Mindfulness doesn't work, at least for a whole bunch of traders it doesn't – Here’s why

Firstly let me lay out my skills, I've practiced a mindfulness-based practice for 40 years in parallel to being a broker/trader in aggressive markets. I didn’t follow the norm of going on a course or reading a self-help book, I followed an internal instinct and then committed to change.

I had discovered a self-created natural state of enhanced attention that drove high performance.

Quite recently, and almost certainly due to the pandemic throwing up fresh challenges, several of my coaching and mentoring clients, all traders - hedge fund folk, commodity traders all had the same problem:-

• They had been seeking a solution to help manage their mental state and develop their trader edge.

• They sought something that calmed their system and gave them clarity and resilience to cope under the stress of trading markets, something that would build mental edge to drive enhanced trader performance.  

But they were frustrated, I’d even say stressed that despite reading a libraries worth of relevant books, listening to Apps and watching hours of YouTube.. none of them found the solution they desperately needed. The techniques they were trying were ineffective. The reality was that through trying to find a solution they had become more stressed. Trading was suffering.

It became clear that the reason many could not find the solution is that “off the shelf” doesn't work. The starting point for what is a very self-based approach is “self” and cannot be based upon presumptions and a one size fits all solution.

We all have different stories , we are all unique and more complex than we realise. Even more complex when this is set against the backdrop of Markets. So once I had got under their skin, found their quirks and understood their trading and life journey I very quickly could solve, in market terms, their issues and provide them with an effective path to follow.

For example, their challenges were nearly identical and reflected difficulty in moving on from a market or personal shock, re-living the past was being translated into trader block, failed trade processes due to “too much going on” mentally and the related under-performing alpha.. but they were also paying very little attention to their core system. Dehydration, poor sleep, loss of social connection, lack of fresh air were common to them all.

In short they were killing themselves. Trading had taken a back seat. It also arose that they had lost the context of time and often were sucked into the market, often stuck in their silo and spat out some 13 hours later, home life was under pressure as relationships with partner and kids got strained and thus trading optimally was just not possible – everything had become a challenge.

The solution was to get them to modify behaviour, to start with ensuring hydration was being maintained as a number 1 hack, then it was to use microbreaks to proactively step back following a market shock and take a short pause, some tune into their breath, others tuned into music – even briefly rocking out, tuning into the motion of walking or running and associating the breath with doing something physical.

The gamechanger was to commit to getting in touch with a natural environment whenever you can.. and when there, just be there, be curious to what you see, hear, smell— fully immersed in reality. The natural environment creates a lifeboat, a safe haven that you can visit to regain an optimal trader state.

By starting the day connecting to “self” in a natural environment and doing the same at the end of the day will put a boundary around the trading day. And that’s important, your mental state and trader edge will be able to reset itself in a natural state which will help the clarity required for the trade discovery, but also the different, calmer mindset required to wind down for the evening and have time for family and friends.

Your mental state will also “show up” for the trading day ahead if it understands the difference between ‘life’ and ‘work’., it’s like having your own opening and closing bell for whatever period defines your trading day.

Your effectiveness as a trader today will be heavily determined by how you managed your mental state yesterday.

None of this involved an App, nor anything that might be considered fluffy, nor did it require attending a course that’s more often used for clinical outcomes. It just required commitment in doing something that is readily available to us all – connecting in high definition to the world around us.

Creating a starting point that is focussed on “self” and understanding the relationship we have to the internal and external world that we operate in becomes a very powerful, effective method of building your trader edge.