Focus – Fitness – Lifestyle

It’s been a hectic week, even more so than usual (didn’t think that was possible).

On reflection I’ve noticed a couple of things…

Focus

When these busy periods occur within my life, trading seems to take the hit. Trading becomes less productive as you’d imagine, although I don’t just mean through profitability. I find myself becoming side-tracked and less focused.

I’ve began to realise how important singular focus is. My worst habit has to be answering email between race, I’m trying to knock that on the head! (sorry if you’re waiting on a reply).

Trading can be stressful at the best of times. Making hundred and hundreds of small decisions on a repetitive basis can become quite tiring, losing focus isn’t hard, but keeping focused is. For that reason alone I think it’s important to ‘make time’ for trading alone.

One of the most extreme cases I heard of was via email from a follower some time ago. They explained how they hadn’t time to trade very often, and when they did they would be looking after the kids, dog running riot in the same room and just a laptop to operate from. If you’ve got distractions like that going on, you’re going to need some real talent to survive!

Distractions can become a real problem quite easily. The best way I know to combat this is to develop a set of habits that eradicate them, or at least stop most of them creeping in. The importance of keeping fit is underrated amongst traders. This week I’ve started going to the gym again on a regular basis, along with the odd swimming session. It’s amazing how different you can feel after a bit of exercise!

I’m always fond of a fry-up each morning and a few beers in the evening although in terms of productivity it’s not the best help in the world… plus I seem to have packed on a few pounds (of the wrong sort) just lately. This new routine should help shift that…

These small changes incorporated into your day can really make the difference to the end result! A while ago I took part in the ‘tough guy’ event shown in the image above. I really should do more things like this. It’s a fun way of keeping on top of things.

Recent markets…

The racing markets could have been better his week, although that could be my lack of effort too. It’s not surprising to see that fill-rate is lower than usual with the World Cup and Wimbledon all soaking up the public’s interest. In the coming weeks Newmarket will give racing a boost as usual, bringing some nice liquidity with it. Hopefully I don’t get distracted!

Related Article: Mentality & Trading Fears

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