Maybe the toughest challenge in trading – or market risk decisions – is resolving the conflict over now or later? Should I get in now or later? Should I get out now or later? One can throw a whole bunch of so-called facts at the question and still be no closer to a satisfying (or [...]

Shull’s first article   “What Would Freud Say? Stroll Down Freud’s  Mental Path to Profits”, December 2004. When I wrote this I had NO idea whatsoever that I would ever publicly write or say ANOTHER word on the psychology of trading. It was just an idea I had based on re-writing my Master’s Thesis for a [...]

Originally posted on Business Insider, April 17. Conventional wisdom in trading psychology used to depend on two primary tenets – discipline and ‘control your emotions’. But that was before neuroscience started putting traders, poker players and other risk-gamers into brain scanners. Now that we know that all decisions depend on the presence of an emotion, [...]

There is a LOT of it out there. In short, how much is based on the very latest out of the neuroscience labs? How much or which of many many practitioners actually pay attention to what is being learned about how the brain processes uncertainty and decisions like when to enter a trade? I know [...]

In response to the post and discussion here by @ppearlman, @andrewunknown asks: Phil’s last line: “So, even awareness is overrated. Its a start but really its about your choices. Its where the training begins, not ends.” Denise: “What is standing in between the “knowing” and the “doing”?” These quotes rather concisely introduce two explanatory problems: [...]

Just a few moments ago, I hung up the phone after speaking with a client who heads a trading desk at a bank everyone in the world has heard of. It would be easy to think – “well, that guy has it made”. (Government’s intention to break-up banks and stop prop-trading notwithstanding). Yet, he wants [...]

There it is – the market up 200+ points and you didn’t make a dime. Man is that maddening. You knew (at least kind of) that it was coming but you didn’t take a position. You saw a small pullback but hesitated. Now you are aggravated – mad at yourself and feeling like you missed [...]

I followed the dictum for years – or at least I followed it as well as I could. “Plan the trade, trade the plan“. But like everyone else I had trouble with the second part and often chastised myself. That was until neuroscience proved that within uncertainty – like when our brains see markets – [...]

to discuss her recent book Market Mind Games

Thanks to one of our favorite clients, Rob from Australia, this quote made it’s way into my inbox this morning. “Nothing is constant, nothing is the way it has always been. So what I find is that people who are really good at this have great intuition, have great instinct. Their gut actually tells them [...]