The Inner Game of Trading: Stop Overthinking, Start Executing
We each come to trading with notions of what trading should be or the role it should fulfil in our lives. Many of us have come to trading with a simple work ethic – the more you work or the harder you try, the better you become.
But trading presents a paradox – working harder in the traditional sense is not synonymous with trading prosperity. Doing the opposite might be the secret.
Way way back in the day, long before the likes of Anthony Robbins, who has an unfeasibly large number of teeth in his head, or the idiotic magical thinking of The Secret. There was the Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Galway. Gaway was one of the first to articulate the notion that in any endeavour, the real opponent was not on the other side of the net but rather the demons that existed within everyone.
He proposed the notion that each individual in any competitive environment has two competing sides to their nature.
The Real Enemy Is Between Your Ears
I often ask traders what the distance is between a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader. The question confuses most. The answer is about 15cm’s since this is the average distance from one ear to the next on your average person.
Every trader has two voices in their head:
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Self 1: the control freak. Overthinks, panics, and second-guesses everything.
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Self 2: the executor. Calm, instinctive, focused.
“Self 1 wants perfection. Self 2 just wants to trade.”
The more you let Self 1 guide your actions, the more likely you are to lock up at vital times. You hesitate. You override your signals. You micromanage your trades to death. Self 2 already knows what to do—if you would allow it to work.
Feedback, Not Self-Flagellation
Reviewing trades is a cornerstone of trader development. Without any form of formal review, it is impossible to make any course corrections. However, as I have written before, the inner couch can quickly become the inner critic.
“Improvement doesn’t come from judgment—it comes from noticing what’s happening.”
The simple question that needs to be answered is: Are you following your plan? If not, why not?
Focus Without Tension
High performance doesn’t come from trying to force trades. It comes from trading with a clear, controlled focus.
“You don’t force flow. You create conditions for it to show up.”
As much as I hate the hackneyed expression, you can only take trading one trade at a time.
Nor can you force the market to give you what is not there.
Trust the System—or Don’t Use It
System hopping is a sign of a lack of trust in your system, which in turn is reflective of a lack of confidence in yourself.
“You either trust your edge, or you have no edge.”
The tricky part of trading is not in designing the system; it’s in executing it. The problematic part is adhering to the system during inevitable periods of drawdown.
Final Word
I regard trading as a process of subtraction – you remove the superfluous :
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Stop overthinking.
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Stop trying to control the market.
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Each trade is not a matter of life or death – it is simply part of a continuum.
“Most traders fail not from lack of skill—but from mental clutter and bad habits.”
Look to see how much noise and clutter you can remove from your own head.
