In today's episode, we've got a special treat for you in the form of an interview with our very own oil desk manager, trader, and coach Stephen Box! Stephen joined TRADEPRO Academy back in 2017 as a veteran crude oil trader looking for a community of other professional futures traders to trade with. During one trading session shortly after joining, he volunteered to jump on the mic to share some of his analysis with the entire community of traders and the rest, as they say, is history! Stephen has since become the oil moderator in our trading room and for good reason! He's one of, if not, the best oil trader that we know! Stephen is an absolute gem and in today's chat, you'll get some great insight from his 30+ years of trading experience including how to bounce back mentally from a big trading loss, why pressurized trading is a recipe for disaster, the concepts of gambling in the markets, what it really is and the difference between gambling and trading. Here is a summary of what we discussed:  Stephens introduction to trading by way of physical silver coins 03:55 First realizing that successful trading is not just pure luck 07:01 Overcoming the values learned from parents that grew up through the Great Depression 13:10 Lessons learned from being long into 3 consecutive limit down days  20:55 Why you shouldn't put yourself in a position where you lose control 28:25 The psychology of specializing in trading a single market 36:40 Constantly adapting the trading process over the decades 42:00 The most dangerous thing that new traders don't know 46:56 The differences between degenerate gambling and skilled gambling 51:25 Building the discipline of self-awareness and walking away when emotions start to creep in 59:10 Pressurized trading; why money always follows the trading process and not the other way around 65:15 The psychology behind taking a loss on your first trade of the day 70:00  Why not every single trade idea in the session should be an actual trade 75:15 The most common myth in trading is that it's easy money 82:00 Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing how to break your bad trading habits so that you can finally achieve the results that you deserve!  Traders are constantly telling us that they are aware of the habits that are weighing them down but for one reason or another, they just can't seem to stop themselves from repeating them again and again.  These patterns occur at a subconscious level without our being able to control them and this can become frustrating very quickly and lead to trading on tilt which is when things can really start to spiral out of control.  Oftentimes, these bad habits are developed early on in the trading journey (especially if you stay in demo for too long) and will stick with you until you either face them head-on and change them or get frustrated enough with trading to decide that it's not for you and you exit the industry.  Our goal today is to help you identify some of the habits that are causing you frustration in your trading and to provide you with practical solutions to disrupt these patterns so that you can replace them with habits that will serve you!  What is a habit? What causes bad habits?  an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary In layman's terms; a habit is an action taken in the past that worked to solve a problem which the brain thinks is now acceptable to use for all relevant situations in the future Our brain is always seeking efficiency and will use habits that we have developed in order to deal with situations that it commonly face The purpose of every habit is to solve the problems that you face  The primary cause of bad habits is a way of dealing with stress and boredom  Bad habits address certain needs in your life  The Feedback Loop  There are four stages of a habit which are commonly referred to as a feedback loop, which is a continuous cycle that runs every moment you are alive The four stages of the feedback loop  include (1) Cue (2) Craving (3) Response (4) Reward The cue triggers the brain to initiate a behavior; it is about noticing the reward  The cravings are the motivational force of the habit - without it, you have no reason to act - you do not crave the habit but rather you crave the change in state that it provides (aka the reward) The response is the actual habit that you perform; it is about obtaining the reward  The reward closes the feedback loop and completes the habit cycle As it relates to trading, a good example of this would be someone that has the habit of adding to positions when they go against them  If this works ONCE, then your brain will remember that this action solved your problem before and it will use this habit again when faced with similar circumstances   Cue - A trade that goes into the red  Craving - You do not want to lose money on the position Response - You add to your position (martingale) in an attempt to get back to green  Reward - If the market returns and puts you back into the green Common Bad Habits in Trading:  Taking boredom trades because of lack of patience  Chasing trades due to FOMO  Revenge Trading  Moving stops and taking big losses  Cutting winners short  Risking too much on any given trade  Giving back profits throughout the trading session  How to Break a Bad Habit Each of the four stages mentioned earlier can be considered to be like a domino that influences human behavior. When one domino falls, it triggers a series of decisions that will either hurt or help you; this all happens within a fraction of a second  The first step to breaking a bad habit is awareness! Ask yourself: When does the bad habit actually happen? What triggers the behavior and causes it to start?  