The Conditioning Trap - Part 1...

Some of society's conditional expectations can be the biggest factors contributing to poor trading results

What do I mean?

Well, we all know trading is tough.

And it's highly unlikely you would be here if you thought any different.

However...learning to trade, especially learning to trade on your own is EVEN tougher!

And that is often NOT down to having to learn strategy set-ups and specific chart conditions.

It's when added into the mix is a host of biases, past habits, limiting beliefs to work on…

And that can mean the odds are stacked even higher against you and for many traders they don't even realise what and how these issues affect them.

BUT… before you sign off, there is hope, and I will come to that shortly.

Here are just a few of these social ideals that can hold traders back...

1- Perfection is the ultimate form of success

The irony is there is no such thing as a perfect trade.

And very often, the one closest to what feels like a perfect set-up at the time leads you into a false sense of security and is in fact very often the one that ends up losing.

2. If you lost you did something wrong

Trading is one of the few disciplines, that over the short term, doesn't always reward you for doing the right thing.

Being right and making money as a trader are two different things.

3. Remembering facts and figures is the ultimate sign of intelligence

When in fact pattern recognition will serve you way more as a trader.

That's not to say numbers a remembering specific elements won't help you,  but that will not be the defining factor in your success.

A critical element of the way I work as a trading coach is not simply adding more processes, strategies and systems to what are already overloaded students.

What I do is often way more focused on stripping back and removing elements from a trader's process,  as well as questioning their beliefs and ideas.

And getting them to unlearn some of these deeply routed patterns and beliefs.

So what can you do to stop these beliefs from hindering you and holding you back?

1. Cultivate Your Self Awareness...

A good friend and trader once said the following that has never left me…

“You will never need self-awareness and emotional intelligence as much as you will to become successful and stay successful as a trader"

And that takes time to develop and cultivate.

2. Get Critical Feedback

If you are out there on your own, stubbornly beating the drum of trial and error, thinking a new strategy or system will be the answer, while fighting inbuilt conditioned beliefs that are not serving you.

The journey to any form of consistency will be far longer than it needs to be - if at all.

If you are around traders and trading coaches who get this aspect of conditioning, not just because they can read a chart and have proven strategies behind them.

They can be there for you at the critical inflection points, where real progress and ongoing change can made and reinforced.

And in the long term, real consistent progress can be made.

Until next time.

Trade safe,

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