Just imagine it.
You are at the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event and you are playing heads up for the million dollar first prize.
The lovely ladies have deposited the million dollars in cash on the table after the third place place player was eliminated. They take a commercial break and after what seems like hours, they resume play.
This is it, what you have been dreaming about for years.
Your first hand comes———————————————->
Quick, show me your poker face!
OK, that was pretty bad. Luckily, I don’t play poker for a living.
Obviously, that isn’t how either of us would react in that situation (cough, cough), but my point is that in poker, you want to keep your emotions to yourself. Any slight nod of the head or wrinkle of the brow could give away your cards. This is called a “tell” in poker.
On the other hand, trading is a different story. It is a solitary endeavor and you are free to express yourself as you see fit.
When I worked at the trading desk of a hedge fund,
the head trader was a quiet guy. But once in awhile, he would pound his fist on the desk if a trade wasn’t going is way. He kept things in check most of the time, but sometimes he needed that release valve and pounding his fist was his way of doing it.
The question is, what do YOU do when you put on a bad trade? More importantly, how can that help you become a better trader?
I thought this was an interesting question and that gave me the idea of videoing myself when I am trading. I won’t do this all the time, but I will do it periodically. It might uncover my “trading tell.”
Do I make a certain face before I am about to put on a bad trade? Do I do certain things when I am confident about a trade? These things are hard to determine while we are in the heat of the moment.
Maybe I do and maybe I don’t, I guess we will find out. You can use a cheap webcam with some recording software, but I opted to get this bad boy:
It had good ratings on Amazon.com and is waterproof down to 3 meters (10 feet). I’m still testing it out, but it seems to be great so far.
The only thing that I noticed is that the speed of the SD card makes a huge difference as to the performance of the video. I used a class 4 SD card and my 720p, 60 fps video came out choppy.
I’m going to see if I can get a faster card tomorrow. The fact that it can take full 1080p HD video and is about the size of a mobile phone, is great for creating online content. Once I put it through it’s paces, I’ll write a review on it.
This will also allow me to do video segments on the trading lifestyle. I am excited!
OK, so enough about that. My point is that taking video of yourself trading may be one way to improve your trading.
If you look tense all the time, that could be a sign that you don’t have confidence in your system. Or perhaps you do your best trading when you look tense. Who knows, there is only one way to find out!
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