If you eliminate the cue, the feedback loop cannot start  If you reduce the craving, then you won’t experience the motivation to act  If you make the response (behavior) difficult, then you will not be able to do it  And finally, if the rewards do not satisfy your desire, then you won’t be motivated to do it again in the future Visualize your negative trading pattern as an enemy that is the ONE thing that stands in the way of your trading success:  visualize all the negative consequences it has caused you, all the emotional pain;  If you visualize something as your enemy, will you buy into it? NO  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing how to use uncertainty as an opportunity to get outside of your comfort zone and grab your life and trading by the horns. As a species, humans hate uncertainty! In fact, all you have to do is look back to our prehistoric ancestors as proof!  Think about a caveman leaving the safety of the cave (which is the “certain”) and going out to forage for food. If the caveman came across a large and fierce animal that they’ve never seen before, the immediate reaction would be to turn and go the other way because they were uncertain if this creature would attack them and if their lives were potentially at risk.  The same holds true when you are trading because your subconscious brain cannot distinguish between the perceived danger to you caused by life or death situations or the fear of losing a trade or even the fear of being wrong.  Uncertainty makes us worry, it provides stress and anxiety simply because of all of the unknown possibilities of the things that can go wrong - which generally results in people viewing uncertainty as a bad thing. But where does that get you?  Stuck in the fear of the unknown! Uncertainty is can be an opportunity or an obstacle and our goal today is to help you see it as an opportunity! Pulling Back the Curtain on Uncertainty  Uncertainty is defined as: The state of being uncertain Something that is uncertain or causes one to feel uncertain There are some things that are inherently uncertain and then other things that make us feel uncertain. Being able to separate and know the difference between the two is going to be helpful. Facts are verifiable and observable, whereas states are interpretations of facts. There are many different ways to interpret facts and we cannot prevent ourselves from interpreting everything that happens around us. However, we can become aware of our interpretations. Two people can see the exact same event and interpret it as uncertain OR certain. Then, we can begin to have a choice in how we interpret. This can have a lot to do with whether we live in a state of certainty, uncertainty, or somewhere in between. The problem is the brain processes facts and beliefs through the same network, making it difficult to distinguish between the two.  This is why we all can stare a fact in the face and still deny it. The truth is malleable to the brain If you have a bias towards negativity, your brain will tend to interpret facts according to the worst-case scenario. Your interpretation of uncertainty creates thoughts, which then create reality. If you choose to interpret uncertainty and respond with fear, you activate fight or flight and it shuts off your prefrontal cortex, all rational thought ceases. The problem is many facts are not always uncertain, but we make them so and panic about the worst-case scenario, which is just one of many multiple options. The Role of Uncertainty in Trading  As traders, anything that occurs outside of our control can cost us money and weigh on our psychology Regardless of trading experience, anything can and will happen in the markets  Uncertainty usually creeps up for traders in the form of hesitating to take legitimate trading setups when they occur Traders that gravitate towards trading signals and external social mediums like Twitter and FinTwits are looking to outsource their uncertainty Uncertainty causes an internal conflict between the subconscious brain (which senses danger and triggers your fear response) while the logical brain is saying “ I want to be a trader” - this is why you hesitate to take your trading setups Strategies to Help Traders Deal with Uncertainty Be very clear on your trading setup - make it as binary as possible Don’t overcomplicate your strategy Reframe the way you look at trading by affirming that your job as a trader is to follow the trading plan and not focus on your P/L Understand that you will never totally understand what is going to happen next and that you don't actually need to!  Build positive attitudes towards different market conditions that might arise and the different challenges that trading them brings Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Quotes from Rande Howell over at Traders State of Mind

