The market is an emotion less brute and it goes on forever nonstop, but not you, not your body and mind. Your health is your greatest asset, trust me when you are young you may think this may not be applicable to you but eventually it does. I speak from my own life experience. All those sleepless nights and junk food plus energy drinks plus alcohol took a toll on my health as trader and as a family man. I had to pay with all that I had.
I don’t want this to happen to you young folks.
By maintaining better physical and mental well-being, traders can consistently create a positive and productive work environment.
I am a victim of bad trades, judgments and brokers. I am Sam Jacobs soon my time on this blue planet will be over. Why am I saying this?
Just like many I wanted to be a millionaire in few days by trading in stock and Currency markets. Little did I know what was in store for me! I can see myself back then, an over ambitious geeky retarded looking man who beamed with pride when he got his first account opened with a so called reputed and trustworthy broker. I am going to be a millionaire.
I used to flip through the financial times while drinking my first coffee of the day and as soon as I put the newspaper down I used to feel like the wizard of the Wall Street.
It did not take too long for the wizard to burn his fingers. I burnt it pretty well but my pride did push my egoistic nature to its limits. I was not ready to change. I was under the impression that I was right the whole time and it was the market which went wrong due to various reasons. I was just passing the buck. So on with my blame games. Little did I ponder into my own mind to find whether I was all right or was I doing the right thing nor I was ready to accept my mistakes, especially my health.
Why is a healthy lifestyle important for a trader?
Just imagine, you lose your life to trade and to make money and do you really want to spend that money to hospitals?
Let us look into this……
Correct decision making or proper analyzing is not possible when the mind is out of shape. Mind and body are interrelated and body does what the mind says and what if you have a healthy mind and the body does not obey it or a healthy body which does not get any command from an unhealthy stressed mind? Most of the times, the pressure and expectations from trading can lead to anxiety disorders and depression. Practice proper Stress Management and other relaxation practices to avoid nervous breakdown.
Answer honestly not to me to yourselves – Questions to ask you.
Being a healthy trader requires proper diet, daily physical activity and good sleep. If you aren’t sure about your current body condition, ask yourself these simple questions:
- Do you easily get tired and worn out even after sleeping the right number of hours?
- Are you drinking more coffee than water?
- Are you easily agitated by uncontrollable situations?
- Do you find yourself constantly reaching for unhealthy food?
- Is your trading schedule draining your energy?
- Do you get irate fast?
- Do you yell at your wife and kids for no apparent reason?
- Your social life is getting messed up.
- Friends start to avoid you?
- Do your friends say you are thinking too much?
- Do you feel drowsy to when you wake up?
- Does your heart beat faster most of the times?
- You are not able to look at the charts for more than half hour?
- Your eyes get watery looking at the charts?
- Do you get irritated when the phone rings?
- You do not like to talk too much anymore?
- You skip meals frequently?
- Do you rely on Red bull?
- You’re smoking increases and every five minutes you need a cigarette?
- You sweat a lot these days?
- You rely on too much junk food?
- You feel exhausted all the time?
- Rapid weight gain?
- Always stressed and nervous
- You panic frequently?
- You have trouble sleeping?
- You fall sick frequently?
- Negative thoughts always?
- Strained eyes?
- Hard to breath?
If your answer is a YES to most of the questions above, my friend it is the right time and high time to change for you and for your loved ones. If you DO NOT want to experience the above you need to see profits in your trades right? Yes it is like that. No other go. But How can you see profits when you are not healthy and concentrating and how can you stay healthy if your trades are going wrong. Yup we will come to that. So it is a double edged sword. Well let us address this rationally.
No let us examine some major problems
You are gaining bad weight.
It is mainly because of lack of physical activity. When you are obsessed with trading and is not stable mentally you kind of lose count of the calories you eat and not care about the quality of the food you intake. As days goes by your body starts to break down all the junk and starts to store as fat. Get adequate physical activity along with a detox diet. I know it is hard with all the stress but there is no other go. Stop brooding over what has happened and look into the present and future.
Constant Exhaustion
It is an indication by your brain that your body and mind are experiencing fatigue. It depends mainly on your life style as a trader and mental stability
You need an energy boost: Try relaxing techniques like yoga and breathing exercises and try to drink more water not Red bull or coffee and do not forget to sleep adequate hours. Hard but there is no other go.
