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AlphaMind focuses on helping traders and investors develop the mindset and winning mental attitudes needed for success, 'Producing Alpha', in financial markets.
Superior product and market knowledge, better analysis and information, knowing the competitors, being aware of risks and having a plan all came together to hopefully help the profits roll in. But the general consensus is that the majority of folk trading in financial markets, be they professional or retail, have a very tough time making money.
It is often thought that success is down to a magic formula, and that failure is down to gaps in that formula, such as a lack of product knowledge, low market intellect, not having a plan or process and having no sense of risk management. Whilst there may be some truth there, that sounds far too convenient. If it was that formulaic, it would be relatively easy to correct.
What the formula misses is one key component, we can call it ‘natural smartness’, savviness, being marketwise, being able to feel the market to become part of the market. Collectively this is termed ‘The Inner Game’, but it is in fact a lot deeper than that. Amrit Saal one of the exceptional traders featured in Jack Schwager’s new book, ‘Unknown Market Wizards’, called it “Deep now”, where your ‘true edge’, your awareness, your curiosity, your resilience to adversity and your attention to commit to rock solid processes drive your trading performance.
This paragraph is an excerpt from Amrit Saal’s interview with Jack Schwager, in Unknown Market Wizards.
Jack Schwager wrote that Amrit has one of the best track records he has ever encountered. In a 13-year career he has achieved an average annual compounded return in excess of 300%.
Now within that Inner Game battle is the biggest disrupter of all, stress. The knotted stomach, gut wrenching version of it that sits waiting for its moment to dissolve what edge you had and confine it to the history books. The impact of stress on your trading game is profound.
Let us explain, under stress you will have spotlight vision, lack of self-care, little innovation, a lagged response, reduced ability to communicate effectively, increased error vulnerability and depleted resilience... not to mention a chemical stress response that ruins sleep and your ability to rest – which at a fundamental level of being, your brain cannot do without. This is not a mental state that will make you money!
So, what’s the answer? self-help books and currently available online training give a hint but hold back from real answers and any real context from not having experienced first-hand the rigors and challenges of the world of trading. This is where our AlphaMind Trader Mental Strength Programme comes into play.
The AlphaMind programmes are not aimed at making quick fixes or providing a hacks. You cannot develop the mental skills needed at the flick of a switch, or merely by reading a book or watching a 5 minute YouTube video. This is a major mistake many traders make. Trading is not a formula, and the hardest part of trading, is developing these mental skills which bring the structure you need which supports the strategies and processes that are so vital to your success.
Attendees to this ground-breaking AlphaMind Trader Mental Strength Programme will learn how to
• Awaken a deep self that operates at an optimal level of elite performance
• Train you to switch off the disruptive negative triggers and engage with the smartest piece of trading technology you have access to… Your Mind
• Give you a toolkit to put structure into process
• Increase your markets composure and resilience to take shock and release from shock
• Awaken and broaden your market awareness and alpha opportunities
• Get closure on tough trading days to be able to release to rest
• Meta power your day with powerful micro breaks
• Proactively manage process killing distractions
• Understand your stress response and learn how to pro-actively control it
• Seek your true purpose and translate that into defining your trader rhythm
The reason why the AlphaMind Trader Mental Strength Programme is so effective is down to the authenticity of delivery. It is co-created and delivered by ex-market seasoned professionals with decades of experience in the trenches who have turned trading learning on its head, shaken the tree and coded what is probably the most effective training programme for traders and investment professionals as well as leaders and managers anywhere in the world.
To know more about this programme, email us at ceo@markrandallconsultancy.com or info@alpharcubed.com.
Markets are not getting any easier, investing in the right training has never been more important. It is an investment in yourself, it is the most important investment you can ever make to develop and sustain your edge.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Marsten Parker is one of the featured traders in Jack Schwager’s Unknown Market Wizards, the 5th book in the iconic Market Wizards series.
Marsten is the only truly systematic trader featured in Unknown Market Wizards. Marsten started off as a software engineer before he developed his interest in trading after his company IPO’s and he found himself with a considerable shareholding. After leaving his company, and ignited by a new interest in markets, Marsten started trading fulltime in 1998. He soon moved from discretionary trading to systematic trading and developed his own 100% mechanical/quantitative strategies.
His track record and consistency have been exceptional and over 22 years his average annual return has been in excess of 20%, with only 2 losing years.
