Ha-ha I have an attention span of a five year old. I can tell you it was very hard for me to get into reading and that's what I initially did. I used books, audio books, and videos. I found the audio books to help, while watching the videos I get tired and couldn't sit still, It may have been the voice and I wasn't as passionate as I am now about trading. Thinking back, I'd zone out on the audio books and the reading.
What I had to do is read, listen, watch everything over and over and over again until it sunk in.
When I first started trading, I was going to be a stock trader. Then I felt overwhelmed with my stock scanner and settings because I started with reversals and alerts and it was a lot to keep up with. I switched quickly to being a index futures trader and started with futures watching ES and NQ. After trading and learning TA and my discretionary methods I do see a benefit of starting with stocks.
What do you mean by short term rewarding system? Rewarding yourself to learn to trade? Please elaborate.
Pitfalls
From my experience it first started with over trading(learned that lesson paper trading, thank god), trying to trade everything, overall focus (brain running a thousand miles an hour), and other distractions.
Keeping a journal has helped see the progression. My personality has helped as well, I'm one that doesn't give up. I have a know it all, I'm better, competitive, almost narcissistic/egotistical personality it can and could be dangerous. Things I've learned, still working through a lot of areas and emotions. Knowing that it all takes time. Just know being a trader isn't just about trading it's knowing yourself and learning to address your emotions and dealing with them. I can point you to some books, videos, audio books if you'd like.
Happy Trading!
Process oriented goals #1.
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I would be happy if you can point me to some vids and audio books.
With short term reward I mean motivation and gratfication. Some days ago I was told to make as much demonstration of knowledge as possible and share it to the community (traders community) and receive feedback. Later when trading real money the feedback will be winning trades.
Keeping journal is something I do I use OneNote for that.
MPH (methylphenidate) alone doesn't help. I have a high daily dosage now and it has tremendous side effects. So for me it's good when performing routine not to lose focus on boring things. And I need a plan to follow like:
First I learn A - then I learn B - then C and so on
But I would never take it when creative problem solving skills are needed.
When you wrote that your brain runs with thousands of miles per hour I see myself...
1. audio books / paper books:
I read lots, as well as listen to quite a few audio books. There are very few good books on trading, none of them happen to be on audio.
2. Hyper focus on specific instruments:
Personally I try and just trade one at a time, but I'm aware of several.
3. Stimulate short term vs long term rewards:
By trading, by reading/learning.
4. Pitfalls:
None. It could very well be an advantage.
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Since were on the topic of add/adhd, I had a question about add/adhd and wanted to know from your perspective.
I can relate to the hyper focus you mention. Something that I'm really interested in like trading, my journal, and motorcycles I can spend all day doing. Other things like chores or miniscule tasks at my day job take the back seat and their hard to get done. I'm curious to know how medication plays a role in your trading and overall of completion of tasks?
Thanks in advance for responding.
I think the biggest thing is impulse control. Unmedicated I would take trades that were not in line with my trade plan whereas I find being on meds helps me to stay focused, relaxed and improves my patience. Someone mentioned that Aderol was "legal speed". Well that's only half true. "Speed" on a neuro-typical brain acts like speed but to an ADHD brain it has the opposite effect; it slows things down and has a calming effect. I would go so far as to suggest that there are "speed" addicts out there who are, knowingly or unknowingly, self medicating. "Speed" doesn't get them high, it makes them feel "normal".
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Thanks for this thread @LUPUS! I have been a follower for some time of "The bclund Blog" (http://bclund.com/). Mr Lund is a stock trader with ADHD, a condition we have in common.
He has a great sense of humor and very good insight on coping with ADHD, accepting it for what it is and finding ways to succeed as a trader in spite of it. This post "7 Ways To Better Focus Your Trading" may ring a bell or two. It did for me.
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i want to keep this thread up again. thanks to @LUPUS for initiating this thread. i have ADHD and guess what? i just discovered it yesterday while searching Google for "improving focus" then stumbled upon ADHD. i was so damn happy i stumbled upon it as i have been wondering since time immemorial about what's the problem with me.
some story:
i live in the Philippines and getting to see a doctor/psychiatrist/psychologist is not mainstream here. people here tend to go on living their everyday lives with a "come what may" mentality. i started wondering about my performance years ago when i started working. i usually wondered why people/colleagues tend to have a good dose of focus on their work and tend to finish work ahead of me most of the time while i sit at my desk reading about stuff not related to work (such as scientific articles, news, sports). in other words, i am easily distracted.
