Among the huge industry of products aimed at the self-improvement market, one area has stood out in recent years. This is the practice of mindfulness. From being very much on the, fairly esoteric, periphery only a few years ago, mindfulness is increasingly being embraced as a means to improve life and realise potential in many areas. Many large firms have committed to mindfulness for their employees and, unusually among self-improvement techniques, it has been shown in scientific research studies to have real positive and measurable effects.
This eBook and the accompanying course are specifically designed to help private financial traders to use mindfulness to improve their performance. The contents are targeted as putting the techniques into practice and are not in any sense theoretical. They provide a workable introduction to the subject and the practical foundation to get started putting mindfulness into practice to improve your trading performance. As a result, many complex questions around the subject are left unanswered.
The book starts by defining mindfulness in Chapter 2 and provides a brief discussion of its background and current rise in popularity. This shows how mindfulness, with roots in ancient religious practices, has become a very modern technique that is directly applicable in modern busy lives.
Meditation is a key part of developing mindfulness. Indeed, it is not going too far to say that mindfulness is meditation. However, I prefer to see meditation as a means to develop and implement the skills that are required by a mindful approach. Chapter 3 discusses meditation and how it is used in mindfulness exercises.
Most people, particularly private traders at the early stages of their careers, if asked about what will determine their trading performance will point to requirements such as having funds to start, knowledge an information on markets, perhaps a good way to find trades. More experienced traders will point to the importance of controlling risk. But the really successful point to a third factor: having the right mindset. This issue is discussed in Chapter 4.
Chapter 5 builds on this insight and reviews why mindfulness is increasingly being seen as a useful skill for traders as part of a complete trading plan. This supports the argument that you should embark on developing mindfulness skills and incorporate mindfulness into your trading to improve your chances of success.
This eBook provides an introduction to mindfulness and how it can be used in trading. However, you need to take action and commit to learning how this skill can be put into practice and used to improve your trading. The final chapter provides some discussion of developing mindfulness skills and serves as an introduction and guide to the free 15 day course that accompanies this eBook.
Which brings us nicely to the course and how you can get it. Simply go to http://www.mindfulnesstrading.com and follow the instructions to receive the course. It’s as simple as that.
Once you have started the course, you will receive an email each day for 15 days. The emails contain links to pages on a dedicated site that contain audio files, PDFs and tasks that you need to undertake. While this eBook contains background information on mindfulness, the course is designed to enable you to put it into practice. So, your input and your effort is essential. You should try to follow the timeline as closely as possible. There is a small time input every day and you need to make space for this. If you do not follow the course then don’t expect any benefits.
Parts of the course, particularly the early sections, are somewhat generic in the sense that they lay the basis for later exercises, but they are not specific to trading. This is necessary and, in any case, you will see benefits in your life outside of trading. The later exercises are increasingly targeted at your trading activity. These will provide a basis for improved performance in this part of your life.
One final point. You should be fully aware that no matter how good you become at achieving a state of mindfulness it is no substitute for having a trading plan. Mindfulness is not an alternative to what you may consider to be market analysis or whatever methodology you use to guide your trading. There is no ‘law of attraction’ artificiality here and there is no recourse to higher beings to guide you. If those subjects are your interests then you should look elsewhere.
Mindfulness is a tool, albeit a very powerful one, for you as a trader to have and use in your trading. Think of it as a skill. Without a trading plan you would simply be using this and your other tools without any idea of what you are trying to achieve or the steps needed to get there. So, make developing mindfulness skills a part of your trading plan.