Getting Consistent - A Secret To Consistent Profits

Are you now consistently making the same choice and decision that the world’s best traders make every time they trade? The choice and decision being “I am a profitable trader”.

Review the 5 minute routine described in the article of June 22, 2006 entitled “Be a Profitable Trader – 5 Minutes Daily Conditioning”.

Practice the 5 minute routine 3 times a day during the week. After a few days of practice, install a trigger so you can trigger yourself instantly (in 1 second or less) to CONSISTENTLY make the same decision every time you trade. For directions on how to install a trigger, review the June 29, 2006 article entitled “Profitable Financial Trading In 1 Second A Day”.

These are some of the money making secrets of the best traders in the world. I would guess that 90% of investors and traders never heard of these secrets. No wonder 90% of investors and traders lose all the money in their account, some doing it within 4 months of opening their account.

We’ll chat again July 5, 2006 next week after the holiday weekend…

Raymond T. Lee
My eMini Trading Website
eMail me Comments

Profitable Financial Trading In 1 Second A Day

Do you have 1 second a day to stack the odds in your own favor of getting profits from financial trading? Do you day trade emini futures and have "no time" for trading psychology? Do you swing trade or position trade stocks and have "no time" due to intense focus on economic news or chart patterns?

In the Thursday June 22, 2006 blog article (entitled "Be a Profitable Trader - 5 Minute Daily Conditioning") I described a method of conditioning yourself for success as a profitable trader. That method is powerful and long lasting. It takes less than 5 minutes in total to do it 3 times a day.

After you have practiced that 5 minute method for a few days, you're ready for a shortcut to it that takes less than 1 second to work!

The shortcut is based on the same principles as macros on your computer. First you write out in long form what you want your computer to do. Second you link that long form to a shortcut, either an icon or a keystroke.

The shortcut I am talking about is called an anchor or trigger or some other cryptic name in literature on psychology.

The seminal work on this was done by Ivan Pavlov in Russia. He worked with dogs. He noticed that dogs salivate when he put food in front of them. He then rang a bell every time he put food in front of them while they were salivating. Later, he noticed that he could get the dogs to salivate by just ringing the same bell even without putting any food in front of the dogs.

After you have well-conditioned yourself to think of yourself as a Profitable Trader, then you can install a macro that triggers you into thinking of yourself as a Profitable Trader. The macro works in 1 second!

You can use anything for the trigger(macro). Some things work better than others. There's lots of literature on this in psychology books. For example you can use:

(1) an image on your computer screen
(2) the sound of your fingers snapping
(3) a poke on a body part (your own body!)

Try it. While going through the 5 minute exercise referred to in the June 22, 2006 blog entry, activate the trigger of your choice. While doing that 5 minute exercise, you need to get yourself into a highly emotional state for the trigger to get installed properly. Do it 10 times in a row and you should have it installed.

If the trigger (macro) ever gets corrupted, you'll need to re-install it. Same thing happens on your computer, right?

This is another success secret of the best traders in the world -- using a trigger (macro) to get into a enabling emotional state before trading.

We'll chat again soon ...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

Let Winning Trades Grow Like The Best Traders In The World

In the June 22, 2006 article (entitled "Be a Profitable Trader - 5 Minute Daily Conditioning") in this Blog I said that the first step to becoming a profitable trader is to choose and decide to do so. I described a method of conditioning yourself to consistently make that choice and decision.

Today, I want to elaborate on the third step of that method. The third step is to consider the pleasure you would experience in the present and the future if you did make this decision. Do this for 30 seconds or longer. Imagine yourself getting a string of winning trades in your brokerage account (stocks, options, emini market average futures, pork belly futures, orange juice futures... whatever). Notice how you feel as you do that.

Yesterday, I said to limit the time spent in considering the pain of NOT making the choice and decision of "I am a profitable trader".

Conversely, DO LINGER when considering the pleasure of making the choice and decision that "I am a profitable trader". DO spend as much time as you want on remembering or imagining the pleasure.

Magnify, exaggerate and enlarge the pleasure you remember or imagine experiencing when you get a number of consecutive winning trades.

What I learned from the success gurus who coach the best traders in the world is that whatever you focus on is what you will manifest in your life. So do focus, linger, and spend time in feeling the pleasure of having chosen and having decided on the thought that "I am a profitable trader".

That's how the best traders in the world enable themselves to let their profits run. That's regardless of whether they trade emini S&P's, pork bellies, IBM or Naked Puts.

