Unconscious Vs Conscious Competence

[zdo 20]

Is there any material out there ... that is able to be used by mere mortals without specific training in this area that you or any others reading this are aware of... ? Tx

 

:helloooo:

…to get to non - “out of the blue” with it, how much time per day have you committed to this…and for how many years?

__________________

Regards...Tim

 

"I made a mistake by learning something "

 

[JohnBly 10]

I found these 3 books helpful.

 

"Open Focus Brain" by Les Fehmi

"Zen in the Markets" by Toppel

"The Intuitive Trader "

 

 

 

I would also be interested to hear how others experience genuine intuition.

I know it happens differently for people depending on their sensory prediliction etc.

[roztom 10]

:helloooo:

…to get to non - “out of the blue” with it, how much time per day have you committed to this…and for how many years?

__________________

Regards...Tim

 

"I made a mistake by learning something "

 

 

I am not sure if you are asking me or Laurus12 the question.

 

I have committed no time to this part of Mindfulness other than my interest in it.

 

I have had to deal with the emotional challanges of trading along the way.. even with over 30yrs trading experience that is still a work in progress.

 

I started this thread since I often have these flashes of insight but find them in conflict with the discipline I have worked so diligently to achieve.

 

Yet, they seem to have value and I am interested to see if they can co-exist in a productive framework that can be applied to Trading..

 

The question here was not for me to try to "re-invent the wheel" but learn if others encounter this and have harnessed it or explored it with a positive outcome.

 

I believe we are accomplishing that goal.

[DeniseKShull 10]

At the risk of being impolitely self-promotional, the ultimate goal of the work in my book MARKET MIND GAMES is focused towards the goal of knowing the difference between an intuitive feeling and an impulsive one.

 

I do believe John has described this very well - as setting yourself up to allow it to happen. I do also believe, and have researched with clients, the process of learning the feeling and emotional intelligence.

 

I hope that is helpful. It's a catch 22 to answer the question with an answer like "in my book". Maybe the Amazon reviews overall will speak for themselves?

 

Good luck,

Denise

[SIUYA 11]

You still should be able to answer why your intuition is right or wrong....regardless of where it comes from. You might not be able to pin it down right at that point in time but historically if you record when you get these flashes then you should be able to work it out.

As intuition comes from a flash to the mind, then just flicking through charts until the one that catches your eye is usually enough to tweak further investigation, however to get value out of then you still need to know how to act on it.

If you are just watching a chart and waiting for something to happen then I think that is a dangerous way to apply intuition. It has to come from somewhere, from experience and with a bit of time this should be quantifiable to a certain extent (maybe not enough to tell a computer )

 

As an aside I saw a great program recently about using the brain as a better tool for scanning maps than a computer....I will try and dig up the program reference.

[roztom 10]

You still should be able to answer why your intuition is right or wrong....regardless of where it comes from. You might not be able to pin it down right at that point in time but historically if you record when you get these flashes then you should be able to work it out.

As intuition comes from a flash to the mind, then just flicking through charts until the one that catches your eye is usually enough to tweak further investigation, however to get value out of then you still need to know how to act on it.

If you are just watching a chart and waiting for something to happen then I think that is a dangerous way to apply intuition. It has to come from somewhere, from experience and with a bit of time this should be quantifiable to a certain extent (maybe not enough to tell a computer )

 

As an aside I saw a great program recently about using the brain as a better tool for scanning maps than a computer....I will try and dig up the program reference.

 

You know, I think that is a question related to structured training... I have long considered it but my discipline had closed that path as a formal consideration. It is just something that has been happening for years...but I chose to just leave it alone... I am fortunate to have sat most of those 30 years in front of a screen so a lot fires off in my head. My friends who were Floor Traders and have moved to Screen seem to still act by instinct since that is how they learned the business..I was always a Screen/Chart trader..so I was more of an analytical and back in the day there was no off floor daytrading of any consequence... I am most interested in this and appreciate your contributions...

[laurus12 10]

Thanks for the info..I'm sure you are aware that we must be careful not to promote any commercial services/Vendors. Being mindful of that, I did ask and you were kind enough to respond. Thank You.

 

You are very welcome Tom

 

Regarding promoting, I have been under the impression that since I am not a service provider or vendor, but just a student of Dr. Gary it should not hurt that I am sharing my experiences with others. Hopefully I am right.

 

Laurus

[laurus12 10]

I found these 3 books helpful.

