Friday, October 9, 2009

fear, resistance, growth: T.Y.P.S, biofeedback and intuitive trading

  • one of the biggest obstacles to increasing my performance as a trader is the influence of fear in my decision making process...
  • i have recently begun using Zen Trader System's T.Y.P.S. audio tapes to help me relax, and attempt to reprogram my subconscious inclinations...
  • here are some observations i have had since i began using the tapes:
  • periodic instances of clearer/sharper eyesight...i sometimes experience better vision when i do certain breathing exercises as well...i am not claiming that the T.Y.P.S. tapes are making my vision better, i am just making an observation...
  • a spontaneous image of one of my trading account balance's being 10% higher than it currently is...this image, almost dream like, occurred during the 'Neuro Nap' tape: i was writing the new account balance in the notebook where i document all of trades (which i have been for 13+ years now)...
  • more frequent instances of frustration at the difficulty of the entire trading endeavor, a feeling/recognition that i am working so hard to just keep up, that getting ahead and back to my account balance highs from of the summer of 2007 will never occur...
  • its been interesting that as i am doing more work on the emotional side, i am also experiencing a bit of an emotional backlash against the potential for growth...while there is a conscious intention to grow, there is also something inside of me that is resistant to this change, to growth...
  • mentally, i can be very harsh on myself...i need to work on being kinder to myself...
  • overall i am not trying to force anything, i am just trying to relax and grow...i am very happy with the T.Y.P.S. audio series, and i plan on continuing to use it...
  • dr. brett steenbarger considers biofeedback to be a best practice in trading (i highly recommend this post)...i am becoming more interested in using a computer based biofeedback system to help me increase my level of coherence (a measure of emotional regulation) and then to help me monitor my biorhythms during the trading day...dr. brett recommends the use of the 'freeze framer' program (now known as 'emWave PC Stress Relief System')...
  • i am becoming more of a proponent of the idea that a goal of trading is not to eliminate emotions from the decision making process, but to use emotions as part of the decision making process...developing and refining the feel for a particular market, may lead to a deeper intuitive sense of the proper directional bias for a particular time frame and the proper position size in that particular market...this is what i am trying to do with my discretionary swing trading of the NQ, and i feel like i am on the right track with it...
  • this intuition can not just be cognitively based, it must also have emotive inputs...if i understand the evolution and the architecture of the human brain correctly, then our smaller cognitive abilities sit atop a larger emotive mosaic...perhaps its not that our cognition will lead our emotions, but that our emotions will lead our cognition...i am not a trained psychiatrist or neurologist or medical doctor or anything like that...i am just trying to make sense of how my brain works and how this effects my trading...
  • i am hoping that all of this emotive work combined with an ever increasing cognitive understanding of how markets tend to move, will help improve my intuitive trading such that trading becomes a more relaxed and fluid process, with an ever increasing sense of personal well being and trading account balances...
  • if anyone has had any experience with the T.Y.P.S. audio series or with biofeedback, i would love to hear about it...

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