T2W Trading Community

Our neurological system is comfortable with our habitual behavior patterns and will support us with that status quo.  So if you are losing, winning or leveled out with consistent profits but not growing, you are very likely to stay in that situation unless you are willing to do what is necessary to stretch.  Most people who want to increase their performance are willing to read a book or go to a seminar, but not willing to consistently follow through on what they have learned over the long haul.  The question is, what does it take to stretch, and are you seriously willing to make that commitment?  If you are not, then expect the same results. If you are, then get ready to take a ride on a trip to the next level of success where, in six months, you will be at your next launching point.

How many of you would like to reach the next level of success in Trading? 

The fact is most of you have been high achievers in your life.  But now that you have reached and perhaps maintained a level of success in your trading over a period of time are you willing to do what it takes to reach your next level of success?  Most people are not, because they are comfortable with the status quo, they don’t want to take on any additional risk or responsibility, or they are too lazy to do what is necessary to add new resources.

I was working with a floor trader, whose name is Bill. He was afraid of electronic trading, but knew that if he did not start to transition off the floor he would not be able to maintain his present life style.  His monthly bills were fifteen thousand.  With his wife enjoying her country clubs and charity work and his three children in private schools, he felt a tremendous pressure to do something fast.

Bill was a “dees-dems and dose guy” with a raspy voice and a limited vocabulary. He was raised in a rough neighborhood in the Bronx.  His two older brothers had blue-collar jobs and so did all of his cousins. In fact, he was the only one of his friends that was able to rise out of a limiting mentality and rise to the top of the financial world.  He left school in the tenth grade, but managed later to get a high school degree.  One day a professional basketball player who he was shooting hoops with made him dream beyond the projects. He introduced Bill to a friend who was a trader and that introduction led to an opportunity in the markets.  Bill became a runner at the New York Mercantile Exchange. From there it took him twenty years to become one of the best traders in the pit.  He literally failed his way to success.

He came to one of the workshops that I was presenting at a conference. He confided to me about his fear of the future.  Fortunately, his son taught him how to use the computer and he had read enough books on trading and technical analysis to give him a base to start in electronic trading.  Bill said that he knew he could make money, but was afraid he would not be able to make the same kind of money as he was used to.

We started by eliminating the issues and the conflicts in his life that would keep him from believing that he wasn’t capable of mastering electronic trading.  Then I worked with  him on the following model:

Steps to achieve the next level of success:

1. Focus on what you specifically want.
   In his case he knew that he wanted to trade the same commodity in the same time frame.

2. Plan how to achieve it.

• Resources – skills, abilities, education
  He needed additional information on how to build the technical part of trading, so I introduced him to a trading coach
• Time, energy, money, risk
  In Bill’s case the money and risk were not an issue but the energy and time was.  I worked with him on how to increase his energy. He was going to have to trade less on the floor for a while, so we worked on him making more in less time.
• Contingencies
  Bill’s biggest fear was that he would have to trade full time electronically before he was ready. I made him realize that he had been in training all of his trading life and just had to know how to transfer his training. Listing everything that could go wrong and right with the best possible outcome increased his confidence for the future. 
• Specific goals – tasks, and time frame
  Bill was a goal setter, but found that writing them down with specific time limits made his way easier.
• Who will be affected, and is it worth the price of how it will affect them?
  This part was the most difficult.  Bill’s family was used to seeing a lot of him in the evenings.  He sat his family down and asked for their support and he got it.  But this didn’t mean that he did not have a difficult time missing the family part of his life.
• Consider how will your life change after you achieve your new level of success.  Will you be able to handle the new responsibilities and the new challenges as a result of attaining this stretch?
  In Bill’s case he learned to trade with more risk and less time on the floor.  This gave him more time for working behind the computer.  He loved the fact that he finally felt smart.  With all the money he earned he never felt that way before.
• Will you leave enough room for your creative process to flourish?
  The process of working with Bill to become successful at electronic trading took almost a year.  I felt that it was important that he did not exhaust himself as so many traders do when they try to make this transition.  He was able to utilize his energy wisely, so his intuitive skills would work both on and off the floor.