!n today’s episode we are going to be discussing how to handle trading losses like a winner because at the end of the day, it’s not about how much money you make but how much money you can keep, and if you can’t take a loss then sooner or later you will take the mother of all losses.  Why Traders Have Such a Hard Time Taking Losses As a society, we are conditioned to aim for a high percentage success rate A lot of us judge our self-worth on how often we are right which makes it difficult to accept being wrong and taking a loss  Fear is a stronger emotion than greed; when faced with the potential of taking a loss, we will usually gamble and lose much more instead of accepting the loss for what it is  Trading losses are guaranteed, but newer traders are often surprised when they happen Few traders focus on risk before reward so when they place a trade they focus on potential profits and are not expecting to take a stop; placing a trade is not accepting risk, placing a trade is taking the risk Learning to Take a Loss  Your beliefs and attitudes about what a loss means will have the biggest impact on you  If you take a loss personally and believe it affects your self-worth, then you will naturally have a difficult time taking a loss  A perfectionist trader will often see a loss as a failure and setback which makes taking any kind of loss a real challenge emotionally  Taking losses is not something that we enjoy but we have to accept the fact that losses are part of trading  Once you can accept this fact then you will be able to release the fear around it  Practical Strategies to Handle Losses Like a Winner  Build and refine a trading plan & strategy Before a trader can accept losses, they must be able to believe that they can produce profits, otherwise, each loss will seem like a roller coaster of emotions between life and death The only way to believe that a trading plan can produce profits is to test it in the markets and to build a track record; when there is a track record of success then the trader will understand that result of any individual trade means very little Without a track record, trading losses take on a much bigger meaning  Reframe your beliefs about losses  Losses are part in parcel of trading; the first step to handling them like a winner is to accept that challenges and setbacks are part of achieving anything worthwhile  Be grateful for the loss  Keep the bigger picture in mind  Remember that the result of any individual trade you take is irrelevant to the big picture  If you take 1000 trades over the course of a year, how important is a single loss in the overall context of things? Not very important!  If you detach yourself from the result and see a loss as a simple data point - something to learn from - then you will have an easier time accepting a loss for what it is  Evaluate your losses like a professional risk manager Create a persona for when you are reviewing your trades at the end of the day when you will be grading your execution of the plan  Imagine being a risk manager that is standing over your shoulder as you replay and evaluate your losses This can remove the “emotional” connection to the event so that you can focus on evaluating and identifying the key areas of improvement going forward Develop a routine after you take a loss  Take a moment to journal the trade immediately and reflect on how well or poorly you followed your process  Take a moment to give gratitude to the markets for the learning opportunity  You can give yourself a timer to stay out for a certain amount of time Take a deep breath, identify your next best trade, and fight back! Keep on Learning  Ask yourself; What have I learned from that experience? How will I use it to make me a better trader?  See the implementation of the learning from the loss as an investment in your future trading career  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

If you know anything about us, you’ll know that we enjoy studying disciplines outside of trading to see if there any transferrable skills that we can use to help build our mental edge as traders, and poker just so happens to be one of those cases! In today’s episode, Mark discusses some of the similarities between poker and trading and also breaks down some key lessons that professional poker players can teach us about successful trading. For those not familiar with the game of Texas Hold Em’ poker, players win by betting against other players until one person is left with the entire pot. The betting is based on the perceived value of the hand that they hold relative to what they believe the other opponents at the table have. There are several betting rounds between the flop, the turn, and the river and success take discipline, patience, and diligence! Interestingly enough some of the best candidates for Wall Street trading jobs back in the day happened to be professional card players because these individuals understood that if you managed risk accordingly and executed your edge with consistency, that you were not gambling, in fact, you were simply playing the ODDS! What are the synergies between trading and poker?  