Our Natural-Programming Makes Us All Bad Traders at the Beginning: As humans, our brains are naturally wired in certain ways in order to protect us. When we encounter a physical threat (like a tiger running at us), for example, we go into fight-or-flight mode. Both our minds and bodies immediately prepare for survival. When we enter this state, adrenaline kicks into overdrive, our perceived options decrease (all we can do is fight, flight, or freeze), and we give our emotions more … [Read more...]

Values Are Your Priorities - Principles Are the Rules You Choose to Live By: Values and principles are essentially what you stand for. They're the rules and priorities that you've generated in your mind - consciously or not - that guide every decision you make. So take some time to truly consider what you want yours to be. Most people who enter the markets try to hide behind guru alerts, newsletters, and all sorts of other nonsense - thinking "hot picks" are all that matters. That … [Read more...]

A Trade Log is Not the Same as a Mindset Journal - Numbers Aren't Enough: When it comes to tracking trade data, most people only think about the figures and statistics - things like entry prices, exit prices, stop losses, profit targets, risk-reward ratios, percentage of winning/losing trades, gains, losses, etc. It's all about the numbers. And while these numbers/analytics can be extremely helpful, they're missing a core piece to the puzzle - what's going on inside their own mind … [Read more...]