Steve Ward - Tradermind: Get a Mindful Edge in the Markets

Steve Ward

This edition first published 2015
2015 Steve Ward

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ward, Steve, 1969
Tradermind : get a mindful edge in the markets / Steve Ward.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-31854-6 (paperback)
1. InvestmentsPsychological aspects. 2. SpeculationPsychological aspects. I. Title.
HG4515.15.W368 2014
332.6019dc23

2014028284

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781118318546 (paperback)
ISBN 9781118316733 (ebk)
ISBN 9781118316740 (ebk)
ISBN 9781118994924 (ebk)

Cover Design: Wiley

Cover Illustration: Shutterstock.com/Roman Ya

To Sabine, Oliver and Casper
Mum, Dad and Debs
Team Ward

Steve Ward has over 20 years of teaching, training and coaching experience, having started out working in sports and performance psychology with elite athletes and teams in over 30 different sports and with high performers in the corporate sector.

Since 2005 he has focused on working with traders and fund managers from investment banks, hedge funds, energy companies, asset management funds, leading proprietary trading groups and with independent traders across the globe. He utilises a unique blend of performance psychology, neuroscience, behavioural finance, mindfulness-based approaches and neuropsychology coaching in his work, with a focus on providing practical techniques and strategies.

Steve is the author of High Performance Trading: 35 Practical Strategies To Enhance Your Trading Psychology and Performance, was the consultant trading performance coach to BBC TV's Million Dollar Traders series, co-managed a team of 45 professional proprietary traders in London and has written for many leading trading publications. He has also traded stock indices and FX on his own account and is a member of the Association for Coaching, Association of Contextual Behavioural Science, Society for Neuroeconomics, Association of NeuroPsychoEconomics and Society for Neuroscience.

High Performance Global Ltd is a trading psychology and performance consultancy which offers specialist coaching and training services to banks, hedge funds, energy companies, proprietary trading groups, asset management funds, independent traders, brokerages, exchanges and trading education providers. Find out more at www.highperformanceglobal.com.

When Steve Ward wrote his first book 6 years ago on High Performance Trading, (packed with practical strategies), I thought he had covered all bases! I have known Steve for a number of years and wondered what more he could possibly add. Steve is a gifted communicator and powerfully intuitive coach. This has attracted some of the world's most outstanding traders and fund managers as clients. You see, it does not matter how much experience or success one has had in the business of trading the markets, everyone can use objective feedback or coaching to keep concentration levels up and performance on track. Challenges have increased with an expanding amount of information, stimulus and distractions. Steve once again has delivered a compelling book that combines a thoughtful read with bang-for-the buck practical strategies for time pressed traders. In fact, the more experience you have the more you will appreciate this gem of a book.

Four counterintuitive points jumped out at me that illustrate a different way of thinking about things that Steve brings to light.

A common clich newer traders hear is, trade your plan along with the need for discipline. Steve reframes our thinking with the concept of impermanence. Winning and losing runs are impermanent. Changes in the market are impermanent. Thus, rigidly sticking to your trading plan once the conditions have changed...is like a sports team sticking to a game plan that is not working. Holding on to the idea of impermanence can help you be more flexible. Steve's focus is to develop your mindset to make decisions that reflect the current market environment... which is always changing. Awareness... flexibility... discipline... three overlapping yet independent issues.

Another interesting point that Steve has researched is why smart people can underperform. The crux of this comes from the environment we are in one charged with high amounts of information and sensory overload. Too much stimulation results in distractibility and impatience. Steve offers some short and practical tactics through mindfulness exercises to re-center and focus. The positive emotions experienced as a result of these simple tricks are a great tool for combating this Attention Deficit Trait.

Steve offers a whole section on the trading difficulties and challenges that even the industry's star traders encounter: extended losing runs, changes in market conditions, stressful life events.... Not only will his tools help you develop the resilience required to deal with these events, but he also provides a satisfying answer as to why emotions can still be attached to an event and thus how to free oneself in order to move on. How can I get rid of the memory of the big loss I took earlier this year?...! The cost of this book is a small price to pay to learn the answer to that common question (!)