Trading can be lonely. It’s one reason why trading in a group is beneficial, you can cross reference charts, have social interaction and talk through ideas. But the one benefit of trading by ourselves is that we can have unusual things we do to improve our trading and we don’t have to tell anyone else about them.

Here are 5 outside the box tools that might help you avoid some trading pitfalls:

  1. Lemon essential oils. One of the traps that people fall into when day trading is from the dopaminergic feedback loops in our brain that can increase risk taking behaviors, and in high stress environments create addiction. Lemon essential oils can help balance dopamine levels which can help us stop when we’re not trading well, and instead focus on process.
  2. Jumping jacks. The thrill of the markets opening can spike our heart rates and make us too eager to jump into a trade. Athletes will often spike their heart rate quickly before their game/workout, and then let it relax back down in order to trick their body out of the excitement of the start which could cause them to launch out of the gates too fast. Spiking your heart rate 3-5 min before the market opens, then allowing it to come back down to normal can help regulate that market open excitement.
  3. EFT. The Emotional Freedom Technique is a tool that uses tapping on certain body parts in order to release the emotional reaction to certain events. If you find yourself getting very anxious while entering a trade (at an appropriate position size with a predetermined acceptable loss), you can try this tapping technique in order to reduce the fear and anxiety associated with taking a trade.
  4. Smack the table. This is one of the tools of a previous topic of pattern interrupts. If you find yourself spiraling away from your trade plans, using a loud and physical pattern interrupt can break you out of that known pattern, and allow you to consciously replace it with good behavior.
  5. Physically embody metaphors. If you say now I’m going to put on my TCG oven mitts. Put oven mitts on. If you say you are going to sit on your hands, sit on your hands. Matching what we do with what we say we’re doing teaches our body that our words have meaning, and we are more likely to continue to do what we say we will.