In my field of work I came across an independent stock trader. He had been trading about 6 months but was experiencing a lot of draw downs and losses. This was blamed on his regularly altered strategy. Same results were evident despite changes made. He looked at other potential areas that could hinder his performance.He then realised that self sabotage and lack of self confidence, limiting beliefs and no plan, prevented him from keeping a consistent and potentially profitable strategy. The psychology aspect of trading was additionally neglected. The trader and I then went into depth into the problem areas that exist, which were:

Fear of losses – This prevented him from executing the trade accurately, due to the fear that the when in a trade the price might reverse and exit at a loss.

Not trusting system – No confidence with trading system even after changing strategy but realising that he was not sticking to his plan.

Keep second guessing himself after trade – After position is closed he would second guess himself in what he should/should not have done.

Limited beliefs prior to entry – Can imagine winning every trade in minds eye.

Techniques used to eliminate these issues were to use a state of excellence

Technique: State of Excellence

Talking to the client we established the state of excellence the client wanted.

1. Pre and during trading

- Clear and focused mind
- Confidence in strategy
- Ability to utilise strategy efficiently
- Never second guess strategy
- Clear structured plan with an additional plan

2.

I asked the client to imagine a circle of excellence on the floor in front of you with a colour and sound possible. He stated the colour is blue (of the sky, feeling in heaven) the sound (is of cheers and clapping).

3.

I stipulated for the client to imagine in a time in his life where he experienced this state. Use the state and step into circle. So every time the trader thinks about the state I will put my hand on his shoulder which acts as an anchor.

My client repeated this movement but in this situation I placed my hand on his shoulder to elicit this peak state then to move into circle then step out and relax. I continued the technique with my client. Once he stepped into the circle I asked him to pause and recover the excellence and found out from my subject whether things will be different in that problem from past. He answered yes. The client was made to come out of the circle and I suggested him to think about the places they needed help. He replied that he felt a sense of automatic improvement and would repeat this scenario in the future. Three months later my subject insisted the he is still using the technique, had made vast improvements and started to trade consistently.

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