Had Enough Therapy?

I came across a relatively new blog on psychology with a unique perspective and title that I wanted to share with you entitled “Had Enough Therapy?” written by Stuart Schneiderman, an executive life coach.

Though the blog is not entirely focused on trading (but touches a variety of topics from politics to sports), Schneiderman has written a few stand-out posts on trading discipline and that mirrors the insights and teachings of Dr. Brett Steenbarger at TraderFeed.

I wanted to highlight two specific points, one of which is entitled “Learning to Win” where Schneiderman specifically draws upon Dr. Steenbarger’s insights on trading traumas.  He sarcastically yet effectively describes how standard “just talk it out” approaches to trading traumas caused by losses doesn’t really work because of the psychological conditioning mechanism which bypasses logical thought processes.

He writes:

“Let us say that a trader was traumatized by a loss? How will he conduct himself to avoid it every happening again?

He may be too quick to take small profits because he panics about the possibility that they will disappear. He might allow his bad positions to decline too long because he refuses to take a small loss.

In the end he might become accustomed to losing money because he has gained extensive experience at it. And he will accept it because he will feel that trauma has defined him as a loser.”

Read the full post for the full background, but I wanted to pull out this specific quote from Dr. Steenbarger that I have written down and memorized deeply:

It’s not about thinking more positively about yourself; it’s about removing the self from pure performance skill.”

In “Is Virtue its Own Reward,” Schneiderman again addresses the fincial markets and the skills required to trade them.  He discusses pure contrarian thinking, sentiment, investment vs. trading, and Liar’s Poker and When Genius Failed.

I could’t agree more with this statement:

A market is made up of billions of individual decisions. To imagine that you can walk into it and make it do what you think it should do is a recipe for financial ruin. Humility, not pride, will make you a better trader and a better person.”

Finally,Virtue may be its own reward, but it may also reward you in other, less mysterious ways.”

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6 Comments

  1. He sarcastically yet effectively describes how standard “just talk it out” approaches to trading traumas caused by losses doesn’t really work because of the psychological conditioning mechanism which bypasses logical thought processes.

  2. He sarcastically yet effectively describes how standard “just talk it out” approaches to trading traumas caused by losses doesn’t really work because of the psychological conditioning mechanism which bypasses logical thought processes.

  3. He sarcastically yet effectively describes how standard “just talk it out” approaches to trading traumas caused by losses doesn’t really work because of the psychological conditioning mechanism which bypasses logical thought processes.

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