Dear friends,
Years ago, I was going through a crisis of losing self esteem and purpose in life. At that time, a book came into my life which shed much light on my problem and gave a method of handling it. The book was What to say when you talk to yourself by Shad Helmstetter.
It said our life experiences are determined by how we talk to ourselves about them and about ourselves. It is not new knowledge to us in India that thoughts make or mar one's destiny. But by introducing the term 'Self talk ' he made it clear that we could chose to think conscious i.e choose our thoughts.
The book has self talks for self esteem, time management, worry etc. An example of his method: a smoker who wants to give up smoking, keeps telling himself, I do not smoke, even when he is in the act of smoking.
Sounds contradictory, but is quite transforming. You should try it.
Like all other methods, this one also is not a one-time solution, because thought habits are deeply entrenched. One has to keep at it, perhaps till the end of his life.
Self talk for Trading
If you have observed yourself, you would have noticed that our thoughts affect our trading performance as well. Like when the market opens and yesterday was a winning day, then I may be complacent and careless. This attitude is the result of my thought, " Oh this is so simple. I won yesterday. I can do it." and jumps in where there is no trade.
When I lose I think, There I am losing again. I'll never make it. These markets are all rigged. What am I good at? Or my broker is cheating me...
Changing our self talk can change our experiences and trading performance.
Below is an attempt to collect thoughts on positive, proactive actions that can help us become better traders, Please contribute. It doesnt matter if it is obvious or said before. Dont think your idea is small or stupid. If you feel it helped you become a better trader or will help, do put it down here.

(Sorry this self talk below is not organized, That we will do later. Because if we wait for something to be perfect, we will never start!
Years ago, I was going through a crisis of losing self esteem and purpose in life. At that time, a book came into my life which shed much light on my problem and gave a method of handling it. The book was What to say when you talk to yourself by Shad Helmstetter.
It said our life experiences are determined by how we talk to ourselves about them and about ourselves. It is not new knowledge to us in India that thoughts make or mar one's destiny. But by introducing the term 'Self talk ' he made it clear that we could chose to think conscious i.e choose our thoughts.
The book has self talks for self esteem, time management, worry etc. An example of his method: a smoker who wants to give up smoking, keeps telling himself, I do not smoke, even when he is in the act of smoking.
Sounds contradictory, but is quite transforming. You should try it.
Like all other methods, this one also is not a one-time solution, because thought habits are deeply entrenched. One has to keep at it, perhaps till the end of his life.
Self talk for Trading
If you have observed yourself, you would have noticed that our thoughts affect our trading performance as well. Like when the market opens and yesterday was a winning day, then I may be complacent and careless. This attitude is the result of my thought, " Oh this is so simple. I won yesterday. I can do it." and jumps in where there is no trade.
When I lose I think, There I am losing again. I'll never make it. These markets are all rigged. What am I good at? Or my broker is cheating me...
Changing our self talk can change our experiences and trading performance.
Below is an attempt to collect thoughts on positive, proactive actions that can help us become better traders, Please contribute. It doesnt matter if it is obvious or said before. Dont think your idea is small or stupid. If you feel it helped you become a better trader or will help, do put it down here.
(Sorry this self talk below is not organized, That we will do later. Because if we wait for something to be perfect, we will never start!
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