The Road to Successful Trading

Holistic Trading
 
From the beginning of the process of developing your trading plan, the concerns for identifying 
your personal goals and preferences are a major factor. If you can tune your personal life with your 
trading activities, this can really help resolve many issues. For example, if you decided to change 
professions so you could spend more time with your family, you must make the effort to make that 
a priority. If you do that, you will see some immediate success in your decision to trade. It is not 
unreasonable to expect a better quality of life if you are realizing more control on how you live your 
life. But more is needed. 
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The subconscious mind has subtle influence over some of our most important characteristics. Years 
of programming and reinforcement can build a strong neural net akin to a knee jerk reaction when 
certain events happen. A trader needs to be able to reach down and change or control those 
conditioned responses that allow doubt, fear and anxiety to emerge and affect conscious behavior.
For example, professional performers, athletes and others who depend on real time performance are 
turning more frequently to special psychological training programs that focus on maintaining the 
proper mental attitude to dominate any fears that may affect performance.
In response to the obvious dearth of any functional strategy to address the important concerns of 
maintaining the proper trading psyche, we started The Disciplined Trader Intensive Program.-
(
www.thedisciplinedtrader.com
). As I am an experienced trader with over 25 years in the business I 
know first hand what wrestling with the proper attitude is all about. Been there….done that 
But what really setup the epiphany was the suddenly obvious fact that my wife, Tisha, has provided 
mental training for success to many of her clients. In fact, she helped me to overcome some of my 
own blind spots. Indeed, once we made that obvious connection, it took us a short while to come up 
with our program to provide traders with the intensive training needed to help overcome the natural 
human weaknesses that make a trader less effective. We fully understood the need to design a 
methodical system to enable a trader to “train the mind” in a disciplined way to handle the stresses 
of trading on a daily basis.
The name “Disciplined Trader Intensive Program” exactly describes the intention of the course. As 
a trader, I know that having a disciplined trading methodology is paramount to success. I also know 
that discipline is the key word and discipline is developed through consistent application. As a 
result, we developed the program to rapidly provide a trader with the tools necessary to address the 
maintaining of the proper trading psyche. We know the system works…if applied in a consistent 
and conscientious manner. We also know that it requires the total buy-in of the trader to make it 
work. But that is up to the trader. Bottom line, The Disciplined Trader Intensive Program can 
provide the tools but it is up to each individual trader to use them properly.
The intensive 10 day online course presents a disciplined program of mental exercises to help 
program subconscious suggestions and to help traders develop the techniques to maintain the 
winning attitude a trader needs on a daily basis. The trader develops the techniques that can be 
employed in the same disciplined manner that the trader uses with the trading system.
While such a program might not be for everyone, traders must not overlook the need to develop 
some sort of system or techniques to help keep the proper attitude and mindset. Maybe it might be 
just as simple as playing golf, lighting incense and repeating a mantra or playing a musical 
instrument, traders need to find a way to keep a positive attitude because there will be dark trading 
days-and that is guaranteed. Indeed, a trader must develop a way to separate ego from the negative 
subconscious emotions that normally come from losing and being wrong.
Many traders feel that the lessons learned about how to stay positive and the total self acceptance of 
responsibility for one’s life has a powerful influence on how they live their daily lives. In fact, some 
say that developing the proper mental attitude is even more important than the money; a very 
existential view but perhaps to be regarded with a bit of cynicism. Bottom line, trading is all about 
the bottom line and whatever it takes to get there should be considered. Having the right mental 
attitude is essential to becoming a consistent winner in just about anything but especially for the 
trader. 
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