i also noticed that everytime i hear noises or see something move within my field of vision, i usually lose focus on what i am doing and gets distracted.
i also noticed that if someone is talking to me or to the group, i don't seem to understand what he/she is talking about while people around me do understand. then i found out that i was actually thinking about something, looking at something, or my attention is on something else. i ALWAYS have this kind of problem.
inattention is my #1 problem right now. i didn't know what really is my problem until yesterday. not i can put all of the puzzle pieces together and i now understand why i am like this.
my attempt to treat this:
it is hard to find a doctor or psychologist here in the Philippines so i may start therapy or medications. i did my homework and found out some non-medicated treatment that i would try:
1. daily exercise. i am fortunate to be living near a badminton court. my partner and i plan to play at least 30 mins of badminton everyday. this will also lower bad cholesterol levels.
2. getting enough vitamins and minerals. i will start taking multivitamins along with the right food.
3. being with nature. we are also having a once a month trail hiking or mountain climbing.
4. enough sleep/rest. this is self-explanatory.
having ADD/ADHD does have some good things as well. i believe i learned a lot of general science/information and also have a lot of interests because of ADHD. i tend to be distracted by other things and i tend to learn about it easily.
with trading...
now this is where i want to improve. in trading. to be honest, i am a REAL STRUGGLING TRADER. i am not yet consistently making money that's why i still have my day job. i have tried various markets to trade. been in FX, then stocks, then finally in the futures market which i intend to focus from now on.
here are my problems in trading:
1. TOO LAZY to do some quick analysis. also too lazy to connect my other monitors.
2. EASILY DISTRACTED by the environment and internetz.
3. BEING BORED and tend to leave the computer. also tend to overtrade and break the rules.
i know there are more than the 3 items above. i also have bought some courses online and tools in the hope to improve myself. but as of now, not much improvement yet. i don't blame the course or the tools because i know the problem is within me.
i am happy to know that i am not alone. good to know some people here share the same pain that i am and i am really looking forward to learn from you guys.
let's keep this thread alive by posting some findings and suggestions. thanks to those who have contributed and those who will contribute. cheers!
"You are only as good as the decisions you make."
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Yeah I'm definitely feeling this. I find that checklists help me a LOT. If I write it down as a list of bite-sized pieces, I find myself feeling less inclines to ignore important details.
Here are some tips from Zenhabits and other sites to improve focus and attention. With the "connected world" it is easy to get distracted. Simplify your life and getting rid of the unwanted distractions will help. Remember people where connected and had real friends before facebook and twitter
1) delete social media accounts. Observe how you use twitter , facebook etc. if you tend to browse thru other peoples profiles whom you dont know , it is time to get rid of it. It is a bold move but definitely helps
2) get a "not very smart" phone.
3) set a firewall to block all the sites that you frequent, during trading hours. One can simply edit the hosts file and create entires for all the sites you want to block, for e.g
4) practice doing mental math to increase focus. Multiply 2 or 3 digit numbers in mind
for e.g 54 x 73 . If it is hard try splitting it ( 50 X 70 + 50 x 3 + 4 x 70 + 4 x 3 ). It is fun once you get the hang of it and requires good focus to solve it.
I know the thread is pretty old, but i recently got diagnosed with add (attention deficit disorder). For me there was a big A-HA effect.
I practice trading for years, have a ton of ideas for strategies, doing backtests and doing simulations, but i'm stuck...
I'm unable to focus long-term (even short-term is hard) but the biggest problem i have are my emotions when something is looking good and then turns out to SEEM bad. It's a f****ing rollercoaster of emotions. This is funny, because in RL i'm pretty concious and always am able to control my emotions.
So my main problem is, i think, consistency... I get an idea, backtest it, feeling that this is finally my suitable strategy and then some loosing trades appear. And i know this is totally normal, but i can't deal with it and decide to move on
Now i know where this comes from, and the next step is to figure out how to deal with this.
Maybe there is still someone with add/adhs here who may have some tips for a newly diagnosed ADD-Trader
I can't tell for sure do I have ADD or not, most likely I do. I can easily be distracted. But I can't sit like 5-6 hours straight coding stuff, watching charts, etc. So I spent even more with wasting my time on reddit/youtube. I can't fight it. But sometimes I have some kinda rush when I do some work in 2-3 hours that couldn't do in a week. Man, brain is a funny thing.
You don't skip system because you're bored but rather when losestreak comes, right? I don't think it has something to do with ADHD. Low self-esteem? Wrong attitude with money (if it's real account)? Think about it