You are stressed and nervous most of the time
Trading does that to you. It is very hard to stay relaxed but you need to think. What is the point in working hard when you cannot work anymore? You body is a machine. Maintenance is the key. Anxiety can cause restlessness, panic attacks or palpitations. The best thing to do is to work out an effective trading system that you can be confident with. It can give you structure and reduce any nervous feelings during a trade.
Some system which does the thinking for you. Not a robot though.
- Research and test a reliable trading style. You may start with a demo account to gain confidence
- Reach out to forums and websites aimed to help traders improve their system
- Stay within your limitations and be conservative when taking high risk trades.
- Talk to the concerned companies
- A reliable trading system is what you need.
- Try a company with good professionals and support personals.
You are not able to sleep
Trading is an activity where you forget time and mess up your bio- clock. Your body is not designed to sit in front of a computer and waste away. It is designed to work and rest. There is no way this day to avoid different styles of business that requires different types of lifestyle. But your body tends to disagree:
What to do:
- Create a reasonable and consistent bedtime routine based on your trading schedule
- Make your bedroom as dark as possible and turn off all electronics before bed
- Practice setting aside any thoughts or concerns when it is time to sleep
- Switch off that freaking damned phone of yours.
- Social media can wait.
- Get a CD of Night sounds with light piano music and rain.
- Try to imagine you in some exotic place.
- Think of beautiful things which GOD made for you
- Be grateful that you have a bed to sleep.
- Smile
- Pray
How to avoid getting sick
- Drink a liter of water the moment you wake up
- Take Vitamin C rich food
- Take a walk in the early sun
- Look at the flowers and listen to the birds
- Take a whole day off and do nothing
- Avoid watching TV all the time
- Avoid listening to NEWS all the time – there is nothing good these days
- Breathe fresh air
- Try to one act of kindness a day
- Pray for the needy
- Try to avoid blood thirsty hard rock metal music.
- Fill your thoughts with white light.
- Smile
- Talk to your wife and kids and tell them how much you love them and how grateful you are for having them in your life.
- Get a pet
- Be kind to your elders.
How to avoid strained eyes
- Keep a cool ambience in your trading room.
- Massage your eye lids once in a while
- Close your eyes and think of a place like heaven.
- Get computer goggles.
- Use coolant eye gels
- Keep away your phone as long as possible
- Nothing good happens watching TV
You have more Coffee, Red bull and cigarettes?
Stay NO to both but an occasional coffee is okay. It is an addictive just like any other harmful habits. I am not getting into technical details but try to say NO to Red bull and cigarettes. It is hard but it is worth it. I know for a fact that Red bull has Bull’s sperm as an ingredient. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to drink sperm for energy when I am feeling low.
- Drink more water
- Eat a banana when you feel low energy.
- Make green tea a habit.
- Try chew a cardamom clove when you feel the urge to smoke.
A good diet for a healthy trading lifestyle
AVOID
- Soda and other aerated drinks. Do you know that coke and Pepsi can clean the dirtiest toilets to sparkling clean ones? It is all chemical.
- Processed meat
- Butter and stuff like that with high amounts of saturated fat – I know hard but most of the things that are tasty is not good for your mind and body
- Pastries and other high sugary items
- All Junk foods
- Energy drinks
- Protein powders
- Steroid tablets
- Glucose candies
- Ready to eat fast foods
- Tetra and bottle packed Juice
- Stay from MAC and KFC
INCLUDE
- Start your day with warm water with a slice of lemon and Honey
- Eat a balanced breakfast – Should include eggs and fruits
- Eat real fruits instead of juice
- Drink plain water throughout the day
- Have a light lunch – Start with a heavy salad and avoid too much carbohydrates
- Have a light nutritious dinner which includes green salad and meat lovers go for grilled chicken or turkey.
- Stop mid night snaking If it is too much to ask try fresh fruits
- Always remember you are what you eat.
- Get routine calorie check up
Natural energy boosters
- Oatmeal with nuts like almonds and fresh fruits
- Fruits like Bananas, Apples or Blueberries
- Lentils and other legumes
- Hard boiled eggs with kale
- Ginger Tea
If you are stressed
- Have a banana
- Drink green tea with lemon
INDULGE IN A POWER NAP
With the round-the-clock lifestyle of a forex trader, it can be difficult to form a proper sleeping pattern. If you are the type of trader that instinctively checks the market or studies charts every few hours, try napping as a strategy for a successful trade.