 

"Open Focus Brain" by Les Fehmi

"Zen in the Markets" by Toppel

"The Intuitive Trader "

 

 

 

I would also be interested to hear how others experience genuine intuition.

I know it happens differently for people depending on their sensory prediliction etc.

 

Thanks for the books John. One of my favorites is "The Eye Never Sleeps - Striking to the heart of Zen". It's a pure Zen book, but indeed very much appliable to trading. To my opinion it is a very good book. It has helped me with both my trading and in everyday life.

 

Regarding my experience with intuition and trading, it actually started before I knew or understood indicators and more common knowledge of structure and so on. So since I was very eager to understand the markets I just sat and tried to figure out price action for maaany hours day in and out. The unexpected result of this was that I later on just knew when a good opportunity came along. Meaning it resonated with something inside of me. To me it is both visual/pictorial and rhythmical, the latter just as in music, but connected to the visual. So this became my edge. But, since I did not understand the overall ecology of trading I did not stick to just that. So many of my other trades became the loosing trades. I then thought and believed that I had to have something more. Mostly thinking in indicator terms, because I still did not understand the overall ecology. Note that I said believed, because it would have been interesting to know how it would have been today if I just stuck to my price action or pattern intuition, and followed a plan with some rules. Anyhow I started to learn about both price indicators and volume. Which actually impaired me, because then my left brain came into play and I lost touch with what I was good at. But then I luckily read Curtis Faith's book "Trading From the Gut" where he explained that this is a phase with stuff you learn. Meaning first you have to do your homework well, and then you can leave it to your "Gut" as he put it. Since I have good experiences with intuition and trading I know today that this is a good way of doing it. I understand this is a way to become a very good trader. So this is what I am doing today to become better. When I am in the process of learning something new I know that I have to practice hard so that I know it is recorded somewhere else, if you know what I mean. Then one can let everything go and trade like the dickens . But, I know that it is then not just to let go, this is a process as well where one have to trust and learn to relax (maybe again) so things can go by itself and be allowed to live on the intuitive side.

 

Laurus

[SIUYA 11]

Floor traders (I used to be one) react a lot to the noise, plus the difference of being on a floor was that you got to make the most of any inefficiencies, you generally saw everything and how/who exactly was buying/selling.... among other things, so even though instincts were built from that environment, they could still be explained by certain things.

 

I guess the point is instinct to be trusted has to have a basis for it. AND

Even experience to be considered worthwhile needs to be shown to be worthwhile.

 

(I am always remember that great old thing I am sure we have all had said to us, and maybe some of us are at that stage we say it to others ....it goes along the line of....." I've been driving for 20/30/40 years young man and I know how its done." when in actual fact it might have been better said "I have been driving badly for all those years and never really proved that my driving was any good")

 

The program I mentioned was from the BBC Horizon series - I could not see it on their site though. the basis for this one little section in the program was this.....

 

Military personnel often have to scan satellite pictures of earth looking for building etc; of interest. This is difficult with large areas. So what these scientists did was chop each large image up into smaller sections, and then they showed the subject an image similar to what they were meant to be looking for (the test image). eg; a building in a desert. At the same time they registered the pattern the brain registered when this test image was seen and studied.

The next step was to rapidly show the larger image broken into much smaller segments, and to record which smaller images registered in the brain with the same scan as the test image. Far faster than we could recognise them, the brain picked it up and recorded the scan and registered it to the image. They then showed the larger image with the registered hotspots for closer inspection.

The scanning this way improved both the time taken to scan images and the accuracy by (from memory) 300%.

Fascinating stuff.....I was thinking of asking the university professors for some equipment

 

Its what many of us do every day anyway, and computer scans as they stand only provide some of the picture, its this little hidden part that it seems you are trying to capture.

Either way the rationale is there, we just need to be able to quantify it.

[roztom 10]

As far as these books go:

 

Would the posters please prioritize which books they found most helpful for the actual process of developing and integrating these skills as they apply specifically to Trading vs. Generic Concepts..

 

Thanks

[JohnBly 10]

Laurus,

It's interesting that you started out trading without trying to use indicators etc, just observing the market until opportunities began to become obvious. I am guessing that has turned out to be a real advantage, having trusted yourself from the beginning.

 

What I have found works for me at this point is to have a particular "setup" that I wait for that is rule-based and this keeps the logic-structured part of me occupied and content. The setup is statistically sound and fits my character in terms of where I like to enter the fray.

