5 Tips For Exercising Mindfulness

Every successful trader continuously refines every detail in order to bring the performances to next level. Remember that becoming consistently profitable is no accident but it’s the consequence of the right education, dedication and discipline. Those three key ingredients come only as a result of a unique source. That is hard work. If you aren’t willing to accept that, I encourage you to stay away from this career.

With that said, knowing where to focus the core of this effort is as much important to not waste any of the limited most precious resource we possess, which is simply, time. That is why I want to focus on the best practices for helping every trader getting to the level of emotional composure required to ultimately achieve the finest results, faster and more consistently.

Here is the list of the five ways that I suggest you to introduce as daily habits for improving results and mindfulness on a regular basis:

• Writing down your emotional state after each closed trade. Whether you’re too much excited because of a great result or highly irritated due to a big loss, that’s the best time to stop for a minute and let the mind processing it. Every extreme feeling has to be recognized and it should be the best wake-up call for preventing you to jump into the next trade. It’s so evident that trading while being into an acute state of the mind can be dangerous and stop doing so is a wise idea;
• Recording yourself while trading is the most effective way to review your decision-making process, in my opinion. Just use a free software like OBS Studio, start recording your session before the market opens, so that you can forget about it and watch it later, once you’re done trading for the day. It’s amazing how much room for improvement you can get just watching yourself while being immersed into the actual job;
• Warming up with meditation is a great form of habit in order to improve self-awareness. Whether it is yoga or just positive thinking while deep breathing, let’s begin each day in the most intimately connected form, within your inner self. Just find your own most effective way to do it and make it your regular routine;
• Practicing regular work-out sessions to help your body being healthy and ready to respond to every outside stimulus is important as well. It is not mandatory to go to the gym every day, there are a lot of great exercises you can do by yourself in the comfort of your home. Just stop finding excuses and start doing it regularly;
• Paying attention to your nutrition also counts. Personally, I’m trading from Italy and this means my trading day starts in the early afternoon, around 2PM when I begin screening pre-market. Since I need to be at the best of my physical condition, I do have lunch way sooner than I used to (around 11AM). I’m not telling you to be as extreme as I am being but at least to pay attention at what and how much you eat before start working.

Bottom line is, your performances as a trader can be highly impacted by the level of attention you’re able to put into it. Being mindful of that is the first step towards a more conscientious approach to trading.

See you in chat-room!

Trade safe,

Roberto Barbaro