Better System Trader: 099: Where to focus for top trading performance

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Published on 09 Jun 2017. When I was learning to snowboard, I still remember the first time I got off the lift chair, strapped myself in the board and looked down the mountain. It was really overwhelming and I wondered how I was actually going to get down there without any injuries! My instructor was very comforting telling us ‘Not to focus on the bottom of the mountain’, because even though that’s the destination, to get there we were actually going to zig-zag down the mountain. So we needed to focus on the next turn and how we were going to execute that. We were told to look where we wanted to go, so if you want to go left then look left, your shoulder/hips will turn, your body weight will shift on the board and that will steer the board. And as you’re moving across the mountain you obviously want to look for hazards, look for where you want to turn and focus on shifting your body weight to steer the board around the corner It was all about the process. By focusing on the process, the outcome would eventually come. That is you'd work your way down to the bottom of the mountain with hopefully no broken bones! However, if you were to just focus solely on the bottom of the mountain, then you're likely going to fall down and crash. Trading can be a very outcome-focused activity, there is the temptation to focus on the results of our trades. Did the trade make or lose money, how is our P/L progressing for the month or year? But is this the best focus for traders to have? Should we be focusing more on the outcome or the process and what produces the best results? Do we need to have a balance between the two, and if so how? Let’s take a listen to performance coach Rande Howell now as he shares a story about an Olympic hurdler and how his approach to focus applies to trading performance.