We'll chat some more tomorrow...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

Limit Losses Like The Best Traders In The World

Refer back to the June 22, 2006 article (entitled "Be a Profitable Trader - 5 Minute Daily Conditioning") in this Blog.

Whether you trade emini futures, IBM, MSFT, or exotic option combinations, the First Step that is crucial to becoming a profitable trader is to decide, make a choice, that "I am a profitable trader".

In the June 22, 2006 article in this Blog, I described how to condition yourself so that you consistently make that decision.

Yesterday, I elaborated on the first action item in conditioning.

The second action item in conditioning is to consider the pain you have experienced before because you have not consistently thought of yourself as a profitable trader. Imagine experiencing that again in the present and future. Do this for 30 seconds. Notice how you feel as you do that.

Today, I want to point out and emphasize that you must limit the time you spend on the second action item.

Do not dwell on the pain. Limit the time you spend noticing the pain to 30 seconds or less.

World class "success gurus" with whom I have studied all say that you get more in your life of what you focus on. So if you keep focusing on the pain of losses, then you'll get more losses. To be a profitable trader, you have to get wins that are larger and/or more frequent than losses. Therefore, limit the time you spend on thinking about losses.

That's the way the best traders in the world limit losses.

This second action step is necessary when you first begin to condition yourself to consistently decided to be a profitable trader. It's also necessary when you need to refresh the conditioning. But in a future blog, I'll show you how to short cut your conditioning so that you "skip" this step.

We'll chat about more pleasant stuff tomorrow...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

How To Be a Profitable Trader Starting Wherever You Are

Continuing from the June 22, 2006 Blog article (entitled "Be a Profitable Trader - 5 Minute Daily Conditioning"), what if you feel uncomfortable with the statement:

"FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, I AM A PROFITABLE TRADER".

What if that statement alone shuts you down and prevents you from even starting to doing anything to be a profitable trader?

You can use the psychological method in this article to get comfortable. Remember, 80% or more of what you need to succeed as a profitable financial trader is psychological/metaphysical.

You need to start with defining "Profitable Trader" in a way that you can easily attain success in the short term. For example, you might define it as "someone who makes $10 per week net".

Second, GRADUALLY enlarge the definition. By that I mean if you defined "Profitable" to mean $10 per week, make it $100 as soon as you attain $10. Then as you attain $100, increase it to $200, etc.

Use feedback from your own performance to DECIDE (i.e. choose) on the next number larger. Make the next number however larger you feel comfortable making it.

Third, CONTINUOUSLY enlarge the definition without stopping. There's no end until you DECIDE to stop enlarging your definition of "Profitable".

What I learned from the world's best traders & their trading coaches is that what's effective is to start wherever you are, even if it's a negative number. A negative number would be where you are today if you just went through a losing streak. Make success easy, not difficult. Then make gradual and continuous small improvements. That's the principle of Kaizen business gurus sometimes preach.

More about this tomorrow...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

Financial Trading Profits From Resting

Friday, June 23, 2006

Have you read the book Market Wizards? It's a book in which extraordinary traders and investors are profiled, one per chapter. There's several book in the Market Wizards book series.

I studied for a few years with one of the Market Wizards profiled in the first book of the Market Wizards series.

I learned from that Market Wizard that one action step taken by all extraordinary traders/investors is that they regularly take time out from trading/investing.

So that's what I recommend for the next two days, Saturday and Sunday. Rest. Hit your own reset button. Reboot your operating system to refresh your settings.

Your own psychology is more than 80% responsible for the results in your trading/investing. So Rest, Reset, Reboot.

We'll chat again on Monday...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

Be A Profitable Trader - 5 Minutes Daily Conditioning

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Deciding to be a profitable financial trader is the first step in becoming one. Trite you say? Not really. Missing this one step or doing it out of order xplains why 90% of brokerage accounts go to zero within the first year, many doing so in the first 4 months!

In addition to arbitrarily deciding to be a profitable financial trader, a more powerful and lasting way is to use psychological conditioning on yourself so that you CONSISTENTLY decide that you are a profitable trader Here's my interpretation of the method for doing this that I learned from the famous success guru I alluded to in my comments two blogs back.

First, write out the sentence below on a piece of paper.

"FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, I AM A PROFITABLE TRADER".

Second, consider the pain you have experienced before because you have not consistently thought of yourself as a profitable trader. Imagine experiencing that again in the present and future. Do this for 30 seconds. Notice how you feel as you do that.

