7/24/2025 - A wild thought: What if we're in different brain states when we recognize opportunity setting up in markets vs. when we are focused on markets but don't see opportunity vs. when we're not focused on markets. What if we could monitor our brain states in real time and identify not only when we're in the zone, but also when we're seeing opportunity? Does intuition leave a distinct brain footprint? That's my next project--
7/23/2025 - On the Fitbit device that I use (Muse S-Athena), there is an exercise on the app in which the goal is to keep an owl in flight. If blood flow is going to the brain's frontal cortex, the owl rises in elevation and flies faster. If blood flow is moving away from the frontal cortex (our center of thought/reasoning/decision making), the owl lands and stops flying. Before we ever experience tilt, our blood flow moves away from our thinking centers and toward our flight/fight regions. The goal of the exercises on the device is to be able to sustain longer and longer periods of flight for the owl--and to be able to return the owl to flight after it has landed. This measures our cognitive endurance, and it measures our capacity for recovery. If we train the brain for endurance and recovery, we become able to prevent tilt mode before it ever hijacks our actions.
The problem with tilt is not an excess of emotion. The problem is a lack of brain fitness: poor cognitive endurance and poor capacity for recovery. This is a game changer for trading psychology.
7/22/2025 - The cognitive technique below is quite promising in intercepting the frustration that leads to tilt trading. A different, behavioral, approach involves learning to keep oneself calm and focused with visualization and deep breathing. (I am finding brain training devices helpful for this). Once we have mastered that skill and can get ourselves in the zone on demand (which takes practice), we can then engage in our focused relaxation while we vividly imagine frustrating trading situations that could put us on tilt. We begin with mildly challenging situations and gradually visualize more frustrating ones. We don't proceed to a more frustrating visualization until we can keep ourselves fully relaxed while imagining the less challenging one.
Once we can keep ourselves calm in imagination mode, we then start trading with small size/risk and employ the focused breathing in real time when challenging situations occur. When we can trade small size/risk successfully without tilt and handle drawdowns and unexpected events without losing our concentration, we gradually step up our sizing/risk-taking.
What this does is literally train mind and body to respond to losses and unexpected trading events in a mode that keeps us grounded in planned trading, not a reactive mode. This takes practice, but once you have the skill, you have it for a lifetime of successful trading--and you can apply it to other challenging areas of life.
7/21/2025 - How can we prevent tilt from happening in the first place? In this post, I'll describe a cognitive approach; in the next, I'll outline a behavioral method. The cognitive approach links tilt to our self-talk. In other words, we go on tilt not just because of what is occurring in our trading, but because of what we tell ourselves about what is occurring. Tilt is preceded by frustration and frustration shows up as negative self-talk. The key to preventing tilt is identifying the feelings of frustration and the frustrated self-talk *as they are occurring*.
That takes practice in thinking about our thinking and maintaining awareness of what we're feeling. In real time, you're aware not only of the market and what it's doing, but also in what you're thinking and feeling about what it's doing. In my own trading, I actually talk aloud as my position is moving, evaluating what is happening. The talking aloud enables me to hear myself and stay aware of myself. If my talking aloud becomes at all emotional, I can catch my frustration in real time before it manifests itself as tilt. When I find myself getting tense or talking emotionally, I can quickly return to a focused mode by breathing deeply and slowly and focusing on the trade in front of me.
As a rule, I find it very helpful to have my stop loss orders entered into the book in advance. That way, I don't have to worry about emotionality interfering with my trading plan when a trade doesn't work out. When our trading decisions are mapped out in advance and entered in the order book, our trading can be planned and not reactive.
7/20/2025 - Reacting to market action is necessary for the management of risk and reward. Overreacting to market action is a function of the unmet needs we bring to trading. We can overcome emotional trading by turning our best trading practices into trading routines: repetition brings familiarity, and we don't overreact to something that is routine. If we *need* to be right--if we *need* to make money to feel successful as a person--then we will overreact to loss.
The key to overcoming tilt is to anchor our self-assessment in longer-term improvement, not in immediate P/L. And how do we do this? By first trading in simulation mode, where there is no money at risk at all. That trains us to make the right decisions in real time and turn that decision-making into habit patterns. Only once we've internalized those habits do we begin taking small risk and rehearse making the right decisions. When we're consistent and profitable at the small level, we bump up the risk-taking gradually, in small increments. The idea is to build the right habits and learn to enjoy the process over the proceeds. Small, steady improvement based on consistency is what helps us internalize great trading. What is familiar and routine cannot shake us up. There is no overwhelming frustration if we're focused on doing the right things.
When we take the ego out of each trade and just focus on doing the right things, there can be no tilt.
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