When I was learning to snowboard, I still remember the first time I got off the lift chair, strapped myself in the board and looked down the mountain.
It was really overwhelming and I wondered how I was actually going to get down there without any injuries!
My instructor was very comforting telling us ‘Not to focus on the bottom of the mountain’, because even though that’s the destination, to get there we were actually going to zig-zag down the mountain.
So we needed to focus on the next turn and how we were going to execute that.
We were told to look where we wanted to go, so if you want to go left then look left, your shoulder/hips will turn, your body weight will shift on the board and that will steer the board.
And as you’re moving across the mountain you obviously want to look for hazards.
Look for where you want to turn.
Focus on shifting your body weight to steer the board around the corner
It was all about the process.
By focusing on the process, the outcome would eventually come – You’d work your way down to the bottom of the mountain… with hopefully no broken bones!
However, if you were to just focus solely on the bottom of the mountain, then you’re likely going to fall down and crash.
Trading can be a very outcome-focused activity, there is the temptation to focus on the results of our trades.
Did the trade make or lose money, how is our P/L progressing for the month or year?
- But is this the best focus for traders to have?
- Should we be focusing more on the outcome or the process and what produces the best results?
- Do we need to have a balance between the two, and if so how?
Let’s take a listen to performance coach Rande Howell now as he shares a story about an Olympic hurdler and how his approach to focus also applies to trading performance.
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Episode Released:
8 June 2017
012 – Ernest Chan
Sharpe Ratio – the right answer to the wrong question?
084 – Handling the impacts of market noise
164 – Performance Accelerators – Steve Ward
132 – How to track poor performing trading strategies
Hello!
I love the “Snowboard” analogy here! – 🙂 – I might add a little piece to it, referring to … Slippage! – 🙂
In fact, I once broke my right-hand-side wrist when I was boarding down the “Bärnalm” in Saalbach, Austria, when the “edge” of my board suddenly loosed the grip you simply need when snowboarding. Why did that happen?
There simply was an iced-hard-as-stone little snowfield on an angular point I had to cross on my way down into the valley, and where cold winds had the effect of turning the flaky, fluffy snow into a slippery, icey surface where the edge of my board suddenly had no grip at all. – Although I was not moving too fast, all I realized was that I fell, and I stretched out my right arm affectively, because I was eager to soften my fall-down. No chance! When I hit the icey ground my wrist simply broke under the weight of my body. Every since then, I wear wrist guards when I go snowboarding. – 😉
Conclusion: Expect the unexpected – count slippage into you equations, and take care!
Cheers from Germany
Rene
Hey Rene,
Ouch!
I had a similar fall in The Three Valleys in France, hit an unexpected ice patch and went for a tumble – no broken bones luckily but still a painful experience.
Definitely watch out for that ‘slippage’! 🙂
Andrew
PS. I’d love to snowboard in Austria one day. One of my mates spent a season working in St Anton, he says it’s incredible!