How to stay ahead of the trading game

Have you ever tested or traded a strategy only to find it stopped working?

Perhaps it’s a strategy from a book, website, forum or something you’ve heard about.

Other traders can find out about the technique too, they start trading it and it very quickly stops working, or loses its effectiveness so it’s not worth trading any more

As the Financial Times reported “When everyone is using the same trading strategy, no one is left with an edge”, and now with buildings full of powerful computers analysing the markets non-stop 24 x 7, edges are being identified and eroded away quicker than ever.

Following the herd and trading the same strategies as other traders is not a recipe for long term success.

'Following the herd and trading the same strategies as other traders is not a recipe for long term success.' Click To Tweet

So what’s the answer?

If you want to stay ahead of the game, you need a non-stop source of unique trading ideas.

'If you want to stay ahead of the game, you need a non-stop source of unique trading ideas.' Click To Tweet

In this email I’m going to share with you a simple, yet highly effective formula for generating new, fresh and out-of-the-box trading ideas almost immediately. A simple method that WORKS, because I’ve been using it for years.

But first, let me ask you a question:

Which path did you take to your job today?

Believe it or not, this question is highly related to the formula for creating new trading ideas!

Let me explain.

For many years I’ve been experimenting with an endless numbers of mental approaches and techniques leading to high creativity, with the goal to bring as much novelty to my trading as possible and to get new, fresh trading edges.

These approaches included everything you can think of, including NLP, auto-suggestions, hypnosis, meditation, subliminal programming, and yes – even praying! :-)

But over the years I have also observed that my best trading related ideas always come while I’m traveling. Actually, the whole core of my hedge fund was built while I was traveling around the World and all my best trading ideas almost never happened in front of my trading desk!

What a surprise!

Once I had this realization, I started really thinking about this phenomena, eager to figure out what was going on…

At the very beginning I thought that it had something to do with my hidden guilt that I never work much during my traveling (and I often feel I “should” work to keep moving with my trading forward). I thought that my subconscious mind was simply trying to compensate for this hidden guilt – and at least come up with some cool ideas.

But later on I started realizing that getting new trading ideas during traveling actually has a lot to do with the openness and adaptability required when exploring unknown places,being immersed in new experiences and dealing with sometimes very different cultural circumstances.

These new experiences were somehow helping me to generate much better trading ideas – much faster and easier than being locked in a quiet room and focussing on my trading thoughts.

And then it finally hit me:

The reason I was generating a lot of out-of-the-box trading ideas during my traveling simply was, that I was LIVING an out-of-the-box life too!

It is, in fact, very simple:

Our lives are lived in the same “mental containers” most of the time.

The same routines and the same experiences, starting with the same path to our job every workday…

But by intentionally “programming” these routines into our lives we close our minds, restricting them into one “mental container” and this is the worst place for creativity and new trading ideas.

So, to start getting out-of-the-box trading ideas, you simply need to step out of your usual mental container as much as possible!

This will break the regular mental patterns, your brain will go into a different operating mode, and you will be more open to “receive” something new.

So, next time you want to come up with a fresh idea for a specific trading challenge, just follow these 3 simple steps:

In the morning, define in your head very clearly what trading challenge you want to resolve with a new, out-of-the-box solution. Once you clearly define it in your head, stop thinking about it.
Then during your day, do something differently to step out of your usual mental container. The best way is to start by taking a different path to your daily job, or perhaps try a new restaurant for lunch, speak with a person you’ve never talked to before, or take a different path back home too.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for a few days and stay mentally open. From my experiences, new ideas usually come spontaneously, so stay aware and whenever a new idea suddenly appears, don’t immediately refuse it (these may be crazy ideas at first glance). Don’t judge the idea, just go and test it, because chances are pretty high this could be a GREAT idea!

And that’s the simple but highly effective formula.

In my life, I’m constantly trying to break out of my usual mental containers. It works well and brings a lot of creativity and novelty into my trading, which can lead to unique edges other traders haven’t thought of.

Give it a go and stay ahead of the ‘herd’!

Happy trading,

Tomas and Andrew

P.S.
A lot of the ideas that I get during traveling and that I use in my hedge fund now are part of my Breakout Masterclass. It’s not currently open for enrollment but there is a waiting list if you’re interested in knowing about it more later.