Tag: Psychology

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David Brooks: The Social Animal

This TedTalk by David Brooks looks into the ways human think and how that is inseparable from our emotions and feelings.

It is an important realization for traders, no matter discretionary ones or mechanical ones, to understand that they are as good as their emotional boundaries. In another words, that means you can learn all you wanted to learn from others with all kinds of trading techniques but when it comes to the time of making your trading decisions, it will still be dictated by your emotions although you may not be aware of that.

This video confirms why it is important to define your trading plan clearly so that you have exact rules of engagement to follow. It is no difference to the safety rules you often see in dangerous work zone like construction sites. They are there to protect you from yourself.

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Tony Robbins: Why We Do What We Do

Tony Robbins is famous for his seminars and workshops on self improvement. This TedTalk however is not what he talks about in his seminars. It is an old TedTalk thus the length is a bit longer at about 20 minutes.

I am not a big fan of books on motivation. This TedTalk from Mr. Robbins is different, however, because it raises questions that every trader must somehow answer to become a better trader. It is about understanding yourself and finding the right push yourself to make you do what is necessary to change yourself for a better future, now.

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Naomi Klein: Addicted To Risk

This TedTalk by Maomi Klein was filmed back in December 2010. It focuses on the major events at the time like BP oil spill and the worldwide financial crisis. It is a talk longer than the other ones at about 20 minutes.

The perspective of this talk is very interesting as Ms. Klein asked some very interesting questions on how we get ourselves into these mess again and again. This lack of consideration of the potential consequence and the unwillingness to take action avoiding known disastrous outcomes have been the recurring reasons leading to all these problems. As a collective whole, humans have failed to stop one disaster after another because we gave a free pass to those at the top who are prone to reckless behaviour.

As a trader, however, you do have a choice to take action stopping yourself from engaging in reckless risk taking. It is not the aggressive stances you made in trading that keep you profitable. It is the voice of reason in your head that made you pull the plug on those very bad trades that save your behind.

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