Coming into Thanksgiving week in the U.S., I thought now would be a good time to share this.

Being in a state of appreciation, thankfulness, or gratitude is an excellent state of mind for a trader for a number reasons.

It acts like a counter-weight to the brain’s natural negativity bias that often gets triggered in trading. Among other things, our brain looks for threats. It’s part of our basic survival gear, an evolutionary imperative. Of course, you  have to define risks in trading, but you won’t get very far if you don’t look for opportunity.

And being in a state of gratitude also brings us back into the present moment. I’ve seen with many clients how they’ve become more patient when they engage in a daily gratitude practice. It can really slow down an impatient or impulsive trader and also help traders hold onto winning trades longer.

Here’s a something else I wrote about the topic.

My Advanced Course has a whole section on how traders can use gratitude, with specific exercises.