Third, consider the pleasure you would experience in the present and the future if you did make this decision. Do this for 30 seconds or longer. Imagine yourself getting a string of winning trades in your brokerage account (stocks, options, emini market average futures, pork belly futures, orange juice futures... whatever). Notice how you feel as you do that.

Fourth, imagine beginning to think of yourself. Whatever comes up, change it to thinking of yourself as a profitable trader. If you have ever "changed your mind" about anything, you already know how to do that. For example, if when you think of yourself your first thought is that you are a ballerina, change that immediately to thinking of yourself as a profitable trader. This should take only 5 seconds or less.

Fifth, repeat the Fourth step 10 times in a row quickly, 3 times a day, every day for the next 5 days. After that, you can cut back and gradually reduce the frequency. Remember to mark your calendar to repeat this conditioning a few months later to keep it strong.

That's how you get yourself to CONSISTENTLY DECIDE that you are a Profitable Trader. That's the first psychological step to becoming one. DECIDE. Then Condition yourself so that you habitually and consistently make the same decision every time you think about who you are.

The total time the above 5 steps takes will be less than 5 minutes after you have practiced it a few times. Do the math.

Step 1 is 30 seconds.
Step 2 is 30 seconds.
Step 3 is 30 seconds.
Step 4 is 50 seconds, about a minute, 3 times a day, subtotal 3 minutes when carried to Step 5.

Grand total time is 4.5 minutes or less than 5 minutes in one day.

Brokerage statistics show that 90% of accounts opened are depleted through trading losses within a year, many within the first 4 months. People owning those accounts spent all their time doing fundamental analysis, technical analysis, getting news about the latest hot stock, or similar activity.

Instead, they should have spent most of their time doing psychological work on themselves.

Since psychology is 80% of what you need for success, then surely 80% of your time should be spent on psychological matters including the above 5 steps.

More tomorrow....until then, start doing the above steps...now would be a good time for that...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

"Decide" (applies to emini futures, pork belly...)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I said yesterday that experts agree that 80% or more of what you need for success as a financial trader is psychological. That's regardless of the instrument you trade - whether emini futures, pork belly futures, orange juice futures, stocks, options or whatever.

The first step to becoming profitable is to DECIDE to become profitable. Distinguish that from the following decisions:

1. deciding to follow a system flawlessly (not!)
2. deciding to take every stop loss (not!)
3. deciding to take every entry signal (not!)
4. deciding to find a mentor (not!) 5. deciding to cut your losses and let your profits run (not!)

Salutory as the above decisions may be, they are not the FIRST decision you need to make on the road to becoming a profitable trader. Instead, the very FIRST decision you need to make in that regard is to

DECIDE THAT FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD, YOU ARE A PROFITABLE TRADER.

That decision will empower you to:

1. consistently do what profitable traders do (too many to mention here -- this will be discussed in future blogs); and

2. eliminate from your habits anything that would prevent you from being a profitable trader (too many to mention here -- this will be discussed in future blogs).

So, pray tell, how does one "decide" to become a profitable trader?

One way is to arbitrarily do so. Just CHOOSE it instead of something else. Really, it's that simple (but not easy).

Another way will be discussed tomorrow which is more powerful and longer lasting.

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com

Financial Trading is 80% or More Metaphysical

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Experts agree that 80% or more of what you need for success as a financial trader is psychological. That's regardless of the instrument you trade - emini futures, pork belly futures, orange juice futures, stocks, options or whatever.

I almost agree with that. I would substitute the word "metaphysical" for the word "psychological" though. I believe that success as a financial trader is 80% or more metaphysical. More on this later...For now, let's think of psychological matters as being part of the metaphysical things you need to succeed as a financial trader.

During the past decade or two studying trading, one of the best courses I took was a program I got for free from a famous "success guru" as a bonus gift for registering in one of his courses. The bonus gift program was called "Get The Body You Deserve". (Check eBay for inexpensive used copies.)

The materials are not about trading, but are instead about physical health. However, the materials in it are 80% psychological. Applying the psychological methods taught in it were very valuable in becoming "The Profitable Trader I Deserve To Be".

Besides, I also reduced by 65 pounds using those psychological methods and have kept the weight off since 1996 :)

More on the trading aspect of this in tomorrow's blog message...

Raymond T. Lee
LeisurelyCashFlow.com
Raymond@LeisurelyCashFlow.com