Risk  Poker players have a pot or stack When you have what you perceive to be a decent hand in poker, you will bet some of the pot Have to risk when you believe that you have a chance of success The guy that is betting loosely and playing each hand will get lucky from time to time but at some point, someone is going to have a much better hand and will clear him out. Traders have an account and will bet a certain portion of the account size when a setup forms as part of their trading plan If you are ill-disciplined and betting on whatever looks good, then you might survive for a while with proper risk management, but eventually, you will get wiped out Managing risk and tolerating large risk when the time is right Knowing when to put in a certain bet and when to go all-in; in poker, there are some formulas as it relates to correct bet sizing as a percentage of a pot that is in there With trading, the general formula is to risk no more than 1-2 % of your risk capital Patience When playing poker, you are looking for your best hand; eventually, you get a hand that you want to play and you can start betting some of your pot on it The amateur or hobbyist plays for the thrill whereas the professional plays to win In trading, you are waiting for your highest quality setups and you do not want to get involved in the market for the sake of action but only when your edge is present A lot of the time is spent sitting on the hands and doing nothing Self-Control or Awareness Both poker players and traders have to be self-aware of their emotions so that they do not impact their decision-making processes If you are swaying from one polarity to another (angry on one side; excited on the other side) you become vulnerable to going on tilt 3 Things that Traders can learn from Professional Poker Players: Disciplined Money Management  In poker, a player’s main challenge is to stay in the game long enough to have the chance at winning some big pots. To do this, stringent management of their chips is paramount! Going all-in can bring a big winning but it can also get you a quick exit if things don’t go your way. Proper bet sizing is important to stay in the game in the face of a streak of losing hands. The concept of “tilt” in poker describes a state in which sheer frustration with the game takes over and distorts one’s betting If a player were to go on tilt after each losing hand, overjoyed with winning hands, and irritated with mucked hands, they would be relatively easy to read and would be making decisions based on emotions instead of probabilities The goal is to win the game and not the individual hand In trading, a trader’s main job is to manage risk and to stay in the game long enough by cutting losers short and letting winners play out. Trading on tilt arises out of the expectations of a certain outcome; if a trader is not emotionally prepared for the possibility of losing, they will be thrown off by losses. By needing and expecting to win we set ourselves up for the tilt state Let the probabilities play out and accept there will be winning and losing periods The Pareto principle holds true for both these fields; 80% of gains come from 20% of trades or hands Professional poker players know to bet strong and add to their bets when they hold a strong hand Requires a willingness to NOT play  The best poker players know when to hold 'em and when to fold em They don’t make bets when the odds aren’t on their side If a player has a poor hand, they can “muck” it which simply means fold and wait to bet on a better hand Good players know there are times to bet and not to bet; they will bet when the odds are in their favor and when they perceive weakness among other players at their table In trading, you can decide when to bet or not bet and you can also decide how much to bet if you plan on doing so. If a poker player played every single hand they were dealt, over time the odds would catch up with them and they would lose their entire stake You can't win at poker until you master the art and science of not playing Consider the prior market action as cards you are dealt and the current market behaviors representing the new cards being revealed. As a trader, you will want to stand aside if market conditions do not reflect good opportunities as defined in your trading plan. Knowing when to play and how aggressively to play are major elements of success in both professions If you only traded on the days when you have the “odds” in your favor, how would your experience change? How many days would you “muck”? Winning requires knowing who your up against  In poker, the way that you bet will vary greatly based on who you are playing against. You’ll bet differently playing against amateurs at the local casino versus playing the masters against tournament professionals. Successful poker players learn to spot patterns and tells of the players they are up against and will use these as considerations to make betting decisions. In poker, you are always betting against what other people are thinking and trying to get into your opponent's heads Example of Daniel Negreanu and how he gets into the heads of his opponents by talking to them about the hands that he believes they have Subtle tells around the table will tell the poker player it's OK to bluff with a relatively weak hand. Similarly, traders have to learn how to understand the psychology of those who they are trading against, and this is displayed visually on the charts. By understanding who you are up against and identifying when they are “trapped” in the markets, you are able to increase your probabilities of success.  