If you are not at a hedge fund or proprietary trading firm (and in some cases even if you are), you might not really know your own trading. It’s quite easy to look at an equity curve and think that it all you really need to know.
In reality however there is a lot more data […]
Research is showing how powerful our mental context is in making risk decisions. But the thing is, most traders think mental context is about what they know – their insights, their indicators and their experience. In reality, it goes much further and deeper than that.
Recent experience that seems totally unrelated to trading counts. For example, […]
Maybe the toughest challenge in trading – or market risk decisions – is resolving the conflict over now or later? Should I get in now or later? Should I get out now or later? One can throw a whole bunch of so-called facts at the question and still be no closer to a satisfying (or […]
Shull’s first article “What Would Freud Say? Stroll Down Freud’s Mental Path to Profits”, December 2004.
When I wrote this I had NO idea whatsoever that I would ever publicly write or say ANOTHER word on the psychology of trading. It was just an idea I had based on re-writing my Master’s Thesis […]
Originally posted on Business Insider, April 17.
Conventional wisdom in trading psychology used to depend on two primary tenets – discipline and ‘control your emotions’. But that was before neuroscience started putting traders, poker players and other risk-gamers into brain scanners. Now that we know that all decisions depend on the presence of an emotion, most […]
There is a LOT of it out there.
In short, how much is based on the very latest out of the neuroscience labs? How much or which of many many practitioners actually pay attention to what is being learned about how the brain processes uncertainty and decisions like when to enter a trade?
I know of a […]
Just a few moments ago, I hung up the phone after speaking with a client who heads a trading desk at a bank everyone in the world has heard of. It would be easy to think – “well, that guy has it made”. (Government’s intention to break-up banks and stop prop-trading notwithstanding). Yet, he wants […]
I followed the dictum for years – or at least I followed it as well as I could. “Plan the trade, trade the plan”. But like everyone else I had trouble with the second part and often chastised myself. That was until neuroscience proved that within uncertainty – like when our brains see markets – […]
to discuss her recent book
Market Mind Games
Here’s a few –
Plan the trade, trade the plan.
3 losers in a row and stop for the day.
Make just $500 ($5000, $50,000) every day.
Control your emotions.
Each one of these is really about the mental game of trading. But each and every one reduces your odds of being a successful trader.
1. Markets are uncertain and human […]