Prop Training Section 8 - Psycho Cybernetics

Psycho Cybernetics

You cannot become a successful trader without first visualizing yourself as a successful trader. Read all the trading books you want. That is not enough. The mind is a very powerful tool. It has been scientifically proven that the nervous system cannot differentiate external stimuli from stimuli imagined by the mind. If you were to imagine that you were in a blizzard stark naked you would feel a chill. Some would actually get goose bumps.

The mind has a built in system to help us achieve desired results. It operates on a subconscious level. When we develop detailed mental images of how we would like to perform the mind’s Automated Success Mechanism (ASM) will ensure that we take the necessary steps to reach our desired results. It is analogous to a golfer closing their eyes prior to taking a shot and visualizing their swing and seeing the ball land on the green. Then when the golfer swings their nervous system dictates to each muscle group how to act in concert to achieve the desired result. There has been extensive scientific research on this approach during the last 40 years and it has been strongly validated.

Each day you should find some time to sit quietly and develop a mental picture of yourself trading successfully. A simple, vividly imagined picture of successful achievement can be sufficient to block out fears, insecurities, and worries. A full scale mental rehearsal is even more powerful. You should develop a detailed mental image of yourself sitting at the trading desk. The more detail the better. You should then spend some time visualizing a specific stock making a specific kind of move. You should be visualizing how you would trade the move. What kinds of orders you will be entering. You should visualize yourself calmly evaluating the information as it is presented to you. What the prints look like. What the bids and offers are doing. What the chart looks like. You should visualize how much money you will make.

It is important during your training to visualize each of Our Fundamentals. These seven principles are the key to you becoming a successful trader. Each morning when you first arrive spend ten minutes visualizing them.

Visualization Example 1

Our Fundamentals
1) Proper Preparation—visualize yourself reviewing all of the stories on Briefing. Picking stocks that will be In Play for the day. Filling out the Stock Data Sheet.
2) Hard Work—visualize yourself spending time watching a stock trade. You are learning the different significant price levels. You are setting price alerts
3) Patience—visualize yourself waiting for a stock to get to a significant price level. In your mind review the significant price levels for several stocks. See yourself waiting patiently waiting for the setups you expect to materialize.
4) A Detailed Trading Plan—visualize yourself developing a detailed trading plan. The type of orders you will use to open your position. The various triggers that may you cause you to take profits or increase your position size.
5) Discipline—visualize yourself executing your trading plan. Buying only when your plan dictates a buy. Hitting the bids when the position moves against you. You have the feeling of an unemotional robot just executing your trading plan.
6) Contribution—visualize yourself sharing important levels in the stocks you are trading. You call out an Unusual Hold on the Bid, an intraday support/resistance level, and the intraday high.
7) Review your best Trades—visualize a successful trade. A trade that was profitable. Visualize how the stock moved. Where you bought and sold stock. Visualize making slight adjustments in order to improve your results.

Visualization Example 2

Visualize yourself as a successful trader. How you will feel, act, dress, and speak to others as a confident profitable trader. Where will you live? How will you spend your free time? Where will you travel? What will you do with the large sums of money that you will earn? If you find it difficult to visualize these things try the following: imagine yourself sitting in a seat in a movie theatre. The projector begins to roll and you see yourself up on the screen. The movie is about your future self.

Visualization Example 3

Visualize your trading day. Waking, preparing for the trading day, contributing your best ideas, confident that you have developed the skills to pick stocks that will be profitable to trade. Visualize trading The Open successfully. Visualize how you will constructively use your time from 11-3. Visualize relaxing during your lunch enjoying your food and knowing that you are receiving nourishment that will allow you to focus on making profitable trades later in the day. Visualize the Close. How a stock in the last hour will pick a direction and trend that way for the final sixty minutes. Then see the image of your screen at the end of the day. The money that you have made and the satisfaction you feel from having harnessed your abilities to achieve a desired goal.

Visualization Example 4

Visualize a specific trading scenario. What does the Box look like? What do the prints look like? Imagine yourself entering your order to open your position. Gather more information from the Box. Share information about the stock with the desk. As you receive further confirmation about the strength of the stock add to your position. Visualize what the stock will look like as the stock moves in your favor. You see the buyer step up. He absorbs some stock then it continues to move higher. Imagine your feeling of calm as you feel confidence that you’re executing your trading plan. Imagine that you are absorbing all of the relevant information on your screen. You are seeing the Box/Inside Market, the Prints, The Futures and the chart. You see the stock reach your first target with very little resistance. You sell some of your stock. As it moves easily through this point you buy the shares back that you have sold as the stock continues to move higher. The buyer raises his bid and the stock continues its Upmove. Finally, a large seller emerges so you sell your position. You have a feeling of satisfaction that you executed on your well thought out trading plan.

SUMMARY

The human mind has an Automated Success Mechanism. The ASM works on a subconscious level. It is far more powerful than will power or a conscious effort. If your visualization is detailed enough and vivid enough your nervous system will not know the difference—it is the equivalent of an actual experience. Imagine yourself acting in the desired way. Don’t worry that you didn’t act this way in the past, and don’t challenge yourself to act a certain way tomorrow. In time your nervous system will make the necessary corrections.