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

THE GREEN GIANT

Even the best traders can experience the Deep Freeze. In fact, the better a trader is and the longer he has been successful, the more likely it is that he will face a Deep Freeze experience on occasion. Top professionals in all fields of endeavor experience this phenomenon. An example would be Tiger Woods in a PGA Masters’ Tournament at Augusta, Georgia. He had his eye on his third Green Jacket. If he had won, it would have made him the only golfer to ever win the PGA Masters’ three times in a row, claiming the symbol of being the best. But even one of the most focused athletes in the world can experience deep freeze moments when thrown psychologically off course.

How could this happen to such a consummate professional who is so accustomed to winning and handling stress? This set of expectations is exactly what can undermine the concentration of a winner. When a professional is accustomed to winning, he can be completely thrown off his game when something unexpected happens that puts him at a disadvantage. This is what happened to Tiger. A slight misstep, a tiny loss of concentration that created an unexpected deviation in the layout of a shot resulted in him being less than Tiger. Since the failure to perform at his peak was no longer in Tiger’s mental player’s book, suddenly, he was off his game and off the mark for the third Green Jacket.

Once a professional trader finds himself off his game after a deep freeze experience, he may lose confidence. Unaccustomed ...