Does POISE = The ZONE?

The words poised and zone are not just nice, fluffy concepts, they are rooted in a specific psychophysiological state called coherence that has a unique internal signature depicted by a heart rate variability pattern that looks like a smooth rolling wave. Teaching traders to access this state of coherence and repeat it with masterful consistency, especially when under the pressure of volatile markets, is a necessary risk management intervention we are using in our coaching work with traders.

Mark Douglas says a psychological zone is not a condition you can will yourself into the way you can will yourself into a feat of endurance. It is a state of mind you find yourself in that is inherently creative. Usually if you start thinking about your actions at a rational or conscious level, you pop right out of it. Even though you cannot force or will yourself into a zone, you can set up the kind of mental conditions that are most conducive to experiencing "the zone." Douglas called this a positive winning attitude, and we at Even Keel call it POISED 2 PERFORM (P2P).

The essence of what it means to be poised or in "the zone," is that your mind and the market are in sync. As a result, you sense what the market is about to do as if there is no separation between yourself and the collective consciousness of everyone else participating in the market. If this sounds a bit strange to you, ask yourself how it is that a flock of birds or a school of fish can change direction simultaneously. Traders who have experienced being tapped into the collective consciousness of the market can anticipate a change in direction just as a bird in the middle of a flock or a fish in the middle of a school will turn at the precise moment that all of the others turn. However, setting up the kind of mental conditions most conducive to experiencing this seemingly magical synchronicity between you and the
market is no easy task.

There are two mental hurdles to overcome. The first hurdle is learning how to keep your mind focused in what Douglas calls " the now moment opportunity flow." In order to experience synchronicity, your mind has to be open to the market's truth from its perspective, not what you want it to be. The second hurdle has to do with the division of labor between the two halves of your brain. The left side of the brain specializes in rational thought, based on what we already know. The right side, specializes in creative thought, which is not fully known and therefore taps into an inspiration, a hunch, or a sense of knowing that usually can't be explained at a rational level. By definition, true creativity brings forth something that didn't previously exist. 


As you can tell, there's an inherent conflict between these two modes of thought, and the rational, logical part will almost always win unless we take specific steps to train our minds to accept and trust creative information. Without that training, traders usually find it very difficult to act on hunches, intuitive impulses, inspirations, or sense of knowing. The founder of the Institute of Heartmath, Doc Childre in an interview on demystifying the zone describes the zone as follows. 

People have talked about “getting in the zone” for years and the zone has become a popular buzz word with dozens of books written on it. But what the “zone” actually is has been hard to pin down, leaving it mysterious and almost unapproachable. Our research suggests that people have within them a place of higher consciousness where life and all kinds of experiences can be processed from another level of intelligence, which we term heart intelligence. It’s a state of heart/brain synchronization that’s within all people. There have been many different disciplines to approach it - spiritual and yoga disciplines, breathing, visualization, physical training, etc. These approaches are all akin to each other, yet describe different slices of the pie. They all lead to a higher intelligence potential that is within the human capacity to unfold. The zone is not a place - it’s a state of consciousness where your higher motor faculties and intuition merge in liquid coordination. You don’t just push a button to get there. Entering the zone is an internal developmental process. 

There is a gradated and practical process for increasing zone awareness potential. It starts with the understanding and management of your emotions. Without a trader stepping up the management and balance of their emotional system in day-to-day trading, they won’t have enough internal power to shift to upgraded levels of zone consciousness. It’s important to understand there’s a big difference between what some call the float zone (airy, mushy) and the high performance zone, which is relaxed and poised, yet instantly supplies the appropriate energy for the situation at hand. It’s a cued up bio-response state, a heart intelligence activation where your mental, emotional and physical systems are working energetically in sync, like a well-programmed algorithm.

The Institute of Heartmath has created a software called emWave, designed to help increase effective coordinated action in the now, whether your executing a trade or making a difficult decision in life. The software helps you get into alignment with the intuitive intelligence of your heart. It’s important to understand that the heart is not just a blood pump. Neurocardiologists know that the heart has its own intrinsic nervous system or “little brain” that intuits, senses, feels, and remembers, and sends this information to the big brain.

The emWave is an interactive learning system with a pulse sensor that monitors and provides real time feedback of your heart rate variability (HRV) or heart rhythm pattern. HRV is used by doctors as an important indicator of stress levels as well as mental and emotional fitness levels. Heart rhythm is different from heart rate. Your heart rate changes with every beat and the emWave plots the beat-to-beat variations to reveal your heart rhythm pattern. The heart rhythm pattern reflects activity in your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, which together regulate and control 90% of your body’s involuntary functions—hormonal and immune response, digestion, and so forth. When you feel tension, anger, anxiety, stress, your heart rhythm pattern becomes jagged and disordered. When you manage and shift your emotional state to a poised attitude or positive feeling, your heart rhythm pattern becomes more ordered and coherent.

With practice a trader can learn the feel of coherence and flow so they can shift back into that state when needed. This develops confidence and inner trust when faced with the challenges of uncertainty. The emWave can be used within a pre-trade routine, similar to stretching and other exercises before playing a sport. It will help prevent choking by adding rhythm to your brain-muscle coordination and provide quicker energy recoup when under pressure.

Listen to a professional trader who’s been in the business for approximately 2 years describe his experience with emWave. He used heart rate biofeedback several times per day in a disciplined and consistent manner; the positive impact was seen dramatically in his P&L throughout the 12 months we worked together. What we learned from this trader is that a structured process of refining his trading strategy and deliberate practice of self-regulation skills significantly improved his confidence, emotional stability and overall trading performance. The audio depicts 2 time periods roughly 4 months apart.

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