- Boosts performance after long hours of work
- Restores and extends alertness during a trade
- Enhances cognitive thinking for better judgment
- Improves overall health by lowering blood pressure
- Provides relaxation from stress
The best parts – have more SEX and experiment a lot
Ten reasons to have more sex
- Prevents Colds
- Relieves Pain
- Helps Sense Of Smell
- Enhances Mood
- Keeps You Young
- Prolongs Life
- Makes You Fit
- Reduces Pms
- Fights Prostate Cancer
- Lowers Pregnancy Risks
- It’s a Form of Exercise
- Improve Sleep
- Stress Relief
- Boost Your Libido
- Increase Intimacy and Improve Your Relationship
- Brings pleasure and happiness
MUSIC
5 Benefits of Listening to Relaxing Music
- Increased levels of positive hormones
- Reduced levels of stress
- Improved brain function
- Lower heart rate
- Enhanced pleasure experiences
Music for a good night sleeps for a stressed mind and fatigued body
Try the classical
- Bartók– Piano Concerto No. 3, 2nd movement ‘Adagio religioso’
- Revueltas – La Noche De Los Mayas
- Dvorak – ‘Song to the Moon’ from Act 1 of Rusalka
- Schoenberg – Verklärte Nacht
- Khachaturian – Masquerade Suite: Nocturne
- Rachmaninov – Suite No. 1 ‘Fantaisie-tableaux’ Op. 5: II. And Night, And Love
- Moonlight Sonata – by Ludwig van Beethoven
- Gymnopédie No.1 by Erik Satie
- Symphony 9, 3rd movement, Adagio molto e cantabile – by Ludwig van Beethoven
- Clair De Lune – by Claude Debussy
- Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 by Johann Sebastian Bach
- Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Serenade no.10 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber
- Canon in D by Pachelbel
- Méditation from the opera Thaïs by Jules Massenet
- Piano Quintet in A Major – 2, Andante by Franz Schubert
JAZZ
- Opus 23 by Dustin J. O’Halloran
- Prelude 2 by Dustin O’Halloran
- River Flows In You by Yiruma
- Spiegel Im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt
- Almost Blue by Elvis Costello, performed by Chet Baker
- In a Silent Way by Miles Davis
NEW AGE
- Discreet Music by Brian Eno
- Music for Airports – Brian Eno
- Melody AM by Royskopp
- From The Sky by Ryan Farrish
- Structures from Silence by Steve Roach
- Cafe Del Mar – any album, but volume 7 is one of the best.
- Memories from a Fading Room by Future Loop Foundation
- 76.14 by Global Communications
- Ambient Life by Diatonis
- Are you Sphongled by Simon Posford and Raja Ram
- Butterfly Dawn – various artists
- World of Sleepers by Carbon Based Lifeforms
- Cathedral Oceans by John Foxx
- Opalescent by John Hopkins
WORLD MUSIC
- In the Heart of the Moon by Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté
- 800 by Mercan Dede
- Miho: Journey to the Mountain by Paul Winter Consort
- Yanni – Any of his albums! (try the song nightingale )
- Gurrumul by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
- Afro Celt Sound System
- Deep Brasil by Deep Projects
- Yeha-Noha by Sacred Spirit
All good, but you can do this only when you are making profits but to make profits you need to do all these – Funny right?
What to do?
You need a good system which gives you entry as well as exit points. Always prefer a manual buy sell signal system but care must be taken while choosing one. You need a system to guide you rather than making assumptions looking at the plain charts.
- The system should give negative signals so that you can know the not to trade points
- Stay away from those free tips givers and call givers- that is their own opinion and it does not have the time accuracy
- Get a system that runs on platforms like MT4
- Check about their after sales and service.
- Check there is any time delay with their data field.
- While Indian market data is a paid data FOREX data is not.
- Try to get a live market demo before you purchase the system
- Always choose a system that has confirmation filters.
- Do not go for a system that produces signals based on just candle movements.
- There are many companies that offer trading systems and to be frank when I check about them they seems to be too cheesy and their websites are carelessly made. Care should be taken while choosing a company.
- Check their professionalism
- Check their pedigree
These systems can be made in two ways
- Simple algorithms
- Complex studies
Simple algorithm system can be made in the trading system itself and the signals produced are not accurate as it follows just the candle movements. Complex systems produces both positive and negative signals and that can be identified with the confirmation filters.
Always go for the complex coded ones
I cannot suggest you any systems because it might appear that I am endorsing them so I will leave the research to you. I know I have not covered all factors but I really think this will help you in a minute possible way. Please avoid big informative speeches as this is the basic requirements of a good trading lifestyle.
Always be positive and wishing you good luck.