As  traders we must be flexible and ready to respond to whatever happens. And we know that anything can and will happen. So I’m always looking for new things to help me stay flexible and be in the present moment.

 

Last July I signed up for an improvisational acting class on a hunch that it would help me stay in the present moment and improve creativity. I also have a coaching client who took an improv acting class and experienced benefits from it, so I wanted to give it a try. I’ve now been through several classes in the past 6 months and am looking forward to more classes.

 

You never know where you will get that extra little something from, and my improv acting experience has certainly been helpful in several ways. One of the things I had to really work on is the idea of not having an agenda. Just being in the moment and responding to what is happening around me.

 

As a trader, I develop hypotheses about what the market may do, and that is different from having an agenda of expecting the market to do a particular thing. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that flexibility and not having an agenda is a huge help when trying to stay in the present moment.

 

My Advanced Course has several exercises designed to put you more in the present moment, in fact there is a whole section of the course called The NOW Moment.