First I want to compare what is going on with today’s human behavior versus the 1920’s or 1800’s. In the 1800’s things were a lot simpler, life moved a lot slower when it comes to human behavior. In today’s world things have become much more complicated and simply busy.
I have several of those friends who will just go out and spent fifteen minutes on one task, five to ten on another and they are constantly interrupted by their phone. Things are constantly being imputed into their minds then they have 15 or 20 or even 40 tasks that need to be done and none of them are complete.
This will eventually create stress because you have all of these tasks that need to be completed and you don’t feel like you are accomplishing anything and you don’t feel productive. This will lead to an overload which is similar to what a computer system does when you overload it with hundreds of browser tabs or a lot of different software. The computer will freeze and that is what happens with our brains when we start taking on so many different things and trying to make so many different decisions, like the computer our brains get overwhelmed.
This is one of the reasons why IPads and phones do not allow to do multiple things at once or if you open up to many browser tabs the devices will tell you to close the tabs. This is also why you have different apps for things such as weather and social media but they are usually processing one thing at a time and that is what creates a little more stability in those types of devices.
What does it mean for you?
There is something that you can do to set up where you do not have to make decisions when it comes to your daily life. Taking myself for example in terms of creating videos on YouTube, I prefer to go with the same type of outfit or clothing when I am making my videos I don’t want to have to think about what I am going to wear. This way when I know I am going to film some videos I go into my closet and choose between the light shirt and dark one.
This just simplifies the decision making process for me. Some people may even pick one day and create their meal plan for the week ahead of time that way when it comes to lunch time on Wednesday you already know what you are going to eat. You either already have your meal prepared, or you at least have the groceries to prepare the meal. This will again eliminate the decision making process.
The more of these decisions that you can eliminate, the less stress you will have to deal with. For example, one of my buddies who does a lot of coaching and seminars will only wear khaki shorts and a black shirt so if he is going for five days, he will choose five black shirts and five khaki shorts and then he heads out on his trip. That is pretty much all that is in his closet, he wears it every single day. That is just one of the ways he simplifies his decision making process.
What does it have to do with trading?
You need to simplify your decision process in terms of trading. What most traders will do especially when they are just starting out is they will have all of these indicators coming into their head and then they get stuck with all of these decisions while trying to compute all of the data. While trying to decide which indicator is the important one and you don’t know because there are so many things that are influencing your decision.
Instead you should simplify your decision making process. That way when you get the one particular signal, you either get in or you get out. You have to make it as simple as possible otherwise you will get stress built up and then you will wonder if you made the right decision. There will be a lot of doubt in the decisions that you do make.
If you stick to one trading system than you will know whether or not it works. If the system doesn’t work consistently than you need to change things up and try something differently. You have to be able to realize that and make some changes to what you are doing.
Final Thoughts
When you apply this to your everyday life and not just your trading, you will have a much more level playing field and you will be much more relaxed when you are doing your trading.
