Fernando Torres: A sad example of 'Performance Anxiety'; a threat to all traders .

A major problem common for many, if not most traders, at some time or other, is that of ‘Performance Anxiety'.  This can afflict traders, from the most experienced of professionals traders working for large banks or hedge funds, to small private traders working to make a living trading from home or a local trading office. 

Performance anxiety afflicts accomplished individuals across a whole range of fields of performance and endeavour. It can be seen across sports, in theatre or music, military personnel, surgeons, and in gaming amongst poker and chess players.  A dramatic example has been unfolding as a sad spectacle before our very eyes here in the UK over the past couple of years. One of the world’s leading football (soccer) players, the Spanish international striker Fernando Torres, was purchased for a UK record of $80million almost 2 years ago by Chelsea FC from Liverpool FC. During his time at Liverpool, Torres made 102 premier league appearances scoring 65 goals, a strike rate of almost 64%, at Chelsea he has made 61 premier league appearances, scoring just 11 goals, a strike rate of just 18%. To add to his woes, exposure at the very highest levels of the game has exasperated the situation. Sadly, this highly talented and entertaining footballer, who was once the terror of many an opposition defence across Europe, is now a mere shadow of his former self. I have attached a link to an excellent article from last February’s FT, which talks about the Torres situation and other high profile examples from the world of sport. As well as some comparison you tube clips of Torres at the foot of this article.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e7c80640-5788-11e1-869b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nR9Sp229

A link to an update of the Torres situation can be seen in an article from last Friday.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/361554/Time-s-up-for-Fernando-Torres

As stated at the very beginning, performance anxiety affects traders at all levels and can strike at any time. High level performance skills have usually been honed over many years; the individual’s performance has largely become automatic and habitual on many levels, relying on sub-conscious and non-conscious actions, reactions and decision-making. Performance anxiety typically occurs when the focus starts to shift to the outcome of performance, as opposed to the actual act of performing or doing. As a result automatic and habitual behaviours are replaced by efforts to gain conscious control of their activity; conscious actions are often far clumsier than sub-conscious and non-conscious driven actions, which result in a major disruption of one’s performance. 

Performance anxiety does not always occur in long-term dramatic examples, but can also be seen in short momentary situations in high pressure circumstances, commonly known as ‘choking’. Examples can sometimes be seen in the final round of a major golf tournament, when the leader inexplicably surrenders a large advantage going into the final stages. An memorable example was Jean Van De Velde's meltdown at the last hole of the 1999 British open: Standing on the 18^th tee, Van De Velde held a 3 stroke lead over Paul Lawrie, surely this was game-over!. Sadly and rather farcically Van Der Velde managed to achieve a triple-bogey, putting the ball into the rough, the sand, the water and even the grandstands. - Tennis is another fertile area where individuals choke, I recall Jana Novotna freezing in the final set of the 1993 Wimbledon’s Women final: Leading 4 games  to 1 in the final set and serving at 40-30 for a 5 -1 lead, she managed to choke, surrendering that game and the next four games to lose the set and the match. And as for us long-suffering England football (Soccer across the pond) fans, we have to put up with our national team choking whenever it comes to a penalty shoot-out at just about every major tournament (Not that we ever have a chance of winning anyway). 

Traders once again are familiar with this, rather comically amongst my trading colleagues we use to term it as ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’, unfortunately it would sometimes be a joke used a little too often for some. Yet again this was often a case of watching the outcome, over managing the process, thinking consciously or ‘trying to hard’ and not sticking to plans and discipline. I think most traders will be able to identify with at least some examples of this, however if you can identify with too many examples, it may be time to start taking some sort of affirmative action, since this is often the beginning of what could become a downward spiral à la Fernando Torres.

Torres - from this:

 

To this:

" 'Sad' Image courtesy of zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net"