Practicing Mindfulness in Your Trading

• Practice a 20-minute mindfulness meditation each day for at least a week. If you watch your thoughts (and release them as soon as you notice them), then you can be satisfied that you are doing the exercise appropriately.

• Keep a regular diary of what is going on in your life. Do it for a few days before you start the mindfulness meditation and then keep it up. When you’ve completed a week of mindfulness meditation, look at your diary and notice how your life is different.

• Bring mindfulness into your trading and investing by doing the following:

a) Imagine yourself taking the other side of every trade that you actually take. What does that position feel like? Also, imagine yourself being a neutral observer who watches you and the other person both take a position in the market. What do you think that person would think?

b) Look for new information about each new trade. What information are you normally accepting and what information are you normally rejecting?

c) When you do something you don’t like in your trading, notice the context in which you are interpreting not liking it. How else might you interpret that behavior? What other intention might cause that behavior? Perhaps those other intentions are something you value highly.

d) Concentrate on the process of trading—following your rules. In fact, at the end of each day ask yourself a simple question, “Did I follow my rules?” If you did, pat yourself on the back. If you don’t have any rules, then you obviously didn’t follow them. Think about it.