So often, the problem with discipline in our trading is not an excess of emotion, but the relative absence of focus. If we grow our capacity for focus, we activate the parts of our brains that are responsible for planning and problem solving--not the parts that respond to threat with flight or fight.
In the first post in this series, we saw that utilizing mental rehearsal with respect to position management--our stops and even our take-profit levels--helps us take the emotion out of decision making. One of the reasons for this is that frequent and prolonged mental rehearsal actually serves as training for focus and concentration. When we review performance and rehearse our trading plans, we are creating an associative link between our state of focus and the execution of our processes. Doing this again and again strengthens this link, so that when we face decisions in real time, we can activate our intensified concentration and bring to mind all the things we've been rehearsing in that focused state.
Training our focus helps us make decisions in the heat of battle. Rehearsing our plans in the state of intensified focus cements them, so that they become automatic and not laden with emotion.
As I recently shared, brain wave biofeedback (neurofeedback) is an effective tool for training our focus. When we get real time feedback about our state of concentration, we can figure out how to enter and stay "in the zone". The biofeedback platform I use, Muse, allows users to engage in video games that give them better scores when they stay more focused. Playing the games repeatedly and moving up to more and more challenging levels turns the biofeedback sessions into a kind of mind gym, where we strengthen our concentration and extend it for longer and longer times. Working with a teacher to learn yoga or meditation can serve a very similar purpose.
What I find particularly helpful is mentally rehearsing stressful situations in trading *while* tracking my focus in the biofeedback. Going through scenarios again and again and training ourselves to stay focused literally trains mind and body to take emotion out of decision making. We are not only exercising our capacity for concentration, but our specific ability to stay focused in stressful circumstances.
We can grow our heads. When we stay switched on, it's amazing how emotions switch off.
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