 

Since I have my setup that I wait for, I can relax and just observe the rest of the time, which leaves the mind more open and spacious and able to register intuition. If I get an intuitive flash between setups I take it.

 

Also, when my setup appears, I try and rely on intuition even at those points as a filter to enter now or not, and so this becomes a way to try and use intuition in a more controlled manner.

 

To me this is where trading gets really interesting.

[JohnBly 10]

As far as these books go:

 

Would the posters please prioritize which books they found most helpful for the actual process of developing and integrating these skills as they apply specifically to Trading vs. Generic Concepts..

 

Thanks

 

Tom,

I am going to rely on my subconcious on this one and say that the priority of importance is in the order I listed them ;-)

[JohnBly 10]

The scanning this way improved both the time taken to scan images and the accuracy by (from memory) 300%.

Fascinating stuff.....I was thinking of asking the university professors for some equipment

 

Its what many of us do every day anyway, and computer scans as they stand only provide some of the picture, its this little hidden part that it seems you are trying to capture.

 

Siuya,

Sounds like an example of where too much information can choke the pattern recognition function. "Signal to noise" ratio gets weak with to much data. That's a very interesting example.

 

I always thought floor traders must really rely on their senses, especially sound as you say. The senses have direct pathways to the subconcious.

I think this puts screen traders at a disadvantage, where it's easy to just get locked into the logical/thinking mind.

[laurus12 10]

As far as these books go:

 

Would the posters please prioritize which books they found most helpful for the actual process of developing and integrating these skills as they apply specifically to Trading vs. Generic Concepts..

 

Thanks

 

As you know Tom I have mentioned Zen and Mindfulness in my post. And if you have read the page by Dr. Gary you know now that Zen and Mindfulness is related. The reason for mentioning both of these things is that I have been into a phase where I studied so hard that I could not see the forest for the trees. I actually had to ask for help to sort things out. The simple solution was that I had to totally stay away from what I was doing, and at the same time I was recommended reading "Zen in The Art of Archery" and "The Eye Never Sleeps". The interesting and unexpected thing about this is that what I did physically, staying away from the charts, and reading these two books which is not related to trading, is by doing something which was outside of trading learned me how I actually should be when I also was in front of my charts. Meaning detached. Be there, but at the same time not being there. Only in this way can things be allowed to run its course and fall into place where it belongs. This process also showed me that a good mindset with trading can't just be related to trading, it had to be an overall change in attitude which also affects who I am in everyday life. Only then can I genuinely be what I wish to be with my trading. I could have reread "Super Trader" or "Trading in The Zone", but that would have been trading. So reading "The Eye Never Sleeps" actually gave me more in regards of trading than any of the other books could have done, big time. It gave me the freedom to put things upon trading from the outside and still be free. If I had reread the other two books, I would still have my head hard pressed down in my trading stuff bucket.

 

If the things above speaks to you I would definitely recommend reading "The Eye Never Sleeps".

 

Laurus

[SIUYA 11]

Siuya,

Sounds like an example of where too much information can choke the pattern recognition function. "Signal to noise" ratio gets weak with to much data. That's a very interesting example.

 

I always thought floor traders must really rely on their senses, especially sound as you say. The senses have direct pathways to the subconcious.

I think this puts screen traders at a disadvantage, where it's easy to just get locked into the logical/thinking mind.

 

Initially I wanted to agree with your statement but when writing my answer I switched... I think it is almost the opposite. It is a fine line between too much information, v too much superfluous information v not being able to discern the relevant information from a lot of information.

You need to be able to quickly get the relevant signal out of the noise, and yet to do so you do need to look at the noise....you cannot eliminate it. More of it is ok, so long as we "detach" from it.

The experiment (and subsequent live time use) shows that the intuitive section of the brain can actually pick up the signals quick enough, without us registering the noise, and it is not a matter of filtering the noise as such it is a matter of filtering the recognition of the signal. So it seems rather than trying to eliminate the noise having a lot of it its not actually the problem it is the discernment of the signal whilst ignoring/not registering the noise.

One of the reasons people look at longer term charts and then drill down I guess they try to eliminate the noise, but this in itself might cause a problem as it gives conflicting results and causes more indecision. It seems to be that you are better looking at a lot of noise rather quickly and letting the intuition register a "now that looks interesting".

By eliminating the noise, you eliminate the texture/flavour/subtle context.....we underestimate the power of our brain. We should keep it and let intuition decide which patterns are the tastiest.