In addition to trading, Marsten has developed his own Multi-Strategy Portfolio-Level Backtesting Software called RealTest. This software is unique in being able to test out multiple strategies at the same time
A key feature of Marsten’s success has been his curiosity and willingness to experiment and try new things, constantly looking to build upon and improve previous iterations and to constantly test out his ideas and assumptions. Marsten terms this his ‘Spirit of Experimentation’ a term which perhaps describes one of the key aspects of Marsten’s mindset and overall philosophy, which has been a key pillar of his success.
One of the Real Surprises of this interview was, as you will hear, Marsten’s admission that he doesn’t even like trading that much, his real passion is designing and testing computer software. Trading if anything is the vehicle which allows him to pursue that passion. And perhaps somewhere within there maybe the secret to his success in that it ensures he does not get too attached and hung-up on the day to day outcomes of his trading.
Despite his admission by Marsten, he has achieved outstanding performance and consistency as a trader and also software designer. In addition, Marsten is also a classically trained violinist, who had his interest in software design and the series of events which followed not occurred, we may have heard of him achieving success in a very different field.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
You can find out more about Marsten and his RealTest product at:
You can follow Marsten on Twitter: @mars10p
To view video of this live webinar - Click Here
The Webinar was timed to coincide with the launch of Jack Schwager's new book 'Unknown Market Wizards'. You can also hear our AlphaMind Podcast interview with Jack Schwager from last week at this link. or view it in our YouTube channel at this link.
AlphaMind is a collaborative project between Steven Goldstein of AlphaRCubed Ltd and Mark Randall of The Mark Randall Consultancy
The AlphaMind Newsletter
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The AlphaMind Newsletter is a free bi-weekly email, that explores how people develop, cultivate and grow optimal mindsets, behaviours and attitude for better and more productive performance when engaged in risk taking activities in Financial Markets.
As I read through the latest version of the iconic Market Wizards books, where Jack Schwager interviews traders who have achieved outstanding success, against the odds, it occurred to me that if there was a red thread which seems to run through each of these books. The red thread is that in almost all cases, the traders suffered serious, sometimes devastating early career failures and setbacks. In my recent interview with Jack for the AlphaMind podcast, I asked him about this. He reminded me of a trader from his first book, Michael Marcus, who over a 10-year period managed to turn $30,000 into a stunning $80,000,000. However, Michael blew-up his account on several occasions, before he started to turn the corner and start on the path which lead to such great success.
In the quote which started this article, Jack was referring directly to Marcus, however he could have been talking about almost any of the traders featured in any of the Market Wizards books. Ray Dalio, who built the world’s largest Hedge Fund, Bridgewater Associates, told Jack that he was nearly wiped out early in his career as a young commodities trader. As for Bridgewater, it almost went broke even before it became established, “I’d lost so much money I couldn’t afford to pay the people who worked with me. One by one, I had to let them go,” Dalio wrote. “To make ends meet, I even had to borrow $4,000 from my dad until we could sell our second car.”
The biggest obstacle to trading success, is not failure itself, but ‘Fear of Failure’.
Failure is something we all must experience in order to grow; avoidance of failure holds you back from growing. When I was a trader, I kept this quote by Baseball legend Babe Ruth glued to my trading desk; ‘Never let fear of striking out keep you from playing the game’. I like many people was prone to ‘safety behaviours’, the aim of the quote was to trigger me out of that mindset.
We are not helped by many of the messages we are taught early in our lives. Our education system rewards success and punishes failure, thus propagating this ‘fear of failure’ notion at an early age and setting it deep in our unconscious. Cultural memes, such as ‘failure is not an option’, only seek to reinforce this.
In addition, we tend to naturally avoid risk, who wouldn’t prefer safety and security over danger and uncertainty. This brain’s defence mechanism aims to keep us alive and away from dangerous situations. It is not just physical threats, but psychological threats it seeks to avoid. The brain and our nervous system try to shield us from things like shame, embarrassment, and failure. Our tolerance for emotional discomfort is extremely low causing us to seek the elimination of risk and a preference for choosing less risky options, over risker choices that may produce better outcomes.
Failure is an Option
Playing it safe entails many risks, particularly in a game like trading, which requires taking risk in order to succeed. One of the points I feel Jack is trying to make clear is that ‘failure is an option’, and perhaps a necessary one for success in the world of trading. These don’t have to be catastrophic failure, just ones that involves sufficient amounts of emotional pain, and a response which receives this as a feedback and new learning, as opposed to flight and avoidance.
Failure is something that so many of the most successful people in all fields were willing to embrace on the journey to greatness.
“I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan.
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.” - Elon Musk.
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” - Henry Ford.
The Power of a ‘Growth Mindset’.
