“Mental Fitness for Traders” Series - Article 6

I See The Future And The Successful Trader Is Me!

by Norman Hallett, former CTA/Trader

Believe it or not, it’s true what they say … 

Visualizing your future the way you want it, is much more likely to make that future a reality.

I’m a “doubter” by nature and this notion of visualizing didn’t really make much sense to me when I heard about it the first hundred times.

I mean, come on! 

Sit in a quiet place and wish and hope and pray and all your dreams will come true?  I think not. That’s what my mathematician brain told me (University of Cincinnati, 1973, BA Mathematics).

Then I met a subconscious trainer (whom I later married), who sat me down and stated, “Thoughts are things.” 

OK, what kind of things?

I’ve seen Kreskin and other guys bending spoons with their thoughts… it that what she means?

Rather than give you the entire exchange of words (I don’t know that I remember all of them, as I was falling in love while I was listening), I’ll give you the capsule.

According to her, there is this stream of consciousness somewhere up there that you can plug into, and then, by directing your thoughts, you can harness this consciousness somehow to get what you want (as long  as what you want is positive… you can’t wish someone a losing trade!).

This, combined with the notion that time, as we know it, is not linear, we can affect the future from the present through this universal consciousness!

That’s all I’ll say about that.

Excuse me while I hug a tree…

I’m back.

I don’t know that I understand all of this, let alone believe it, but I’ll tell you one thing I DO KNOW…

If you get your brain into an alpha brain wave state and you tell yourself (of have someone else suggest to you) what you’d like to happen in the future, say, the picture of you as a successful trader… you WILL head in the direction of that picture you’ve created in your head.

At least that’s what happened to me, and just about every successful trader I know.

There are different ways to visualize. During a quiet time (I know You can’t imagine any quiet time… so start while seated in the bathroom), …

Now, just see yourself living the “Life of Riley” (am I showing my age. … for those of you that don’t recognize that phase, it means “the good life) and having people around you recognize you as that successful trader whom everybody is talking about. 

You can move up the effectiveness ladder (get off the pot?) as you get used to the notion of visualization and get more and more affective with your thinking, but the idea is to get started.

Once you start creating pictures of the money-bulging-pocketed-successful-trader-you, you will actually become less likely to allow your emotions to lead you to trading mistakes… because…

“doing the wrong thing”, like pulling your stops when the market comes close to them, or not taking your profit when your system tells you to, becomes inconsistent with your picture of who you are.

Eventually, if you keep up your visualizations, you become that picture.

Now THAT makes sense!

**Norman Hallett spent 21 years as a successful trader and CTA before starting Subconscious Training Corporation. His company developed TradingMind Software, the industries leading mental/emotional training tool for traders who understand the importance of being disciplined and focused in their trading.