In this episode of Truth About FX, Walter digs into trading distractions and how to get away from them. He advices on focusing on what you want to achieve and creating your own trading rules.
You will also find here an interesting MP3 that can help you trade in the right mindset.
Download (Duration: 04:03 / 4.63 MB)
In This Episode:
00:37 – when waiting
01:35 – relaxed and focused
02:25 – trading station
03:46 – quieter mind
Tweetables:
Dedicate a trading station. [Click To Tweet].
Help yourself to focus on what you need to accomplish. [Click To Tweet].
Create a trading rule to help you resist distractions. [Click To Tweet].
Announcer: Sometimes, forex trading is a wild and wooly place to be. That’s why Hugh is here, to post your questions to Walter, the naked forex guy. Hugh’s got questions and Walter’s got the answers. Here at the Truth About FX Podcast.
Hugh: Hi, Walter. What are some of the distractions that I may not be aware of but can be reduced while I am trading that will help me out?
Walter: The obvious one are going to be like Facebook or Youtube or whatever you do when you are waiting, that sort of thing. When I first started trading, and I was really bad at it, I used to listen to MP3s.
My friend and I who were just getting into trading, we had one computer that was for trading and we had another computer that used for just to have the music on it. What I would do is, typically, I would plug into the music and just listen to it all night long.
This was in California. So, I was watching the London session all night long and just droning on, had this headphones on and that was a distraction for me because I was getting so nervous watching these lower timeframes charts.
I wanted something to calm me down. I’ll put something in the shownotes that maybe something that you want to use . We’ve got this in the forum but you can have this downloaded.
What it’ll do is, basically, put you in the right mindset so when you do sit down to trade, you are very relaxed and very focused. I would encourage traders to — even if you trade the weekly charts — just listen to it like I do before you sit down and make your trading decisions.
That’s probably the best use of it. If you are trading the lower timeframes and you are actually watching the market unfold then, definitely, you want to do something like this to get you into that frame of mind.
It sounds weird and you’ve got to use earbuds for it but it will put the brain into a right state, a relaxed and very focused state to trade. That is what I would do. You can obviously have a rule like no Facebook, no Youtube, do not watch TV, like Bloomberg or whatever.
You want to dedicate a trading station. It is a place where you go to do your trades and make your trading decisions even if is not bumping off trades on a 15-minute charts, even if it is just moving to break even on a daily charts.
The point is you’ve got to have that spot when you can do that and, other thing is you can work on your own focus. Instead of worrying about your environment and try to eliminate distractions, work on your mind and help yourself to focus on what you need to focus on.
I know it sounds weird but it is as simple as listening to that MP3 download that is in the shownotes for this episode. That is what I would recommend.
Hugh: Cool! That is awesome. I’ve been experimenting with some of those MP3 things also and I do not expect that it’ll give that big of an effect but it really does.
Walter: It’s interesting, isn’t it? It’s weird to me. We think we are in control of our mind but there’s so many things that affects us that we do not even realize that that is going. That is pretty cool! How long have you been using them for?
Hugh: Going on like four months now, I think.
Walter: Wow, that is great! And you’ve really noticed the difference?
Hugh: Yeah, and it is not just like a psychological thing. I actually got one of those new headbands and I’ve been putting that on and measuring the effects. My mind is definitely quieter after I listened to that.
Walter: Wow, that is amazing! That is great.
Hugh: Yeah, cool. I appreciate you are sharing this with us.
Walter: No problem. Thanks, Hugh.
Hugh: See you.
SHOWNOTES
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