12/11/2025 - What we are passionate about reveals our strengths, and those reveal our values and our talents. We don't have to push ourselves to get things done if what we're doing truly speaks to us. Yes, there are always life's errands and to-do activities to get out of the way, but if we're looking forward to what comes after, it's never a problem to check the boxes. Many beginning traders are passionate about making money, but that's different from being passionate about trading and understanding markets. If those traders don't make money, they are left with nothing to support them emotionally. They become frustrated, and that seeps into their trading. When we identify our passions and our strengths, then we're in a position to creatively integrate those into our trading processes. A great place to be psychologically is to be passionately involved and interested in markets even when we're not putting positions on.=====================12/10/2025 - What is the most important strength for beginning and developing traders? Certainly high up on the list is emotional self-awareness: the ability to recognize what you're experiencing at the time you're experiencing it. This is useful in two regards: 1) it gives us the option to step back from trading when we're frustrated or confused, so that our trading does not become reactive; and 2) it allows us to more clearly recognize our intuition when we see patterns occurring in real time. In other words, emotional self-awareness is what enables us to avoid poor trading that results from acting on impulse, but it also makes it possible to better perceive opportunity in real time.Emotional self-awareness is possible to practice in any area of life where emotions can get us in trouble--or where they could help us respond to challenges constructively. A great example of this is close relationships. By avoiding reactive responding due to frustration, hurt, or overload, we can step back and deal with misunderstandings in a helpful way. By recognizing our partner's needs in real time and empathizing with those, we can become better at reaching out and growing our closeness.Everything in life that engages our emotions can be practice for emotional self awareness and control in our trading. How we live either reinforces the best within us, or it reinforces our vulnerabilities. Trading psychology is best worked on when it draws upon life psychology.======================== 12/9/2025 - What have been your best trades--and best trading periods--of 2025? From generating the trade idea to expressing it, sizing it, and managing its risk, identify *specifically* what you did well in these best trades. Very often, it is in analyzing our best trading that we can identify the cognitive and emotional strengths that contribute to our success. For instance, a while back I analyzed my profitability as a function of time of day (since most of my trading was intraday). Very early in the morning right after the NYSE open, I did poorly. Later in the morning, I did quite well. Around noon and midday, I was mediocre. What led to my success was patience and listening carefully to the market and understand who was involved and how--and *then* placing my trades. I was successful only when listening--and I was specifically listening well during busy periods, because I could track the activity of the larger market participants. Because of years of work as a trading coach, I understood large traders and their behavior patterns--and I was successful when I drew on that awareness. When I simply tried to trade market patterns on my own, my results were basically random.The point here is to dig deep into your best trading and figure out what makes you tick when you're successful. The goal is not to be like anyone else; it's to be more and more like yourself at your best.======================12/9/2025 - Tomorrow's free webinar at 4:15 PM ET will focus on assessing your strengths and applying them to your trading. Registration will close by the end of the trading day today.What are your relationship strengths? What do you do best as a spouse, as a friend, as a family member? How are you able to grow your connections with people at your work and in your community? What makes you successful in collaborating with other traders?This blog has covered the topic of teamwork and the value of being part of a trading group/pod/community. But how can you best help others and best receive help yourself? By drawing upon your relationship strengths, you can teach others (and thereby reinforce your own learning) and you can learn from others (and refine/broaden your trading). Your strengths as a person are the foundation for your growth as a trader. See you tomorrow!=====================12/8/2025 - As we get to the end of the year, many traders reflect on the year past and formulate goals for the year ahead. An important concept in psychological research is that much of our growth comes, not from our top, "signature" strengths, but from expanding and developing what are called our "latent" strengths. These are areas where we excel, but don't necessarily know we excel and so we don't consciously draw upon them during times of challenge. We can think of these as relatively "hidden" strengths. Perhaps they show up only occasionally in life or in a limited number of life circumstances. They *are* strengths, however, and we can cultivate them to further our development.My signature (top) strengths include a drive to learn and achieve. If you were to ask those I live with, however (especially my cats!), they would say that my ability to listen and understand others are some of my best qualities. Indeed, those have long driven my work as a psychologist. In pursuing trading, however, I've only recently worked on ways of becoming a better listener of markets: breaking down the market into components (sectors, subsectors) and hearing the (often unique) story each part of the market is telling. Getting inside the market and truly listening has opened insights that I had missed despite my work ethic.What areas of strength might be relatively hidden in your life that could take your trading to the next level in 2026? How could you exercise those areas, so that your latent strengths get even stronger? Very often, looking to areas of life very different from trading can alert you to what you do well that could creatively be imported into your trading processes.In the upcoming free Wednesday afternoon webinar (December 10th; 4:15 PM ET), we'll not only evaluate your strengths, but also identify your latent strengths and discuss ways of growing them. Let's make the new year a year of new growth!