By getting “into the head” of competitors you are able to make better-informed trading decisions. Those that are best in predicting price action are the best at predicting people; the market is effectively social; value is a collective social perception. Poker players and short-term traders need to have an edge and know what it is, but they also have to be able to use real-time judgment as to when to proceed with so-so odds. Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In today’s episode, we are going to be discussing how traders can use meditation to improve their trading and their lives!  You often hear us talking about how important mindset is for trading success and one of the best ways that you can build and maintain a positive mindset is by meditating regularly.  Just like our bodies require an ample amount of rest through sleep, our minds also require a “rest” from the thousands of thoughts we have on a daily basis and meditation gives your mind that rest so that you can remain more calm, focused and productive throughout your day!  What is Meditation?  A tool to manage stress and control reactions to stressful situations  “A practice where an individual uses a technique, such as focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity, to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state”  You observe your thoughts, release them and then return your awareness to a focal point  The act and practice of focusing your awareness on the present moment  What Meditation is not?  It’s not sitting at a pool and relaxing  It’s not going to the gym or getting in the zone Meditation is not relaxing but it IS relaxing  What are the benefits of meditation?  Builds mental health  Prevents mental decline  Increases awareness  Increases alpha wave activity  Increases happiness while reducing negative emotions (helps with depression)  Improves focus, attention, and the ability to work under stress  Improves information processing and decision-making  Improves mental strength, resilience, and emotional intelligence Why Should Traders Consider Meditation?  Lots of emotional strain as a result of monetary gains and losses  Emotions live on thoughts  The cycle traders often fall into is feeling anxious or happy which gets you thinking about money and your emotional state interferes with market analysis as a result Helps to become more relaxed and to bring yourself back to the present when the brain is distracted by emotions  The chief benefit of meditation for traders may be to ground us in the now, allowing us to make decisions based upon present-centered awareness, rather than past and future concerns over profits and losses How to get started with meditation?  Choose a time of day when you will be able to meditate; the best times for traders are shortly after waking up and/or pre-market!  Choose a quiet and comfortable place that you can meditate safely without any noisy distractions Start off with guided meditations to get more comfortable with meditating; you can download apps such as Calm, Headspace or Insight Timer for free to start or use Youtube to find solid choices.  Start with a 5-minute meditation and build this up as you get more comfortable with the practice; ideally, you will get up to 15-20 minutes+ on a daily basis  When you are first starting it is common for your mind to wander; if this occurs, notice your mind wandering and then gently guide yourself back to focusing on your breathing Some of my favs include Peak Performance visualization by Rebecca Smith & Empowered Performance by Shannon Reinard Demko Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Check out the 10 Minute Deep & Powerful Higher Self Guided Meditation on Youtube here Some of Mark's favorite guided meditations on Insight Timer include: Peak Performance visualization by Rebecca Smith & Empowered Performance by Shannon Reinard Demko

Today's episode is a big milestone for us at TRADEPRO Academy as we mark the 50th episode of this podcast! To celebrate, we wanted to do something different, something that you guys have been asking for and we are excited to finally be able to deliver it to you! We recently sat down with one of our most successful TRADEPRO students, Ryker Savage, for a great discussion on his trading journey since finding TRADEPRO Academy, how he uses technology to help him stay on top of his trading psychology and how his lifestyle has changed since finding success trading the futures markets! Ryker originally hit our radars in our morning trading room one day when he commented to the panelists that he had made a sizeable chunk of money on the session and was extremely grateful for the resources and support that we provide to our community! Fast forward a couple of weeks later and we received a notification of a new review posted to our TRADEPRO Academy business page on Google, in which Ryker mentioned that in a few short months he had gone from knowing nothing about day trading to making good money in only a couple of minutes a day. The next time we heard from Ryker, we received an email with a picture of a beautiful beach house attached to