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

Chapter 30

Drill to Focus

The ability to focus in the midst of turmoil and emotional stress is an essential in performance excellence for athletes and traders. However, a major obstacle to focus is the infinite distractions that lie in wait like saboteurs. For a world-class gymnast performing in front of a live audience of thousands and a television audience of billions, the distractions tugging at his performance level are no more overwhelming than the distractions surrounding a trader who is making trading decisions that could ultimately bankrupt him.

Like the gymnast, the trader is struggling with the powerful emotions of fear and anticipation that accompany performance. And like the competition floor in gymnastics, the trading arena comes with its own fair share of environmental distractions as well. The trader must contend with phone calls, information overload, family and friends who interrupt, the refrigerator that beckons, and that incessant, loud, nagging inner voice chatter that defines and second guesses every action or decision.

One of the most demanding of all the Olympic competitions is the men’s all-around gymnastic event. Paul Hamm, an American gymnast, was leading in the fourth rotation of the competition when he missed his dismount from the vault and nearly plowed into the judges. This mistake dropped him to 12th place in the competition. Feeling that he had nothing to lose, he simply focused on his performance on the remaining apparatus and completed the final ...