You may not always notice it, but where you put your focus has a big impact on your trading progress.
A trader who spends an hour fully locked in on the charts will likely execute more quality setups than someone who splits that same hour between charts and a Discord channel.
Meanwhile, a trader who only watches AUD/JPY on the 15-minute chart may miss early reversals hinted at on lower time frames, or overlook similar opportunities showing up on other AUD or JPY pairs.
If the goal is to get more out of the time and energy you put into trading, it helps to understand three key elements of focus that can directly affect performance.
1. Intensity of focus
A distracted trader is a losing trader in the making. How much of your attention you put into watching and analyzing the markets can affect your trading performance.
If you’re not focusing on what the market is telling you, if you instead think about your future P/L or your social media, you might miss market cues that could have maximized your gains.
You don’t need to “stop thinking” about other things to maintain focus, but you need to learn how to shift your attention back to your trades if you want to maintain your concentration.
2. Scope of focus
Most people think that focusing means zooming in and concentrating on a specific task.
But humans have proven that we can focus on a lot of things while maintaining the intensity needed to successfully complete a task.
Take basketball players, for example. During the game, they’re paying attention to not only their execution, but also where their teammates are at, the plays they’re making as a team, and what the other team’s plays are.
If you want to be consistently profitable, you must train yourself to shift your focus quickly without losing intensity. You can keep your eyes on price and volume and still know what’s happening in the larger time frames or where the related assets are going that day.
3. Duration of focus
Like our muscles, the willpower to sustain the intensity of focus is limited.
Think Zack Snyder’s The Flash.
Remember when Barry Allen had to pause a bit so he could tap into the Speed Force?
That’s us. Traders are like The Flash minus the superhero suits.
After a while, we get fatigued and lose our concentration. Some traders take a break and then get back to high-intensity trading, while others only need a deep breath before trading like a pro until the end of the session.
Developing your ability to sustain focus is key, especially for short-term traders. Ten minutes of focused trading will look a lot different on your trading journal than five minutes of high-concentration trading.
Luckily, this is a habit you can train for. First, you need to remove distractions and eliminate competition for your brainpower.
Then, do what endurance athletes do and slowly add to your timed performances until you reach your optimal trading schedule.
When participating in a high-performance endeavor like trading, it’s not enough that you’re motivated, capitalized, or have a solid trading strategy. You also need to focus on each and every one of your trades if you want to make consistent profits.