it...it turns out that he had used some of the profits he made from trading to invest in a vacation home in the Caribbean...talk about living a TRADEPRO lifestyle! Ryker's journey has been nothing short of remarkable! What is most impressive is how quickly he was able to learn the foundations and concepts that we teach and apply them in the live market environment with great success! But after listening to this episode, you'll understand that this wasn't a fluke or luck by any means! Ryker has committed his entire being to develop his craft and today you'll get some great insight into the mindset and routines of a full-time professional trader. Here is a summary of what we discussed:  Views on money as opportunity and the concept of freedom tickets 03:15 The initial challenges Ryker faced when starting his trading journey 08:30 Transferring risk management skills from a previous career into trading 13:00 Why having trust in yourself is paramount when making risk decisions  16:45 The importance of a positive relationship with risk 19:15 Why Ryker considers himself an adaptive trader 23:13 Using a heart rate monitor to stay on top of mental capital and physiology 25:30 Why Ryker uses virtual reality goggles to perform his technical analysis 30:50 How Ryker determines when to step on it and when to walk away from the screens 34:20 If you are not confident enough to trade your strategy live, what good will sim trading do you? 37:50 Making the decision to scale up the trading account and the process around it 41:47 The "lost capital" approach to prevent being over-protective of capital 47:00 Why managing your expectations and focusing on the process always wins in the long-term 54:00 The lifestyle Ryker gets to enjoy as a full-time trader 60:00 Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast Check out the HeartMath Heart Rate Monitor that Ryker mentioned here

One of the common struggles that most traders face is how to strike the right balance between overtrading and undertrading. In today's episode, we discuss how to define overtrading and undertrading so that you can better understand how each of them can impact your mindset and psychology as well as your trading account. We've got you covered  too because we also speak on how you can identify overtrading and undertrading in real-time and some fixes you can implement to help manage the risk and keep yourself in that fine balance! What is over trading and under trading in reference to? The market conditions High volatility means more trades Less volatility means less trades It’s important to recognize the change in volatility and to adjust accordingly If a market range in the SP500 is 100 points….10 trades isn’t bad If it’s in a 4 point range in the summer… 10 trades is too many Remember - it’s always easy to call it over or under trading after the fact - it’s important to work on identifying it in the real time before it happens Quick Tips on How to Measure volatility: Every asset has its’ own personality and screen time will help you create a more accurate measure of volatility Futures:   overnight ranges - high and lows  (higher number more volatility) Session trading volume Stocks 52 week price range Implied volatility Beta What are the cons of overtrading?  Abandoning the trading plan and trading emotionally  Trading based on “feeling” versus trading based on a tested plan  Eating up any profits with excess commissions  Closing winning trades too early and/placing stops too close to entry > leads to increased number of trades and costs  What are the cons of undertrading?  Staying in a fear focused mindset - protecting capital and could be a sign of a scarcity mindset Constantly missing opportunities which causes FOMO and can get you chasing right when you should be out of the trade  (trick yourself like you’re in mindset) Opportunity cost of your capital, and most importantly YOUR time Putting too much importance on any given trade - puts pressure and stress on having to be right all the time Will say things like “my plan tells me to get in and I didn’t” or “Why didn’t I take that trade?”  Subconscious mind might not believe the plan you have in place is the best plan for you How Do You Identify Overtrading In Real-Time?  Are you outside of your daily limit for trades? Is each trade according to plan? Am I trading the process or based on the result of the last trade?  How to Fix Over Trading: Add another qualifier to your setup Set a finite limit of trades daily  Replay the days of over trading  Journal every single trade with screenshots and full explanations  Accountability Partner How Do You Identify Undertrading In Real-Time?   If you miss two valid setups that you were unable to disqualify then you are likely undertrading the session.  How to Fix Under Trading: Stop thinking so much Market Replays Journal the missed trades Start the session with the smallest size position Entry criteria might be too restrictive  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

