Shrink Rap: Neutralizing Emotions During Trading, Part 2

One reason it's to your advantage to have a relatively clean, organized and pleasing office setting for your trading is related to the use of triggers and anchors.

Since you can use various objects in your setting to trigger and anchor positive shifts of thought and associated feeling, it's a good idea to have objects set in place so that every time you look there, your eyes will find the same object, not having to search around for it. I use objects such as statues, pictures, trophies, books and memorabilia from childhood for triggering and anchoring shifts of thought and emotion.

The more orderly and consistent triggers and anchoring objects in the office, the more automatic and unconscious these mental connections become. Mental associations are being made all the time with events and associated objects or movements of the body.

All we're trying to do is more consciously use these associations to our own benefit. Once set in place, they can operate largely on their own.

An Example Beyond Trading

Let's look at a nontrading example, in this case how a professional golfer uses both a trigger and an anchor to enter a set sequence he wants to go through as he prepares to hit his shot.

A set of consistent behaviors is known as a "preshot routine." This is a common sequence that good players go through before every shot. Doing the same thing every time helps them deal with the pressure of competitive tournament golf.

For example, Jim Furyk, who finished the year as the 14th leading money winner on the PGA tour, decides on a club, pulls it out of his bag and then stands behind the ball to line up the shot. He visualizes the path he wants the ball to fly on. Then, just before stepping toward the ball, he hitches up his pants.

Now, hitching up his pants, which appears to the outsider as just a nervous habit, is something more. It's a trigger behavior that launches the approach to the ball, and it may have a positive thought associated, such as, "Just put a nice, smooth swing on it."

He then anchors his golf swing after the shot by holding his position on the follow-through of the swing. That builds in a mental/neurological connection between a good swing and a well-executed shot.

Holding the position also allows for this connection to be remembered in the body. This is referred to as "muscle memory" and is something that all competitive athletes may work with to enhance performance.

(For those readers who play golf and who would like to read more about the psychology of the game, please see the articles on my Web site.)