Trading Psychology, Emotions And Meditation

Something I read in Dr. Brett Steenbarger’s essay on emotions rang a bell. He’s a trading psychologist (now working for a hedge fund) who’s written several excellent books on the subject. His blog/twitter feed — no longer updated — provided stimulating commentary for traders concerned with adjusting their brains for better performance.

What rang the bell for me was his reference to meditation as one method (along with biofeedback and several unpronounceable neuroscience references) to achieve enhanced results through higher quality focus and concentration. What piques my interest here is that I’ve been an active meditator since 1982.

Since then, I meditate every day, usually for at least an hour. All of this would be boring and useless, except that between 2001 and 2009 I out-performed 99% of the 70,000 or so competitors in that on-line stock trading competition called Marketocracy. Forbes Investments Editor Matt Schifrin writes about that work in his book The Warren Buffetts Next Door and mentions one of my interests as “meditation.” (MORE)

Source: Forbes