One of the most influential books on Human Potential in recent years is Carol Dweck’s book ‘Growth Mindset, Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential’.
The essence of Carol’s Growth Mindset philosophy is that we are governed by two main mindsets, A Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset. As we navigate our way through the world, we tend to switch between these two polar opposite mindsets. However, the more we adopt a Growth Mindset the better our chances of achieving success, whereas when we adopt a Fixed Mindset, we are more likely to become stuck in a pattern of unhelpful and sometimes self-sabotaging behaviours.
People with a ‘Growth Mindset’ embrace failure, they do not see failure as a series of setbacks, but as part of the process which will take them to success. The following table highlight some of the attitude differences between people who are predominately Growth mindset, versus Fixed Mindset.
How to cultivate a ‘Growth Mindset’
Everyone had the ability to develop a Growth Mindset, however often our prevailing mindset is Fixed, or we are easily be triggered into a Fixed Mindset. However, resilience, growth and success usually stem from a Growth Mindset. Here a few things you can do to move towards a Growth Mindset.
1. Own Your Successes and Your Failures.
I developed a mantra in my latter trading years which took the line of ‘Embrace Failure, embrace success, learn to love your losses, own everything which happens to you’. This mantra and mindset coincided with my best years. Trading is a lonely world and we are easily forced into a fixed or negative mindset which can see us avoid responsibility, hide and seek to blame others. You must own everything you do in trading and try to foster a mindset which will helps not hinders you. Try developing your own mantra’s and affirmations or use quotes which can inspire and remind you. Make them visible and view them regularly.
2. Develop Your Relationship with Losing.
No pain no gain: You cannot win and not take risks, if you seek to avoid them, you’ll merely suffer a slow demise. The mantra above, where I said ‘learn to love your losses’, made them easier to bare, easier to manage, and I then viewed them as a necessary evil on the journey to success.
3. Make Everything You Do A Learning Opportunity.
Many of the best traders devote an inordinate amount of time studying their behaviours and actions. They look at their loses and their wins and seek to learn from them all. Your wins hold the behavioural DNA to your success, likewise your losses illuminate parts of your behavioural DNA that you need to address. Every action holds a clue. Journals are one of the best tools for enabling this process.
4. Seek Feedback and External Observations.
The above learning will be far more effective if it is accompanied by feedback. The more feedback you can get it, the better it is for you. The market is always giving you feedback, if you keep a journal at the same time, you can match your feedback to what prompted your decisions. If you have others who can provide feedback, even better.
5. Develop the Process, Don’t Be Fooled by The Outcomes.
Trading is a process of skill, but it relies to a high degree on randomness. A poor trader can have winning periods, whilst a strong trader can suffer a long period of losing. However, over time the skilled trader wins out, and the lucky trader eventually disappears. It is the process which matters, focus on the process, assess how well you are progressing, outcomes do matter, but try and balance them.
6. Work on Your Development, and Keep Working on It.
Mastery comes from always developing, always growing, always getting stronger. Growth Mindset traders always look to grow, they never feel they are the finished article. I coached 3 of the traders featured in Jack Schwager’s new book, ‘Unknown Market Wizards’. Someone asked me, “If they were such great traders, why did they need coaching”. That is a Fixed Mindset question. I responded, “It wasn’t because they were great traders that they needed coaching, it was because they were great traders that they sought coaching.”
Great sportspeople, great leaders, great artists all seek coaching to improve themselves. If trading is a skill, then your ability can be improved, but if you believe you are good because you have a gift, then that is probably as far as you can go.
The Video Recording below was from the Forex Analytix Traders Summit from September 2020.
The Webinar looks at the gap which exists between the potential most people have in the markets, and the actual performance they achieve, which equates to 'Money Left On The Table'.
The Webinar introduces a model I use to describe and define the Trading Process as a series of steps, both physical and psychological, which add to the entire trading or risk process.
This webinar covers some deep topics in a relative short-space of time.
Learn More About AlphaMind
We will shortly be publishing a regular Newsletter. If you would like to add your name to the Newsletter subscription list, then just sign up at this Newsletter link.
https://www.thespecinvestor.com.au/blog/qa-with-steven-goldstein/
Learn More About AlphaMind
We will shortly be publishing a regular Newsletter. If you would like to add your name to the Newsletter subscription list, then just sign up at this Newsletter link.
We will shortly be publishing a regular Newsletter. If you would like to add your name to the Newsletter subscription list, then just sign up at this Newsletter link.
In the brutal world of trading and markets, we can often turn in on ourselves, and end up becoming our biggest problem. The ability to stay ...
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