Here’s an example of how leaning into all of your feelings - even the so-called "negative feelings" - works. This morning I went to my usual, fairly challenging, workout class at Equinox. Between my own suspected concussion (surf board to head) + my dog’s trip to the emergency room, I’d…
A trader I coach predicted this as the best positioning for Brexit : Short the pound, short the S&Ps, long gold and short oil. This is John B. - a guy with 20+ years of very successful experience and a recent history of working on separating instinct from impulse through…
A few weeks ago, I attended the annual meeting of The Social and Affective Neuroscience Society (SANS) - a seemingly unlikely place to figure out how to resolve a trading mistake! Those who follow me know I am not only a closet academic but that many of the advanced trading psychology…
This morning I was talking to a coaching client and we jointly realized that to characterize one of the most powerful trading emotions as FOMO actually misses the most important point. FOMO - or fear of missing out - connotates the fear of missing an event which really isn't the…
John Netto, a very successful trader, is currently finishing his book The Global Macro Edge wherein he takes on what he sees as the myths of Wall St. One of the chapters will be titled "Emotions are your Biggest Ally". How, when it seems emotions are usually our biggest enemy,…
Do you realize that almost no matter where you exit a trade, you are going to feel bad? If the trade is a winner, you wonder if you could have gotten more out of it or why you gave back part of what you had. It's like a winner is…
It unfortunately remains the predominant and conventional wisdom that the best trading occurs from so-called purely rational (read: statistical) and non-emotional analysis. Alas, it's just not true. In fact, it isn't even possible for a human being to make a risk-decision devoid of feelings and the most-forward thinking research says…
In technical terms, the researchers call this projected emotion, "anticipatory affect". In simple terms, the results of this meta-analysis of the brain's reaction to probabilities in risk goes like this: 1. A trader or PM takes in information about the expected mean, variance or skewness of a trade. 2. The…
Earlier this week, one of my clients with the title "Head of Equity Trading" wrote exactly this sentence copied and pasted from his email: "i had another one of those traading days where i let my loss just go to its fullest, and had a really bad day." SO... how…
Did you know that no one knows for sure how many "basic" (irreducible) emotions there are? Many scientists have long believed in six, a new study indicates four and a growing body of work by the teams emerging from Lisa Feldman Barrett's labs makes a very credible case for only…