| The On-Time Trader |
| Written by Adrienne Toghraie | |||||
| Tuesday, 16 May 2006 00:00 | |||||
Page 1 of 3 How you perceive and utilize time can make the difference between whether you are successful or not in following your trading rules. To recognize how you relate to time, ask yourself the following question: What a trader’s relationship to time means is that an ‘in time’ person requires more time than an ‘on time’ person to go through the process of making a decision. A trader is more likely to be profitable if he chooses to work in a timeframe that he is comfortable with rather than trying to force a strategy that does not suit his personality. However, if you are not currently happy with the way that you process time and feel that it is affecting your trading results, you will need to seek professional help if you want to change your time strategy. ‘On time’ people are more likely to be successful with short-term trading strategies because they can handle making decisions about taking risk more quickly. They set priorities to follow their rules by silencing the inner chatter that makes ‘in time’ people want to re-think and make more deliberate decisions. ‘In time’ people are more likely to be successful with longer-term systems because they set their priorities to check every angle of a trade before making a decision. “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick” To strengthen this belief, he had a computer programmer back-test the system and adjusted his trading rules to bring in even higher returns. He thought that with all of this due diligence, he was ready to become a highly profitable trader. But, alas, Jack found that “he” was in the way of making quick trading choices. This is when he called me to evaluate the psychological issues that were sabotaging his winning system. We found that he was an ‘in time’ person trying to make ‘on time’ decisions. The decision-making methods that had worked so well for him in becoming a successful entrepreneur did not work for making the quick decisions required of a day trader. He decided that he wanted to stretch his abilities to be able to make quick decisions as well as long-term calculated ones. We decided to work together to accomplish this goal. In order to get Jack to be able to make quick decisions, I needed to find out exactly what Jack did before he made his trading decisions. In other words, what actions did he physically perform and what was his thinking before he made his choice. I also wanted to know how Jack ran the rest of his life when it came to making timely decisions and how those decisions about time were formed. When little Jack was growing up, he quickly discovered that it was not okay to bring home anything less than perfect grades. Even in his social activities, he had to be outstanding or he was met with criticism and punishment from his parents. On the other hand, top performance reaped the rewards of praise and wonderful surprises. Consequently, Jack spent a lot of time making sure that he pleased his folks and lived up to their expectations. Because of his thorough approach to the activities in his life, Jack learned to create what he believed to be good excuses for being late or missing appointments. Since being ‘on time’ was not a priority for Jack’s parents, it became a non-issue for Jack. The behaviors that Jack formed early in his life affected the way that he related to people when he became an adult. As a businessman, Jack made many people unhappy by constantly being late for appointments. However, everyone also knew that they could count on him to do a thorough job. When Jack started dating his wife, who was an ‘on time person,’ she found it difficult to adjust to the fact that he was always going to be late to pick her up for a date. This difference was the cause of many heated arguments in their relationship. |
