Even if you think the plot of the film Limitless is way over the top, you have to admit it raises an interesting question about the power of the brain. In the film, the mysterious drug NZT allows struggling author Eddie Mora to create immense wealth from the stock market in matter of days.
What can your brain really do?
Making a lot of money quickly in the market zeros in on what many traders perhaps dream about doing, or rather, dream about what their brain maybe could be capable of doing - miraculously having the mixture of intuition, analytic skill, technical skill, industry tips and knowledge, and emotional control to maximize every opportunity in the market for huge, almost instantaneous gains.
So can the brain be retrained for improved performance trading the markets? Are there ways we can improve our brain functioning, train it most effectively to master new skills? What would the skills or emotional control be needed to succeed as a online trader and investor?
If you've ever tried to be successful trading the stock market, you'll know there is a lot to learn. Whatever type of trading you choose, there is a steep learning curve. Finding the balance of aggression, patience, skill, timing, money managed is a real challenge. There are lots of unscrupulous market makers, tip-sheets and newsletter publishers that are willing to take your money for advice or education, without any guarantee of actual performance. Before your either trade away your precious capital or give up discouraged you need to develop a personal edge that can at least keep you in the game until you learn enough to make money.
How do you create your personal edge?
Many wise traders suggest that the thing that most novice traders underestimate is the importance of trading psychology. Basically, the ability to handle our emotions as we trade.
And trading is all about emotion. Think about the most recent trade you closed out. Did you win? Did you lose? How much did you win? How did you feel about winning that? Satisfied? If you lost, did you feel good about that. Or were you kicking yourself for doing something wrong? Trading is an emotional game. Mastering your emotions is just as essential to creating a consistent profit as mastering the type of market you are in or the technical or fundamental skillset you have committed to learn in order to make a profit.
Recent developments in the field of neuroscience suggest that the brain is a lot more able to reconfigure itself to work in new ways than previously thought. The term for this ability is neuro-plasticity. Scientists believe that the neuronal cells actually physically reconfigure themselves, gradually even taking over different brain areas as new skills are developed. The ability of the brain to reprogram itself is both more powerful and more flexible than previously thought.
In trading an understanding of how our brain works can help enormously when we are presented with real money trading decisions.
Decisions like: I've entered a trade, and made 5% profit in 3 days. I really want to make money, but actually 5% in three days has exceeded my target profit for this trade. Do I sell? Sometimes these decisions need to be made in seconds. Especially if you are a leveraged day trader watching 1 minute stock charts.
Retraining your brain to interpret and learn from the intense emotions that trading your own money creates is a crucial skill if you are to succeed at at making money long term, and holding on to money you've already made.
Detail rich, annotated technical analysis diagrams using state of the art charting platforms from Finviz or top rated trading platform ThinkorSwim Desktop will accompany almost all posts of real money trades. Here's an example annoted sell chart from ThinkorSwim from a recent EMC short trade.
The explanations of these charts will focus not only on the technical reasons to trade, but the emotions the trader might be experiences and the techniques used to handle them. Deeper emotional issues will be covered more in depth in posts like Taming the Greed Monster .
Lets get you started.
At the left are a list of topics. Where a stock symbol appears, there is either a real money trade commentary or a link to an article or commentary about that stock. There is also a chronological listing of posts, so you can see history of successful and unsuccessful trades.
Train your Brain to Trade!
Peter J Hill
March 2011
What can your brain really do?
Making a lot of money quickly in the market zeros in on what many traders perhaps dream about doing, or rather, dream about what their brain maybe could be capable of doing - miraculously having the mixture of intuition, analytic skill, technical skill, industry tips and knowledge, and emotional control to maximize every opportunity in the market for huge, almost instantaneous gains.
So can the brain be retrained for improved performance trading the markets? Are there ways we can improve our brain functioning, train it most effectively to master new skills? What would the skills or emotional control be needed to succeed as a online trader and investor?
If you've ever tried to be successful trading the stock market, you'll know there is a lot to learn. Whatever type of trading you choose, there is a steep learning curve. Finding the balance of aggression, patience, skill, timing, money managed is a real challenge. There are lots of unscrupulous market makers, tip-sheets and newsletter publishers that are willing to take your money for advice or education, without any guarantee of actual performance. Before your either trade away your precious capital or give up discouraged you need to develop a personal edge that can at least keep you in the game until you learn enough to make money.
How do you create your personal edge?
Many wise traders suggest that the thing that most novice traders underestimate is the importance of trading psychology. Basically, the ability to handle our emotions as we trade.
And trading is all about emotion. Think about the most recent trade you closed out. Did you win? Did you lose? How much did you win? How did you feel about winning that? Satisfied? If you lost, did you feel good about that. Or were you kicking yourself for doing something wrong? Trading is an emotional game. Mastering your emotions is just as essential to creating a consistent profit as mastering the type of market you are in or the technical or fundamental skillset you have committed to learn in order to make a profit.
Recent developments in the field of neuroscience suggest that the brain is a lot more able to reconfigure itself to work in new ways than previously thought. The term for this ability is neuro-plasticity. Scientists believe that the neuronal cells actually physically reconfigure themselves, gradually even taking over different brain areas as new skills are developed. The ability of the brain to reprogram itself is both more powerful and more flexible than previously thought.
In trading an understanding of how our brain works can help enormously when we are presented with real money trading decisions.
Decisions like: I've entered a trade, and made 5% profit in 3 days. I really want to make money, but actually 5% in three days has exceeded my target profit for this trade. Do I sell? Sometimes these decisions need to be made in seconds. Especially if you are a leveraged day trader watching 1 minute stock charts.
Retraining your brain to interpret and learn from the intense emotions that trading your own money creates is a crucial skill if you are to succeed at at making money long term, and holding on to money you've already made.
What you'll see at Neurotrade.
Neurotrade is dedicated to the emotional mastery of trading. It's like the 'Inner Game' of trading. On this blog, you'll not only see real money, real emotion trades with technical buy, hold and sell analysis posted near real time on the blog and via @Neurotrader on Twitter, but tips and concrete techniques on the emotional mastery of trading using these breakthroughs in neuroscience.
Detail rich, annotated technical analysis diagrams using state of the art charting platforms from Finviz or top rated trading platform ThinkorSwim Desktop will accompany almost all posts of real money trades. Here's an example annoted sell chart from ThinkorSwim from a recent EMC short trade.
The explanations of these charts will focus not only on the technical reasons to trade, but the emotions the trader might be experiences and the techniques used to handle them. Deeper emotional issues will be covered more in depth in posts like Taming the Greed Monster .
Lets get you started.
At the left are a list of topics. Where a stock symbol appears, there is either a real money trade commentary or a link to an article or commentary about that stock. There is also a chronological listing of posts, so you can see history of successful and unsuccessful trades.
Train your Brain to Trade!
Peter J Hill
March 2011
