Thursday Trader's Tip: The 5 Components of the Trading Flow State
Welcome to the Thursday Trader's Tip, free edition of The High-Performing Trader newsletter. Each edition presents to-the-point trading psychology advice to improve your performance in the market.
Top performers describe entering a state of flow where they are fully immersed in the performing process.
In this state, they experience a heightened sense of focus and clarity, there’s no resistance.
But what does this state look like, really?
In this read, we explore the five components of the flow state so you can replicate it more often in your trading sessions.
#1 Nervousness
There’s a difference between beneficial nerves that keep you alert and excessive anxiety that blows up your performance.
Of course, you don’t want excessive anxiety, but is it possible to eliminate it altogether?
In my work with traders, they often want to work on eliminating nervousness in their trading, but some level of nerves actually enhances performance.
Sure, nervousness is not a comfortable feeling. We tend to look at uncomfortable emotions as something that needs to be solved, but what truly needs to be fixed is our ability to tolerate discomfort.
It’s normal to feel uncomfortable emotions while trading.
Everything that has some level of importance to you will trigger low-intensity emotions that will help you maintain a healthy level of alertness. It’s only when these emotions pass a certain intensity threshold that they become dangerous.
#2 Time Dilation
Intense concentration distorts time perception, which makes performers lose track of time entirely. Because they're so tuned in with the present moment, observing all details closely, time seems to be moving slower.
#3 Loss of Self-Consciousness
Elite performers temporarily lose self-consciousness as they become less worried about self-evaluation and external judgment.
#4 Hyperawareness
Peak performance is experienced with a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings and the market environment. Intuition has space to flow in this state because there’s no interference between the knowledge and its appliance.
#5 Sense of Fulfillment
Top performers describe a profound sense of fulfillment and satisfaction when performing at their best. In the case of traders, they are deeply connected to the market and driven by their passion for trading.
What Does Your Flow State Looks Like?
Now, I want you to look at these five components and think about what triggers your flow state.
We all have different triggers to achieve this state. For some, it might be exercise before the session; for others, tapping into their competitive nature naturally drives motivation.
What’s important is for you to understand yours.
Successful trading is less about replicating what other traders do, and more about knowing your own triggers for exceptional performance.
Peaceful trading,
Sara
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