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What helps me a lot to clear my mind is a few minutes of meditation.
I am doing this not only before trading but also to all related business stuff. A friend of mine introduced me to it, before I thought that it is just a waste of time but I was wrong.
I speak loud in car, on the way to office, about what to expect in market, I am thinking about my last trades and trying to imagine them. Just before market I am listening music, but the most important, I am writing, anything is on my mind, anything stayed on my mind from day before, then what is market looks like, what I can expect from it. When trade is coming I am writing all about it, making pics, puting it on too. I am still beginner and this way is keeping me out of stupid mistakes, most of the time
I just started this Vipassana Meditation process - in it I talk about the technique and promise to share my everyday experiences - hopefully other practitioners will join in:
I have found that some of my best trading days were those when I woke up relatively tired, and some of my worst when I felt most "on it" getting out of bed. That's not to say there is a causal relationship there, but in my case at least, it shows there is not a strong correlation between where I think I am mentally, and how I then perform. Certainly there's no reason to want to be tired, but my point is that for me, waking up refreshed is not really correlated to my performance for the day.
The thing that helps me is to have a plan of action before the open. This means that I entertain several different possibilities of what might happen. Then, as trading begins I observe and see what's actually happening. Then, I do my best to trade what's in front of me.
So I walk into the day with a bit of a "map" if you will, and this is enough to give me a clear mind. When I have no freaking clue what's going on, then I am more likely to make irrational decisions. But when I have an overall map written down, and then when I do not care what happens but simply observe and act accordingly, then I make better decisions. For example, when I can objectively recognize a strong market at the open, and when I have a clear idea of what's happening, it doesn't matter if I got 4 hours of sleep or 8, or if I had a fight with my girlfriend, or if someone else finished the rest of my favorite cereal that morning--I just buy the damn thing at a logical place. If, on the other hand, I am married to my own opinion, I might do just the opposite, which would be detrimental.
We all have to do what works for us. Listening to music, meditation, focusing on breathing, and the like is all a distraction to me, because it's easy for me to say that I didn't have a "clear head" or was not "centered" which gives me an easy excuse for poor performance, when the reason was more likely that I actually didn't have a clue or had not sufficiently prepared. Others, however, may find these things helpful. The best thing to do is whatever you find most beneficial for you!
