Thursday Trader's Tip: Resistance Vs. Non-Resistance Trading

Welcome to the free edition of The High-Performing Trader newsletter. Each edition presents to-the-point trading psychology & performance advice in text and video.

This week, we’ll talk about the two ways of achieving quality of execution in trading.

Related reads:

• 3 Essential Keys To Focus On The Process - three simple but essential practices to switch from result-focused to process-focused.

• Charting Your Inner Potential: The Road to Peak Performance - a look at non-judgemental trading, interference removal, and self-belief.

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Written Version:

To understand exceptional performance, let's start by identifying what it isn't about.

Performing at your best is not about having a winning day—we can all agree on that by now. Great performance is directly tied to the quality of your execution—how well you identify the setup, how fast you react to it to get the right entry, how well you manage your trade, and how well you close it.

Now, it’s important to understand what ‘well’ means. Trading well means respecting your strategy, and that’s all. This can be an unsatisfactory answer for the ones who don’t really trust their edges and seek more certainty: “But how do I know my strategy is the right one? And are the ways I enter and exit the market the correct way?” Answering these questions is not the scope of this week’s video.

What’s important to understand is that good execution is a consequence of following your strategy.

Now, there are two ways you can achieve quality of execution:

1. By offering resistance to the market and your mind. You swim against the tide, and you get to good execution, but you're exhausted and drained by session end.

2. By offering no resistance, no judgment, and no attachment to the market or your emotions, trading peacefully, energized, with zero expectations. Fully focused on the present moment.

Both approaches might produce the same end result, but which one do you think is most sustainable in the long term?

Trading under resistance works until the accumulated emotion eventually surfaces. One day, you hop on the trading session, and all of a sudden, you find yourself revenge trading; you completely lose the filter of self-control, and you have no idea what happened.

Trading in surrender is a different type of trading. It hones the quality of the process, not only the end result. And it is long-term. You let go of all negative energy. This doesn’t mean you don’t feel negative and unpleasant emotions, but you don’t cling to them; you let them pass through your body the moment they’re formed. Because of this, you start each day fresh, fully reset. You can never lose self-control trading this way.

All goals should come with conditions. You don’t want to achieve your goals at all costs. There are certain things you’re not willing to sacrifice — your family, your time, your health. The same works for trading: The ultimate goal isn't just to make money; it's to make money while trading detachedly, peacefully, and present—in surrender mode.

If this is not a condition to the goal, then what's the point?

Peaceful trading,

Sara