In the previous 2 articles in this series, we have looked at trading roles that we enjoy very much but may be overly invested in (our motivation zone), as well as roles that create a procrastination response because we don’t enjoy them or they scare us.
What about those other roles, somewhere in between, which are necessary but don’t have much of an emotional charge to them? Because they are a part of the system without much emotional charge, they tend to be less visible and get less attention. They become default, automatic responses, and somewhat of a comfort zone. However, paying attention to these areas could make a bigger than expected difference to overall trading profitability.
As an example, in my own case, I performed the “Business Manager” role pretty much on automatic for quite a while. I have run small businesses and been self employed for most of my life, so felt I had a good understanding of record keeping, accountability, business plans, resource allocation, etc.
When I started trading full time, I used all those skills, but without much focus. After all, I felt I “knew” those things. However, I did not have an available trading account big enough to generate adequate income. This forced me to bring my Business Manager role to a higher level of awareness and effectiveness to ensure and enable the profitability of my trading business.
The elevated focus on this role led to exploring alternative means of income generation within my core business of trading. Looking at trading funded accounts to add to my equity base has been one area. My accountability coaching program, through http://fxcellence.com/, is another avenue that utilizes skills from other areas of my life to complement the business of trading. Both of these areas are a result of giving more attention to the role of the Business Manager.
Another area that could be more automatic than conscious is the Trade Management area. Often we take on board a system from someone else; it works, and we’re reasonably happy with it. It becomes the default, automatic system, though it may not actually be best suited to our trading style. FXRenew challenged my Trade Management persona with the concept of “simple entries, complex exits”.
This put my Trade Manager role under the microscope. Instead of automatically following my established default exit strategies, I developed more sophisticated exit strategies that also suited my trading style. After several months of employing them, I have added to my trading profitability and noticeably decreased the average loss per trade.
A useful change technique for establishing these new ways of doing business and trading was to reframe them as “projects”. Instead of seeing them as tasks, or things that should be done, they became interesting, challenging projects. This gave them more excitement, and more of a defined start and finish. They changed from a “have to…….” to an “I would like to……” exercise.
What roles do you tend to have on automatic? What do you do without a lot of thought, attention or indeed drama? You may well benefit from having a good look at them and seeing if they can be taken to a greater level of competence and effectiveness, ultimately adding to a better balanced trader profile and a stronger financial bottom line.
About the Author
Terry Macartney is an FX and indices trader based in northern NSW, Australia. He is an Accountability Coach for traders and has established FXCellence as a coaching platform for working with traders and small businesses. Contact can be made here: FXCellence
About FX Renew
This blog post was published on www.fxrenew.com, a provider of Forex signals from ex-bank and hedge fund traders (get a free trial). If you like this post, subscribe to the blog for free or get free access to the acclaimed Advanced Forex Course for Smart Traders.
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