How our personal relationship with money is a key factor in our trading performance

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The decisions we make in our trading, the behaviours which play out on a daily basis over time, and the states we are in all manifests themselves in our bottom-line trading results over time. We cannot escape who we are as traders, and who we are owes far more than we realise to our past relationships. Our relationships and experiences from a young age come to play a key role in the formation of our character and personality as we grow and mature. Some of these can be the foundation for healthy behaviours later in life, some of them can be the root of more toxic aspects which can manifest in our attitudes and actions at key junctures. This is particularly true of trading, where our actions thrust a bright light onto aspects of our personality and character.

We often think of personal relationships in terms of how we interact with people. However, one of the most important relationship which shapes us is our historical relationship with money.

In a recent episode of the AlphaMind podcast we explored this with professional money coach and former trader Dennis Harhalakis. Dennis spent more than two decades in bank trading rooms as a trader and salesperson. That sort of experience provides a well-rounded perspective on the issues people face in their trading which result from their relationship with money. 

In this fascinating episode we delved into how people’s trading and investing activities are impacted, positively and negatively, by their relationship with money and how that influences their decisions, behaviours and emotional reactions to events in the moment.

Dennis goes on to provides some practical advice for how people can start to improve their relationship with money and raises some interesting points about how our early-years’ experience around money impacts our current relationship with money.