Fear and greed are crucial in trading, emphasizing the need for risk management and preparedness.
Professional approach to trading involves meticulous preparation, consistent practice, and continuous skill improvement.
Soft skills, positive psychology, and teamwork contribute significantly to trading success.
Practicing gratitude, forgiveness, and self-nurturing fosters emotional resilience and balanced trading mindset.
Deep dives
Fear and Greed as Precondition for Trading
Fear and greed are essential components in trading, signaling the need for due diligence in risk management and preparation. Fear prompts assessment of risk-reward ratios and stop losses, ensuring a level of redundancy and risk control. Greed serves as a reminder to anticipate market dynamics driven by emotional shifts, preparing traders for potential price fluctuations without being overwhelmed.
Ken Long's Diverse Expertise and Insights
Ken Long, a former US Army Lieutenant Colonel and trading expert, shares invaluable insights on fear and greed in trading. With a background in military service, teaching, trading, and academic research, Ken emphasizes the importance of mindfulness, decision-making, and resilience in navigating the complexities of trading and investing.
Professionalism in Trading and Importance of Preparation
Ken Long advocates for a professional approach to trading by emphasizing meticulous preparation and adherence to proven systems. He highlights the significance of continuously honing trading skills, focusing on adjusting stops, managing risk, and practicing with discipline and consistency. Ken stresses the value of learning from real-time trading experiences over excessive backtesting, promoting a methodical and strategic trading mindset.
Nurturing Soft Skills and Trust in Trading
Ken Long underscores the importance of soft skills, positive psychology, and team dynamics in trading. He emphasizes the power of clear communication, mutual trust, and teamwork in enhancing trading performance. By integrating lessons from martial arts, military training, and coaching, Ken emphasizes the role of gratitude, forgiveness, and adaptability in building a resilient trading mindset.
Embracing Gratitude and Forgiveness in Trading
Ken Long advocates for starting and ending each trading day with gratitude and forgiveness, fostering a positive trading mindset and emotional resilience. He reveals the significance of self-nurturing, treating fear and greed as guiding emotions, and aligning actions with intentions to create a balanced approach to trading. Ken emphasizes the value of continuous learning, real-world experience, and humility in evolving as a successful trader.
Lessons in Gratitude and Forgiveness
Reflecting on a significant experience in betting everything in the market that led to an existential moment of learning. The speaker shares a practice called the owl meditation to deal with negative emotions, expressing gratitude and forgiveness. This practice includes writing down negative thoughts, burning them, and embracing love and respect. The speaker highlights the importance of learning from existential moments and how these experiences shape personal growth and decision-making.
Learning from Combat and Sense of Duty
The speaker recounts a pivotal moment in leading a 750-soldier unit into combat, reflecting on the responsibilities and judgments faced in that intense situation. The experience led to introspection about preparation, self-judgment, and living with the consequences of one's actions. This reflection on duty and self-assessment became a guiding principle in the speaker's life, emphasizing the importance of aligning with one's purpose and values. The discussion extends to the significance of storytelling, creativity, and true story circles in deepening understanding and shaping intentional living.
This week’s AlphaMind podcast episode on fear and greed in trading features a true expert on the subject - Dr. Ken Long. Though retired from the US Army after 25 years’ service where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Ken is still actively teaching as an Associate Professor at US Army Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is currently supervising multiple master’s theses focused on applying AI to military decision making.
Ken's trading journey began in the 1990s when he started investing in mutual funds. Since then, he's become an exceptional big-picture thinker and tactical trader. He has also applied his love of trading, teaching, and inspiring others, by delivering a series of workshops for the Van Tharp Institute. But that's not all, Ken has also completed a Ph.D in Organisational Development, and teaches at several universities including Colorado Tech University and City University, Seattle.
Aside from being a teacher, student, and active trader, Ken is also a proud father of three, a husband, a martial artist, and youth football coach. But it's his insights on fear and greed in trading that share with you in this podcast. In our hour and a half interview, Ken shares his views, genius, and wisdom on the topic in a way that is sure to inspire and enlighten.
AlphaMind: Powering Performance in Global Markets AlphaMind brings powerful change, growth and development to people and businesses within global markets. Driven by a deep understanding of how markets work, and how people and businesses function within them, we partner with clients to create personal performance improvements that elevate returns across their trading activities. Go to the AlphaMind website to know more.
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