"On any given day" - a saying in sports meaning no matter how bad a team is, you just never know - they could win. I am a good racket ball player but not great. I am in a "B+" league at my club. The league has 8 players in to usually. For many years, this league would have four better players and four worst players. The top four would beat up on each other to see who would come in first place. Most of the time, I would fall into the top couple of places.
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We got a new player about 3 years ago. He was in the "A" league and would win half of his games there. When he dropped down to the "B+" league, he would kick all of our butts. Our leagues were 3 times a year and for those 3 years; he took the top stop each time unless he was injured.
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Over those 3 years, I have never won a match, alone a game against him in league play. He had told me, he was always been scared of me because I have the skill to beat him. Oh, did I say, he hates losing. The reason why I would lose to him is that I knew how good he was and I would try too hard and make extra mistakes especially if it looked like I was going to win. So many times when I was ahead late in a game just points away from winning, I would start pressing and I would choke.
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Last night was different. I know I get too hyper about this game. I worked out before the match to relieve this - to make sure I was calm. I made sure that any given point had nothing to do with another. I planned where each serve went. If I started becoming hyper, I took a deep breath. I did not pay any attention to anything he said or did until the end of the match.
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Guess what? - I greatly reduced the numbers of errors I usually commit against them. I never let him into my head. I played each point as it had nothing to do with any other one and I won. I kicked his ass. He even said I played a near perfect game and made fewer errors than he did. He walked away like a stream roller had hit him and it was great.
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Can you see how this compares to trading? Each trade has nothing to do with another. Each trade is new. Each trade needs to be prepared for. Concentrate on reducing errors not making money. It took me a long time to get into this mental mid set for playing racket ball. I only pray I get there with my trading quicker.
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2 comments:
great insight Denarii. i know that in my trading a lot of times one trade's losses or gains will sometimes spill over into the rest of the day. if I make a bad trade in the morning it is really hard to pull out of that slump and press on for good opportunities. it really takes extra effort to do the right thing and separate each trade (i think that goes against human nature to isolate two events)
Hi Denarii,
Great post, I was thinking along the same lines. The sooner you can shake off any form of emotional attachment to the previous trade, the better prepared you will be for the next trade. Prior trades lingering around in my head is probably one of the main sources of the mistakes I make in trading.
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