 

Floor traders are able to do exactly this - they register the relevant signals from the noise, and it is not a matter of eliminating it, and yes it seems screen traders to a certain extent are disadvantaged in that by eliminating noise we might be going the wrong way about it, by locking into the logical mind too much we miss the point........food for thought, (maybe that's why I seem to trade better when I have music on, I listen to that and its only when something piques my interest (my intuition) that I get excited, and yet other times something such as a TV becomes too distracting, and other times there is the need to focus and turn off all distractions.)

 

This is rather different to the original example from roztom but I guess it is something to think about

[SIUYA 11]

What I have found works for me at this point is to have a particular "setup" that I wait for that is rule-based and this keeps the logic-structured part of me occupied and content. The setup is statistically sound and fits my character in terms of where I like to enter the fray.

 

Since I have my setup that I wait for, I can relax and just observe the rest of the time, which leaves the mind more open and spacious and able to register intuition. If I get an intuitive flash between setups I take it.

 

Also, when my setup appears, I try and rely on intuition even at those points as a filter to enter now or not, and so this becomes a way to try and use intuition in a more controlled manner.

 

To me this is where trading gets really interesting.

 

A good point....

I have been trying to quantify this very thing for a computer and I cannot get it to how I like, as it is the combination of both that a computer (or at least I cant get it to do so) cannot combine both.

For me it seems having both a strict and structured rule based setup and entry/exit system is not working, whereas if you go either strict and structured entry and exit with a general setup, OR a strict and structured setup with a general entry exit then you are getting the best of it.......

 

I was wanting to try and set up an automated system that covers many instruments, long, short, all markets....but I dont think I am able to (not enough computer skills, power or ability, annoyingly so) so it seems I am heading down the road of compromise.....general structures, with more rule based entry and exit the computer can handle once I establish generally what I am looking for ---- the opposite of you, but in the same rationale I guess.

Thanks for the food for thought and ideas....clarity etc;

 

Neither path is right or wrong (I hope ) its what works and utilizes a persons strengths the best and ultimately while I hope I dont waste time and effort too much you do wonder if we should just be happy with what we do.....but then man never would have left the cave!

[SIUYA 11]

You know, I think that is a question related to structured training... I have long considered it but my discipline had closed that path as a formal consideration. It is just something that has been happening for years...but I chose to just leave it alone... I am fortunate to have sat most of those 30 years in front of a screen so a lot fires off in my head. My friends who were Floor Traders and have moved to Screen seem to still act by instinct since that is how they learned the business..I was always a Screen/Chart trader..so I was more of an analytical and back in the day there was no off floor daytrading of any consequence... I am most interested in this and appreciate your contributions...

 

I think my two previous posts agree with you, but ultimately get down to your original post - how to combine the two so they are not in conflict, and as per many things until you are having to write things down often the thoughts are constantly in conflict. So my conclusions thanks to this thread are a bit more clearer even though they were already in my thoughts.........so thank you.

 

- the conflicts will occur when you mix setup and entry/exit or timeframes.

If you use intuition for one, or the other, and rules/logic for the second you can get the best of both worlds without conflict.

history will tell which one is the right combination for you and weather you can trust your intuition or its used in the right combination.

[roztom 10]

Agree & Thank you.

 

One of the reasons I started this thread was to gain insight into this side of our minds. I believe it is a given that there is a huge potential if we can identify true insight from superfulous emotional mind chatter - fear & hope.

 

General Question:

 

I wonder if there is a way to recognize the right brain "unconscious competent" and not get misled by the reptilian or base survival instincts -fight or flight and the commensuate emotonal states...

 

Is that flash of "I better abandon that trade now" based on fear of loss or genuine insight that a move is ending eventhough the target or insight you had about it's potential whether rule based or gut hasn't changed "consciously?" To be more concise, how do you recognize the difference?

 

Have any of you been able to differentiate that "mindfulness" from emotionally generated self-defeating behaviors? How do you differentiate?

[karoshiman 10]

 

...

 

I wonder if there is a way to recognize the right brain "unconscious competent" and not get misled by the reptilian or base survival instincts -fight or flight and the commensuate emotonal states...

 

... To be more concise, how do you recognize the difference?

 

 

Hi Tom,

 

I think it has to do with calmness, like FXgirl described this one day trader.

 

If fight or flight emotions take over you are usually nervous or excited. Then it is probably the emotions which want you to do something to reduce the emotional pain.

 

But if it's the intuition you are almost indifferent. You just see and act.

