TRADING PSYCHOLOGY MENTAL IMAGES
Our brain starts recording everything that happens around us, through the use of our senses, from the day we are born. In the seminars I do, I use an instrument called “psycho-galvanometer”, a device that determines the changes in the electrical resistance in a person’s skin in response to emotional stimuli. It records electrical reactions to mental images and it is a useful exercise as it transposes mental images from our imaginary world to the real world.
Te energy generated by mental images can either be negative or positive. Generally a negative mental image is connected to a negative emotion or to pain, and a positive image is linked to positive emotions and pleasure. A negative image provokes contraction, closure and makes us increase the way we filter the information we receive. It can sometimes have strong effects on our mind and body such as stress and mental illnesses. A positive mental image increases our perception and acts as a magnet attracting information, increasing our sense of curiosity as well as our self-esteem.
One of the objectives of a trader should be to cancel or reduce negative emotions created by the negative images which have been accumulated over the years.
It has been proven that our mind doesn’t make the difference between real images and mental images. Tis is why we wake up crying or sweating aſter a bad dream. Because we believed that our mental images during the dream were real. Te
following exercise is a very powerful technique to change our beliefs. Although it might sound like “positive thinking” it actually acts at a deeper level. Tis visualization technique is regularly used by sports professionals to improve their performance.
Exercise 2: Mental Images
Imagine your reach an important trading goal, such as earning 500.000 dollars in a year. Try to visualize this, emotions
including all the you will go through
when this happens. Can you see yourself totally free and winning, with all the necessary knowledge and strategies you need to reach this 500.000 dollars of profit per year?
You will probably have the feeling that
it is unreal. Or you might
even not be able to imagine this because you believe you just can’t do it. This is the perfect example of a limitative belief. If you can’t even imagine it in your mind, or you feel negative emotions when you think about it, then such a belief or emotion will have negative effects on your trading capabilities. If you find it difficult to imagine this, ask yourself why. What is the idea or the belief that prevents you from imagining this sensation of freedom and success? Find which belief or mental image is blocking you.
When you start defining and designing your trading plan, it will be fundamental to cancel or reduce all the limitative beliefs, and replace them with positive ones.
FX HOW TO OVERCOME PAIN
As all living organisms, humans have developed some survival mechanisms against pain. If you put your hand in the fire, your body will react unconsciously and you will pull your hand out. Tis is what we call the defensive mechanism against pain, it is an unconscious reaction.
We have also created mental defensive mechanisms, which are more complicated. Teir main function is to alter our perception. Tey work on two levels.
Rational Level
We tend to justify our failures with external reasons. A lot of people do this unconsciously. When they are wrong or made a serious mistake, they start blaming external factors or other people for their error. And they are convincing themselves that they didn’t make a mistake. Tis is protection mechanism to avoid pain. In trading, it is the same. Most traders with negative results tend to justify their actions and look for external reasons for their mistakes. Tey won’t accept that they are fully responsible for their failure.
Conscious Level
We focus only on specific information and ignore all other surrounding facts. Te more we lose in trading, the more we get dependent on this mechanism. If we lose all our money, we will start to see details from the environment that we were not able to see before. It
FX TRADER MAGAZINE April - June 2019 33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61
