3 Brain Exercises for Day Trading Success | Trading Psychology

Today’s Trading Psychology question of the day…

“I’m a new trader and feeling overwhelmed with how much I need to learn to be successful.  I know this isn’t going to be easy, and the reward is going to be worth the effort, but I would love any tips you have on getting started.”

This is a great question, and I’m always grateful for all the questions you guys post on my YouTube Channel.

In today’s psychology lesson, I’m going to give you a strategy with 3 ways to develop your mind and body to be a successful trader… so you can avoid that feeling of being overwhelmed with the task of becoming consistently profitable.

Here’s the link to watch from the beginning:  https://goo.gl/k1F34D

I also want to remind you to subscribe to this YouTube Channel, give me a thumbs-up if you like it, and share it with a friend if you think they can benefit as well.

And if you really want to stay in-tune with what’s going on here at SchoolOfTrade, join our mailing list on the homepage of our website, or on my blog at SidewaysMarkets.com.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way… let’s get into today’s lesson.

The topic of today’s lesson is how to develop your body and mind to be a successful trader.

Now remember, I just did a video on the 3 ways to make trading easier…

Looking at these three pieces… assuming you already have a coach, and most likely that coach provides you with a battle-tested trading strategy… and this psychology videos series should give you the tools you need to develop a positive mindset, let’s dig deeper and think about how you can start from nothing and grow into a successful trading career.

Let’s first start with an analogy… running a marathon.

If I were to tell you that I wanted to run a marathon… how would I do that? 

I would set a goal, get all the tools, and start slowing building my mental and physical endurance.

You know… trading and marathons may seem like polar opposites, but they both require both physical and mental endurance, which needs to be developed… and at the same time… there needs to be an element of fun if you’re going to invest a lot of time to accomplish these goals..I don’t know anyone who can go thru 26 miles of running without enjoying what they’re doing, right?

So, let’s register for a marathon 90 days from now… what should I do?

First, I would make sure I understand all the tools needed for running.  Shoes, water bottle, stretching, diet, sleep, massage, etc.

As a trader, this would be learning to use the computer, the trading software, reading a brokerage statement, understanding economic news, technical analysis, etc, etc.

Then, for the marathon, I’d make it a habit to start running a little bit every day, and every week I would add a little more distance, until I was able to run the entire distance.

What would happen if I tried to run all 26 miles on the first day? 

I would probably get injured, and I would also have a hard time staying mentally focused on running for over 20 miles when I first begin…

This seems like common sense… Right?  Make it a habit by doing a little every day, start slow, build over time, and again, make sure you find enjoyment because it’s hard to reach goals that you really don’t enjoy.

The same thing is true for your trading career…

When we start as traders, even if we have the luxury of working with a coach who provides the strategy, we still need to condition our minds to maintain the focus to follow our rules over a long period of time, and we need to condition our bodies to handle the wear and tear of sitting at a desk for most of the day.

In my experience, day trading requires sustained focus over a long period of time, with a lot of sitting and waiting in between… we need to develop endurance to do that type of work.

To develop this long-term focus for your trading career, I’d recommend you train like the marathon; start doing a little bit each day, gradually adding more over time.

Start with learning one piece of the trading strategy each week.  Don’t try to learn everything at the same time, its unrealistic!

If you were my client, the first thing I would start learning is how to use the moving-average to determine who has control of the market, and overall strength of the trend.

I would encourage you to spend a week focusing on that moving-average technique… then we would add more from there.

Once you learned to use the moving-average, then I would teach you how to draw trend-lines correctly… especially the micro trend-lines…then you would spend the week mastering the use of those trend-lines.

Learning to trade is easy if you have a strategy that lays out all the pieces you need to learn, then do a little each day, add more each week, and soon enough you will know all the different pieces of the strategy like a professional.

The next piece of the puzzle is sustaining the mental focus for long periods of time.

Just like running a marathon… a typical trading day could last between 3 to 6 hours depending on what type of strategy you’re trading… and you need to develop the mental endurance to perform the entire time.

The good news is…if you learn the strategy in small pieces, it wont be so overwhelming when you “put it all together” and that should make it a LOT easier for you.

Let’s start small, trading for one hour each day for a week, then move up to trading for 1 ½ hours each day, then 2 hours, etc, etc. until you can trade the entire morning session without feeling mentally exhausted.

The final step in this process is to add a little physical fitness & fun into the mix. 

We’re slowly building our trading skills, gradually adding more time each day, but don’t forget to invest some time in strengthening your body while having some fun at the same time.

I have more energy when I get at least 20mins of exercise each day, and that energy is going to help fuel my hard work each day while I’m trading.

I would also make sure you earmark at least a few hours each week doing something that brings you joy, and if you can do it with friends, even better.

By investing time in yourself with exercise and committing to having a little fun with friends each week, you will see those energy levels skyrocket…

..and when you combine higher energy with sustained mental focus and a thorough understanding of all the moving pieces of the strategy… you have a recipe for long-term success.

We’ve covered a LOT in this psychology lesson, so let’s do a quick recap.

The topic of today’s video was how to condition yourself for a successful trading career without getting burned-out and overwhelmed along the way.

We talked about how learning to trade is similar to training for a marathon; you can’t do it all in one day, and it helps to have a plan…

I gave you three parts to this plan:

One more thing I also want to mention… I’ve been trading for almost 10 years now and hitting plateaus and losing interest is always a threat to anyone who does the same thing for a long period of time.

To keep myself sharp and excited to trade each day, I’m always learning new strategies, new techniques, and new ways to look at the markets. (and I have another video coming this week on a similar topic, so stay tuned!)

Just like an athlete is always trying new techniques to push his/her body to the next level, I find it beneficial to purposely take myself out of my comfort zone whenever possible, which expands my knowledge, peaks my interests, and opens my mind to the flow of new ideas that ultimately benefit my trading.

If you’re a new trader, you now have a strategy to ramp-up your new trading career, but if you’re an experienced trader and you find yourself lacking motivation now and then, I would recommend learning new strategies, joining a group with other traders, reading a book with some news trading ideas…anything to shake things up and force your mind out of it’s comfort zone… I think you will see great results from that as well, I know I have.

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Wrapping things up… I hope you found a ton of value in today’s trading psychology lesson…

Do me a favor…drop me a comment below this video with any topics you’d like to see me cover in my next psychology video…

…make sure to give me a thumbs-up if you found value, subscribe to the channel if you’re not already, and please don’t forget to share this video with a friend.

And don’t forget, you can find me every morning @ 8:00am EST working hard in my trade room with all of our members here at SchoolOfTrade.com, I have a great free trial on the homepage of our website, I publish my Nightly Newsletter every evening on my blog before 8:00pm EST, and I’m excited to see you again soon on my next trading psychology lesson.