In today’s episode, we are going to be identifying some of the reasons why traders have difficulty following their trading plans and offering some tips on how you can effectively follow your plan.  Trading is the hardest easy money you can make and when done right you will be doing a lot of things that are unnatural to you which is one of the reasons that make following your trading plan so difficult!  Before we provide some effective ways to actually follow your plan, let's first peel back the curtain on why we as humans tend to make plans but fail to follow through: Humans are procrastinators by nature - our brains prefer instant rewards to long term payoffs.  The Akrasia Effect - a Latin term coined by Socrates and Aristotle- describes the human tendency of acting against your better judgment. It's when you do one thing even though you know you should do something else - similar to how you know you shouldn't take that trade because it doesn't fit your plan but you still do it anyways! If you cannot tolerate boredom, then you might take boredom trade instead of following your plan to satisfy that short-term need to trade. When you are planning you are doing so in your future self - however, when it comes time to make a decision, you are now in the moment and the brain is thinking about present self not future self and the present self really likes instant gratification, so it will intervene the long-term payoff for the instant fix!  Sometimes when we make plans or even take a step toward achieving them, the anxiety that drove you to create the plan in the first place gets greatly decreased - research shows that planning our goals is almost like actually achieving them- if the subconscious considers the source of anxiety as handled you may lose focus of the real reason for the plan. When you fail to follow through on your plan, the subconscious mind knows the real reason you made those plans and that they are not a good enough reason to actually do the work required to follow through and execute on the plan.  You don't follow through on plans because you don't know how you work best if you’ve been trying to make what other people do fit you. During the planning process, things are static and there is much less stress when info is known and unchanging, whereas when it is time to act in the present moment, you are working with variables that might not be known to you at the time which can cause more stress and anxiety as you look to execute. Now that you are more familiar with some of the reasons that we as humans have difficulty following through on plans, let's focus our attention on the most effective ways to actually follow through and execute your plan: Build a plan that you TRUST fully  Markets don’t follow any rules; when we don’t have rules we go by instinct and instincts don't do well for us in trading!  Following rules can be extremely difficult to do consistently when there is real money on the line. The biggest challenge for new traders is to build a plan that accounts for ALL possible scenarios that can occur during a single session  Having a plan doesn’t mean that you will trust it - how can you trust it? Follow it for at least 90 days and see if it produces positive result Find an Accountability Partner   This is one of the biggest reasons we recommend joining a trading community !  Most people will do whatever it takes to avoid being embarrassed or look like a fool to others; social pressure is a strong force we deal with as humans.  Share your plan with an accountability partner or a friend/family member that will keep you accountable if you do not follow your own plan.  Lifestyle Choices + Diet  How you do one thing is how you do all things!  You need to get into the “trader’s mindset” when trading by eliminating distractions so that you can stay focused!   Determine what your active “working hours” will be and make it a priority to limit distractions during that time  The food you eat and drink should not make you tired and should make you more alert; eat whole foods and hydrate with lots of water.  Encourage Yourself with Positive Self-Talk  The way you speak to yourself is going to determine how well you follow your plan or not!  It takes discipline to do this; pay attention to how you speak to yourself and focus on encouraging yourself to follow the plan and be supportive of yourself if you make a mistake .. you are human after all! Make sure to check out Episode 39 on the topic of Eliminating Negative Self-Talk to Improve Your Trading  Identify the Specific Short-Term Needs that Overshadow your Trading Rules & Brainstorm Constructive Ways of Addressing These Needs  If you tend to overtrade when the market is slower, then you desire stimulation and by creating stimulating activities during the trading day you can avoid unwanted market activity. If you wait for absolute perfection in setups before acting then your short-term needs are that of safety and security and you will not execute unless you "believe" in what your are doing.  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast

Whether you are already consistently profitable or are a breakeven trader struggling to achieve consistent profitability, there will come a time ( or many) in your journey, when you feel that all the effort you are putting into trading is not providing that steady improvement in results that you instinctively know you deserve.  If you’ve been trading for any bit of time and have stopped seeing improvements in your trading or your results have started to “flat line” then you are likely at a plateau in your journey - you will know this to be true because you will almost feel “stuck” with a certain result or lack thereof. Plateaus can be extremely frustrating to deal with so if you are going through one in your current journey, then this episode is meant to help you understand this process so that you can break through it and level up your trading!  So what is a plateau? It's a state of little or no change following a period of activity or progress. As it relates to trading, an example might be a trader that can consistently make $200/day but when they try to increase their daily profit target to say $400/day, they find themselves really struggling to produce similar results.  Or a trader struggling to find consistent profitability that can locate great trades but manages to fumble the trade management leaving them with less than desirable results.  When a trader reaches a plateau, they effectively have two decisions that they can make:  Quit  Develop the mental edge to level up  Let’s break this down in more detail:  When a trader starts their trading journey, they are in it to win it and they tend to see results relatively quickly - these results aren’t necessarily profits at first, but they are signs of improvement - such as learning to identify market structure and planning out trade ideas to seeing those trades playing out as per their analysis.  After some time learning this they will take to sim trading to practice their strategy and that might go well for them too - leading to funding their first live account! The journey up until this point is rewarding because there are steady improvements that the trader can observe which offers further motivation to keep pursuing the goal of consistent profitability.  However after some time in the live markets, the results might not be the same as what they were in the demo because real money is on the line! So now instead of seeing daily improvements and feeling good about the progress, the trader may start to focus on their results (or lack thereof) and get discouraged because they are not making money - in fact, they are losing money and confidence.  This is a normal part of the journey and the unfortunate reality is that a lot of retail traders never really give themselves a real chance at success before deciding to quit at this point. However those that endure this stage are the ones that double down on their efforts and continue to push forward towards their goals regardless of their current results; Those that get frustrated stop working as hard or eventually quit.  This same thing is often seen in athletes that make massive improvements in their performance early on in training or in the active season only to see these improvements slow down or even come to a halt as the season progresses.  Do these athletes quit? No - that’s not even a consideration! Instead, they focus on making small changes that will help them overcome the plateau in order to level up and that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss next!  Steps You Can Take to Break Through a Trading Plateau  Understand the process; improvements and progress are often followed by regressions and plateaus, this is a natural cycle. To break through the plateaus will require some growth and will lead to another period of improvements that will eventually taper off again and lead to another plateau. IF you cannot accept this fact then you might want to reconsider trading!  Do Not Be a Complainer; If you are sitting around and complaining about your circumstances or challenges then you are living in effect of your external environment and giving away control to make the required changes; shift to living at cause and working towards abundance  Your Biggest Improvements Happen When You Are Not Trading: The biggest strides in your journey happen not when you are actually trading but what you do with the time when you are not trading! If you hit a plateau in your trading, then you should be spending time outside of market hours working on your trading plan,studying and reviewing your trading journal to find strengths and weaknesses and inefficiencies that you can optimize to get you to the next level.  Watch The Markets; Just like athletes review game tape to understand their opponents, you should take some time to just watch the markets without actually trading in order to recalibrate and get a pulse on the markets. When there is no skin in the game it affords you the opportunity to observe the market objectively and identify where you might be going wrong in your approach.  Find a Mentor; Just like tiger woods has a driving coach and steph curry has a shooting coach, a mentor can help you overcome trading plateaus by identifying your strengths and weaknesses and working on these  Consistency is KEY - The most important thing in busting through trading plateaus is to create a process and stick to it regardless of the short-term results; when you only focus on the results, you cloud your judgement , instead focus on the process and executing it flawlessly.  Resources Enjoying this podcast? We'd appreciate if you can drop us a rating and review on iTunes here  Connect with our community online: Trade Pro Academy Catch up with our earlier episodes: Mind Over Markets Podcast