 

Regards,

k

[SIUYA 11]

General Question:

 

I wonder if there is a way to recognize the right brain "unconscious competent" and not get misled by the reptilian or base survival instincts -fight or flight and the commensuate emotonal states...

 

Have any of you been able to differentiate that "mindfulness" from emotionally generated self-defeating behaviors? How do you differentiate?

 

At a guess I think you will find everyone has different responses on different but similar trades and the number of parameters in this will be potentially huge. Hence the need to standardize things. One day your flight radar will be on, another day the fight....

 

eg; if you have a position and it is going your way your response may be different if....

a....your previous trade/day/week/series of trades was a looser,

b...your wife/husband/kids are nagging you

c....you have not eaten lately (thats makes some people definitely more anxious mainly due to hormones as scientists have recently found out more about)

d....are you normally trading from the long side and this is a short or vv

e....is it against the trend, or with the trend as you define it.

f.....did you get in on an intuition or a rule based idea

g....etc.

 

then what if its not going your way.....

 

I often open up my computer look at a few charts and then say to myself - what do I think. If any further analysis confirms that then great.....before reading anything, before having other opinions......you could also do this at the end of each day, and then compare it at the start of each day. Or have a checklist of thoughts to match off your instinct - eg; is my instinct telling me something or is it messing with my mind.

Sure if you need to react ultra fast then it might be a different story but like every muscle training technique it needs to be practised - instinct for trading (and not involuntary erections and the like ) generally need to be practised....unless you are a freak golden child., so even if you can recognize it - how do you know that it is reliable unless you really record it, or can justify it. you will remember the good instinctual times and forget the bad ones

[roztom 10]

Hi Tom,

 

I think it has to do with calmness, like FXgirl described this one day trader.

 

If fight or flight emotions take over you are usually nervous or excited. Then it is probably the emotions which want you to do something to reduce the emotional pain.

 

But if it's the intuition you are almost indifferent. You just see and act.

 

Regards,

k

 

I hope nobody #%&@ slaps me for this..but when I sell just off the high and get lets say 2/3 of my scales and I'm holding runners, etc... my self talk says - "Wow, I'm good at this." There is another side that says "Stop that and reigns it in to try to get to a Neutral Objective State... BTW, just to be balanced, I also have the other self-talk.. "Gee, You Suck..what were you thinking?" Either way as soon as that appears I basically throw it out and see it as a dangerous state of mind...

 

The challange is when the same self talk that says get out here is attached to the "I suck" self talk and the "I'm Good" self talk causes me to color or distort what is going on...and look for the poition to be the "Hail Mary Pass" with an extended target... even if it is a viable target but low probability..

 

I do tell myself I know I don't know but I discipline myself to wait and see and often it can ride all the back to my entry - I'm talking runners... Now you're going to say do the metrics make sense overall and I'm going to say it depends on ATR and I am not that good at that in the daytime frame..How many times does it take a day or two to get to a target - daytime frame again here...

 

I have had to try to use rules to take those issues out of my trading. While I can recognize the self-defeating self-talk and can shut it off.. I cannot discern when I am still subliminally in the "I suck" state of mind and tell if my urge to dump a trade is colored based on that emotional angst or true right brain insight...

 

If I can calm myslef in time I can refocus and become objective..if not impulse can take over... I try to lean on rules and let the market make those "judgements" for me...

 

I am going to open myself to more right brain thinking / Trading.. I find that if I can calm the chatter than it can come through.. I don't have a description for that state of mind..Maybe that is what being in the zone really is...

[karoshiman 10]

 

...

 

I don't have a description for that state of mind..Maybe that is what being in the zone really is...

 

 

 

Yes, and maybe it is a little bit different for each of us.

 

Talking for myself, when I have these intuitive moments, there is no self-talk involved. But I do have these self-talks as well... but they are not linked to my personal "moments of brilliance"

[JohnBly 10]

The experiment (and subsequent live time use) shows that the intuitive section of the brain can actually pick up the signals quick enough, without us registering the noise, and it is not a matter of filtering the noise as such it is a matter of filtering the recognition of the signal. So it seems rather than trying to eliminate the noise having a lot of it its not actually the problem it is the discernment of the signal whilst ignoring/not registering the noise.

 

Floor traders are able to do exactly this - they register the relevant signals from the noise, and it is not a matter of eliminating it, and yes it seems screen traders to a certain extent are disadvantaged in that by eliminating noise we might be going the wrong way about it, by locking into the logical mind too much we miss the point........

 

Siuya, yes I agree with you, that's a great distinction you make.

