Many traders know what to do and when to do it but find it difficult to take the actions in real time, in the live markets. What stops them? They stop themselves: the way they think, the feelings they experience and their habits, behaviours, and actions. This book helps traders understand why they think, feel, and act the way they do when trading and offers practical and powerful techniques and strategies that will enable them to break out of their old ways and take their trading performances to new levels.

• Shows how to harness the power of perception and belief to build a winning trading mindset
• Reveals proven strategies for managing emotional states and increasing trading potential
• Includes suggestions for visualization and other mental rehearsal techniques that will enhance trading performance

Breakout is filled with the latest psychological techniques that reinforce the messages and strategies for mastering change and taking trading skills to new levels.

Steve Ward works with financial traders, trading teams and leaders in proprietary trading groups, energy companies, banks and funds across the world, utilising his expertise in the areas of performance, psychology, lifestyle management and making decisions under conditions of high stress, risk and uncertainty. He is the author of High Performance Trading and Sportsbetting To Win, and was the consultant trading performance coach to BBC television's Million Dollar Traders series.

About the Author ix

Foreword by Linda Raschke xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction: The Evolution of TraderMind xv

1 What is Mindfulness? 1

2 Developing Your Mindfulness Muscle 23

3 The Attention and Awareness Advantage 43

4 Thinking About Thinking 59

5 Embracing Emotions 83

6 Managing Urges and Impulses 105

7 Trading With the Body in Mind 119

8 Habits, Behaviour, Action 141

9 Turning Towards Difficulty 161

10 The Mindful Trader and Investor 185

TraderMind: Mindfulness?]Based Trading and Investing Training Programme 191

References 199

Index 209