Mr Bellafiore,
I must stop by to thank you for your amazing work on the SMB blog as well as the Stocktwits University shows. I have recently gotten into trading, replacing flying airplanes with AA to doing this full time (at least trying my best). Your visualization techniques are exactly what we do in the airline business on top of simulator exercises. Learning all the systems, limitations and emergency procedures of an aircraft are a requirement, and all of it must be done in 45 days. Needless to say it is lots of work! Your philosophy resembles what is done in the airline industry and the techniques I used as a flight instructor to teach students, and they work. I and am extremely excited to have found your blog (through which I am almost done reading, as well as reading your book which was a gold mine!). It is sad to see other institutions not pushing it as much when we both know it is a proven technique.
You provide on top of these great tools inspirational thoughts to motivate aspiring traders like me, and am sure benefit all others willing to learn and improve.
A big thank you.
3 Comments on “The Importance of Visualization Exercises: A Testimonial”
very cool. I have noticed SMB training to also be very similar to sports training. A lot of practice and drills, as this writer mentions.
“Act like youve been there before” my coach used to say. Although many say this is about celebrating in the endzone, I think it is more than that. To me it means “yes, I scored, because thats what I practice for everyday, I’ve been here before many times, its my job” Of course that needs to be replicated when you dont score, you need to have “been there before” when youre hitting the bid to exit because thats what you practiced.
Anyways, I like that a former pilot found similarities. I’ve always noticed trading has so many parallels with other things in life.
Good Trading.
To add a note to the above…
One day as a flight instructor, I had a woman call me from New York (I was in south Florida). She asked: “Can I get my commercial pilot’s license in 3 days? I have the written exam done.”
I answered her saying it was possible, as long as she memorized all the flight maneuvers by heart by doing chair flying in front of her window, simulating being in the airplane, and that everyday for a month until she could do them by heart. She came down a month later, flew with me 2 days, and passed the exam the 3rd day without any problems! Trading is the same, except you add many different subsets of scenarios. But to get those, you must wash, rinse and repeat over and over and over again. In essence, do what you love, day in and day out, and eventually you’ll get it!
On page 258 of Bella’s book, Bella talks about visualization exercises helping Gman and other traders control their emotions. I have never heard SMB talk about biofeedback. Has anyone at SMB tried biofeedback and if so, how did the results compare with visualization?