Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

DISCARDING THE OLD PATTERN

In the rubble of their old patterns and routines were elements that these old floor traders still needed to retain for success as desk traders. Many of these old routines were necessary to signal their brains that they were ready to make money in the markets. For example, they needed to keep getting up at the same time each morning and dressing professionally for work by putting on a trading jacket and tie. These disciplines are harder to follow when you are facing a computer monitor and not a group of your peers. Nevertheless, they are important anchors. And these traders also needed to have the same routine of following the market.

The part of their routine that they were not changing was the decision-making process. They were trying to find opportunity where there was none because the previous rules no longer applied. Would they have the physical stamina, the self-confidence, the capital, the psychological toughness, and the flexibility to discard that old pattern, create a new one, and survive long enough to understand the new set of trading rules? Some did and some did not. What was the difference? The determining factor is the courage to stay flexible, to push the boundaries of those old patterns and to see things in new and unique ways.