 

It's like being a crowded party with talking everywhere, yet one can hear the wife's voice clearly in the mix. Covering one's ears to block out some of the noise would not help.

 

So it's more a matter of just trusting the subconcious mind to sift through the input and present to the concious mind what is needed, rather than blocking out some the input to "keep things simple."

 

Screen traders have only the visual sensory market cues, and I think this tends to make us more "mental" in our approach, and also makes us want to fill up the visual arena with more visual stuff, ei indicators etc. Your idea of music is excellent and I am going to experiment with that. The auditory input is not market related, but it does tend to bring the right brain more into the trading arena.

 

Thanks for your "input" ;-)

[JohnBly 10]

For me it seems having both a strict and structured rule based setup and entry/exit system is not working, whereas if you go either strict and structured entry and exit with a general setup, OR a strict and structured setup with a general entry exit then you are getting the best of it.......

 

Yes good way to think about it.

I use a "general setup", a "strict entry" and a "general exit"

 

I like the strict formality for actual entry, as I don't have to think about it when it's time to pull the trigger.

My entry area and stop are defined once I have the green light of the setup in place, so easy to execute.

 

The exit is "general" as a strong market will lead me to keep position on longer than a weaker market would, so I need the flexibilty to adjust to actual market conditions

[FXGirl 10]

Suiya: I like your point about noise vs. signal. And I think others on this thread such as roztom are talking about the same problem.

 

Les Fehmi, PhD, head of the Princeton Biofeedback Centre, has some interesting things to say about the noise vs. signal issue. Fehmi is an expert in neurofeedback and believes that it is the quality (style) of our attention that determines what information is available to us. In other words, it’s not what we attend to, but how we attend. He says that there are four basic attention styles and these are associated with particular brainwave patterns:

 

1. Narrow Focus – concentration on a limited field – this is where most traders are during a trading session. (see Beta Waves below)

 

Higher Levels of Alpha and/or Theta

2. Diffuse focus – softer more inclusive view (conducive to market pattern recognition).

3. Objective attention – observer is emotionally distant from object (emotionally calm, non-attached).

4. Immersed or Absorbed attention – characterized by self-forgetfulness, unconscious (timelessness).

 

Here is a chart of his theory:

 

 

Quadrant B is associated with Low-Beta and Alpha brainwaves, a special kind of Alpha - phase-synchronous alpha. This means that not only are many parts of the brain producing alpha, but that these waves are also rising and falling in unison…a large number of cells are working together. If non-synchronous beta activity is like the chatter of an auditorium full of high school students engaged in separate conversations, the synchronous, uniform lower frequency (alpha) generated across the whole brain by open styles of attention is the equivalent of the same group of students singing together.

 

Bursts of phase-synchronous alpha occur during optimal performance – being in the “flow”. Athletes say they have unusual perceptual experiences during these times; they often perceive high-speed action in slow motion, and some see spontaneously shifting foreground and background. In phase-synchronous alpha states, people tend to perceive events as simultaneous, timeless, and all inclusive. Some report a “sixth sense” of where other players are and where they were going to be in the future. In chess or trading this can be experienced as subtle patterns become perceptible, seeming to jump out from the background – trader’s intuition.

 

Dr. Fehmi did a series of YouTube videos (eleven of them I think) about his theory and how it relates to peak performance, pain relief, etc. Here is the link to the first one: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp7Ip18hsv8]Focusing on Open Focus: Part 1 What is Open Focus? - YouTube[/ame] I don’t want to violate Trader’s Lab rule about promoting any commercial services, so I want to make it very clear that I have no association with Dr. Fehmi; I’ve read his book and tried some of his exercises and found them helpful although I didn’t practice them as long as I would have liked to. The above chart is from his book, as is most of the information in this post on brainwaves though the comments about where traders fit into this schema is mine and from a presentation I did a number of years ago.

 

Beta Waves:

Beta 13-50 Hz, is where we carry out most of our tasks and where we are most of the time when we are trading. Beta is usually divided into three subgroups:

Low Beta 13-15 Hz is characterized by relaxed but interested attention, characteristic of someone taking a test and knows the material well.

Mid-range Beta 16-22 Hz, is produced during focused external attention. Frequencies of this range and higher are associated with the dominant use of narrow focus. High beta 22 Hz and higher generally correlated with tense muscles, anger, anxiety and other intense emotions…examples: someone taking a test and doesn’t know the material…or a driver with road rage (or a trader determined to get even with the market).