Lasers and Looseness
I was on a call with an advanced futures trading student the other day. This trader has been showing good consistency for several months now. Here’s something they said on the call:
“I do desire to achieve more laser executions, but I must achieve a more diffuse overall focus.”
There is so much wisdom in that statement!
Earlier in the week I had commented on how laser like (accurate, precise, well timed) their entries had been. So this trader obviously wants more laser executions, but finds themselves getting lost sometimes. Getting overly precise, not seeing the forest for the trees kind of stuff. We must narrow our focus intently in order to achieve the laser timing we need for successful day trading, but how do we balance staying loose and keeping context in mind?
One student chimed in to help saying that preparation can help. The more prepared you are, the more loose you can be. This makes sense when I think of athletes. Well prepared, showing feats of strength and athleticism, all while seeming loose and relaxed. So preparation is a great start.
Another thing this trader mentioned was that they found it easier to achieve this peak, balanced state earlier in the session. It tended to be worse later in the session. I think this brings us to a key point, and no it’s not that the trader is a morning person, and no it’s not that their “discipline” fades with fatigue.
The key here in my mind is that the ability to be balanced properly (in terms of loose but precise) has a shelf life depending on what things you have RECENTLY thought about/done leading up to that point in time.
Read that again. The ability to get into this peak state is not a magic snap your fingers, take a deep breath thing. It’s controlling a sequence of events that leads you to the right analytical place for your trading. So as many trading issues, it’s a mix of actual process and psychology.
So the answer for me becomes simple. At least the answer of what direction to take to get better at this balance I’m referring to. That answer is to have regular periods of shifting back and forth between the loose and laser systems! This is why it’s easier in the morning because you are approaching the market from the top down- that is- starting with higher timeframes and working your way down so that you gain contextual understanding as you get closer and closer to precise focus and execution. It’s also important as we discussed that “shelf life” matters, whether you’ve been only staring at a footprint or DOM for the past 20 minutes straight matters. Recent order of events matters.
The brain seems to have a shelf life for staying in tune with context in general, especially prior to better habits being formed. We do seem to naturally get sucked into details. I’ve seen it a million times. I’ve never seen a trader who consistently omits the details/shorter term because they were so focused on context! It’s precisely the opposite that is common.
So we need to get to a point in our trading where we are, depending on how you want to think about it,: resetting, cycling, alternating, etc. between 1) our more natural state of getting sucked into the here and now and flashy and seemingly more important; and 2) zooming back out to begin what I would call a top down sequence.
You can indeed have that early morning “more easy” state throughout the session. You just have to keep cycling, working top down in your analysis, and determining when and where it’s warranted to turn laser mode on.
That will keep that balance just right.