program invariably experience a dramatic turnaround in their relationship to trading and in their bottomline.
If you take no other action today my friend, be sure you order my premier neuroprogramming MP3 ACCESSING THE WINNING TRADER’S MINDSET for just $99. Nothing is more important than becoming proactive about your mental-emotional state while trading. It could save you thousands!