Thursday, October 15, 2009

Talking Trades Aloud: The Value of Private Speech

Suppose, at the time you placed each trade, you had to talk aloud the following pieces of information:

1) Your level of conviction in the trade;
2) The sizing of the trade;
3) The price level that would tell you your trade is wrong;
4) Your price target for the trade;
5) What you would need to see to add to the trade or scale out of it.

Would talking these parameters aloud help you better size trades and manage them? Suppose you had to talk the parameters aloud to another person, such as a trading coach?

Many times, the ideas behind a trade are implicit, not explicit. By making the ideas explicit, it is easier to remember them and mentally rehearse them. Vygotsky emphasized that thinking begins in life as private speech: we replicate to ourselves what others have said to us.

Perhaps a bit of private speech can aid our thinking about trades.
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