Trading Techniques for Pratyahara
Pratyahara: Trading Practice
Struggling to find opportunities without the psychological understanding of how the breath affects the mood, the emotions affect the body, and how the body affects the mind will sabotage even the most tested of trading strategies. It is only with the intent of an intuitive and sound understanding of ourselves that one can uncover our true trader.
Trading psychologist Dr. Brett Steenbarger noted in his book Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies from the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology, “All the training and skill development in the world will be for naught if your psychological patterns undermine your performance.” Steenbarger has provided a technique applicable for the use of mind control of traders. In his approach, mental imagery is used to mitigate the concern of troubling market conditions by focusing the senses on an object of concentration without labeling, categorizing, or identifying with the object in any way other than simple awareness. By observing our focus on the object with a disassociated interest, we begin to witness the interconnectedness between the external stressors which lead to the distortion of inner harmony.
Pratyahara Exercise for Trading
Taking a seated position, we may conjure past experiences or fabricate scenarios whereby the troubling aspect of our trading style is relived or experienced. We rehearse our psychophysical responses to various situations (chart behaviour; point of entry and stop-loss targets; or any indicator variable) until we have found the strategies that allow for a decision-making process that is unmitigated by the stress response. We may also record our trading session and review the highlights of the day, educating ourselves as to the subconscious physical tells of our anxious states: increased muscle tension, shallow rapid breath, dilated pupils, or increased heart rate are easily documented by a web cam.
Biofeedback
A unique biofeedback software program may also be of use. Freeze-Frame monitors the corollaries that stress and anxiety may have on our nervous and hormonal systems, blood pressure, and heart rate. These physiological changes also have ramifications on our neural circuitry, which in turn shift our perception. Should we continue to react to a stressor in a negative way, we will encourage negative neural pathways between the brain and body to continue these deleterious defenses. Freeze-Frame allows us to witness the biochemical changes which take place as a result of unhealthy responses, and condition our bodies not to engage the stress response when faced with a relatively benign situation (such as a non-profitable trade). The idea is to find discrepancies in our performance and rehearsed routine, hone in on the precursors to the problem, and make them recognizable in the future, before they limit our ability to perform the tasks of our trading discipline.
Other forms of psychotherapy such as Core-Process psychotherapy, which is based on the unification of the inherent good of people, bridges the teachings of Buddhism and western-based behavioural and cognitive therapy. Neuro-linguistic programming, Rebirthing, Emotional Freedom Technique, and Thought Field Therapy all use methods of self-knowledge to alleviate the disproportion of mental and physicalequilibrium. There are many therapeutic approaches to get to know our inner selves and we should choose which one suits us best. Whichever method we may choose, it should act as a conduit for the one-minded focus that corresponds with pratyahara’s value of the sense detachment.
A Kriya For Concentration
Kriyas, or shat karmas, are techniques which balance the three doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha: or wind, bile, and phlegm. Various practices are offered from Ayurveda, as well as the Hatha Yoga Pradiprika, an authoritative text on Hatha Yoga written sometime in the fifteenth century by Swami Svatmarama. Trataka develops concentration, as well as stimulation of the optic and olfactory nerves, central and autonomic nervous system. This exercise may be performed at a desk when distracted or fatigued:
Technique
Sitting in an erect position, spine straight, fix the eyes on the Ajna chakra, or space between the eyebrows. Trying not to blink, hold the gaze for one or two minutes before progressively increasing the time up to ten minutes. Ensure that the eyes are not straining. Rest after the exercise and receive the therapeutic benefits. Alternative techniques are to fix the gaze on a flame, tip of the nose or upon static or dynamic object, such as price movement.
