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Sinan Koray Imagine it is 28 January 2006. Yes, 2006. Imagine your trading (and your life) has been magnificent for the last twelve months. Imagine that you increased your winning trades, and decreased your losing trades. You have increased wins per trade and decreased losses per trade. Imagine you fine tuned the instruments you are trading to a level that is just perfect for you. That may mean you are now trading more, less or the same number of instruments compared to a year ago. The point is you feel comfortable with the make up of your trading portfolio. You have your systems in place. The amount of time you are putting into your trading feels just right. It may be a few minutes a day, a few hours a day. Whichever way it is, it fits your lifestyle and trading style. You have your emotional ups and downs like every trader. However, you have learned to keep it under control. You have mastered ways of picking yourself up and going again when you experience an unexpected outcome (be it a loss or less than anticipated profit). The future looks bright and you feel on top of the world. You are in the “zone” as some call it or you are “going with the flow”.
Now write a letter to yourself across time, one that will reach back to you on 28 January 2005. It is as if you can reach back in time and tell yourself about all the successes you are about to experience in the next twelve months. In this letter describe how the last twelve months has been. Write about all the ups and downs and how you managed to handle them. Go to great lengths about how you progressed from one trade to another, how you maintained your systems or how you changed and adjusted them. Explain the downs you experienced with your losing trades and how you picked yourself up. Tell yourself about how you boosted yourself up when you did not make as much as you expected. Then go into the nice surprises where your predictions and trades went exactly your way and how you made more than you expected. Cover in this letter how you adjusted the time you spend on your trading and how it suits your lifestyle and trading style right now. Write about how disciplined your trading has been and all the things you needed to do to improve yourself. Elaborate on how you chose the instruments to trade, how you expanded them (if you did) or how you reduced them (if you did). Give a few examples of how you managed your emotions and the benefits you reaped as a result. Include as much detail as you want. Mention how bright the future looks now. Make this letter as short or as long as you like. Finish it off with how you feel being in the “zone” or “going with the flow”.
Then, read this letter every day you are trading.
Sounds simple? It is. Sounds silly or trivial? It definitely is not. Let me tell you the two reasons why this works. Firstly you are keeping your focus on the positive, which allows your mind to grow in that direction. Positive thoughts and positive thinking will pull you in a positive direction like a magnet. The same is true for negative thoughts too by the way, you choose! Remember what you focus on grows. Secondly you are repeating it every day you trade. This will make it a habit. Just like anything else that is second nature to you: from brushing your teeth to driving.
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Believe, achieve.
Sinan Koray
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When 28 January 2006 comes you can look back on how you did and literally compare it with your letter. Then you imagine it is 28 January 2007 …
You must either magnify your skills or modify your dreams.
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