Negative thoughts.

I used to be a fairly handy golfer.  It was my profession before this.  You might be surprised how much golf and sports psychology crosses over into trading and gambling.  Determination, confidence, over-confience, fear.. self esteem.  There's plenty of material to be going on with.  This post is about the power of negative thoughts though.

When I used to teach golf, one of the most important psychological parts of the game is the pre-shot routine.  A short period of time spent by the player before each shot, going through the same physical and mental routine every time.  To the amateur this always looked like a waste of time, why bother actually standing behind the ball picturing actively where you want it to go ?  Answer - because it beats thinking about where you don't want it to go.

We had a saying - thinking about where you dont want to hit the ball, will almost certainly result in you hitting it there.  Thinking about where you do want the ball to go, allows it to happen.

Look at how powerful those negative thoughts are.  They almost guarantee a bad result, where  positive thinking only allows something to happen.  The same holds true in most walks of life.  I'm definitely not qualified to give any scientific thoughts on why, though I intend to hit amazon for some books on quantum fields and how consciousness affects things very soon.  A more down to earth reason might be that negative thoughts can lead to tension of muscles and of thought.  A loss of confidence in yourself and thus the results you feared appear before you.

I've lost track of the number of times I've begun my day feeling good about life and the trading day ahead and gone on to produce brilliant results.  The opposite is also true for when I'm feeling bad.  I have to feel the probability of doing well is against me somehow when I'm not feeling good about trading.  Question is how do we stop the negative thoughts ?

I'm no guru, so what you are going to get is from my own personal experience.  And perhaps I should take my own advice on this more, because it always seems to work for me.  I've mentioned in the past I like to head out for a walk or some exercise before trading... It's not just about staying fit, it's about collecting my thoughts and working on feeling calm and positive about the day ahead. 

I think as clearly as I can about how I want to trade, how calm I'm going to be yet how instinctual my trading is at the same time.  How patient I'm going to stay through the entire session and how simple following my plan is.  As much as possible I try to carry these thoughts with me through to the start of work. 

It's visualising exactly how you want to be and do things, and it makes a difference.  It re-enforces good positive thinking, it becomes habitual.  Just as visualising a golf swing strengthens muscle memory, the same occurs for any action... including trading and gambling oddly enough.   

Comments

[John]

So true about the pre-shot routine thing. " Oh christ, look at that bunker".... " Why did I hit it in there?". I've asked myself that many a time.

Positive thinking is absolutely the way forward.

Hope you're enjoying your time off!

[Matt]

Thanks John, I'm enjoying it very much, back on board properly early March. I have a lot of reading to catch up on!

[Caravaggio]

Hi, I have discussed your piece on a comment on my blog. Thought you may be interested.
(http://the3500.wordpress.com/2007/02/23/conditioning-optimal-trader-behaviour-iii/#comment-421):

After reading this article about trading and the mind game in golf (http://www.punt.com/2007/02/negative_though.html), for example, I sympathise with the notion that focussing on the sand traps, or water hazards, can result in the player hitting just what they are trying to avoid. It’s just as you say about driving to where your eyes are focussing. But I think the analogy doesn’t map over to trading very well. I believe it can actually be productive to think through all the bad things that can happen before placing a trade, and to continue to think about the potential disasters that may be lurking around the corner when the trade is live. In this sense, I don’t believe ‘pitfall-thinking’ influences the outcome of the trade in a negative way, but I surely wouldn’t take this approach before setting out on a driving journey, or before I entered in to a sporting contest, because the pay-off would most likely be negative. I realise I am often pre-occupied with negative thoughts when it comes to trading, but I think if they are framed in the right way, and used in a correct context, they can be just as powerful as positive thoughts, which I am also trying to cultivate.