I’m going to share with you the six things you can learn from tennis as a trader.
If you’ve played any sport out there, you know that physique or physical presence is essential. The way that you’re working your body, the way that you kick a soccer ball, and the way that you swing your tennis racquet is very important.
However, you also need the second part, and that is the inner game. That’s the mindset and mentality that you need to be able to have a successful match.
In tennis you have points, games you have set, and you have a match. And you’re going to get a lot of these scenarios and situations that are entirely different. And you have to be able to work against your opponent to be able to have a successful match.
You’ve got to be able to handle the opposition. Sometimes they’re hitting short balls. Sometimes it’s long balls, and you need to out-think your opponent. If you’re always hitting the baseline, then do a quick little drop shot where the ball goes a little bit over the net. That will force them to run, and what happens is a double bounce. And all of a sudden – you win that point.
It’s not just enough to have the physical part of the game. You also have to be able to have the mental part of out-thinking your opponent.
In trading, it’s no different. You might think that trading is all mental. But it’s also part physical. You have to have both. There is the inner game and the outer game. You have to have both to be able to make things work.
Maybe you’re a trader, but your health is all bad, and you’re smoking outside to get a little break. You might not be sleeping very well.
Well, you have to have the mental game as a trader. And you need the physical part where you’re sleeping and eating right. That way, your brain, and body can both operate seamlessly. It’s crucial to focus on that.
When you look at tennis, sometimes your estimation is wrong. Sometimes you think that ball is going to go deep, and all of a sudden, it’s some shorter ball or drop shot. In that case, you’ve got to run up to the net quickly.
Sometimes you think it’s going to go right, but it ends up going left. Your judgment sometimes is wrong. And when you’re trading, sometimes you think that some stock will go up another 20 points. And it only goes up to five, or maybe it pulls back and goes the other direction. This happens all the time in our lives. Sometimes we think one thing and another thing happens.
You need to be prepared at what if you’re wrong.
- What if your judgment is wrong?
It’s essential that you’re always thinking of this as a trader. You’re thinking about this as you put on trades as you’re watching your positions. You have to be able to understand that sometimes you could be wrong. What’s more important, you need to figure out what are you going to do in that situation.
If you’re playing tennis, you’re going to be failing a lot. Naturally, the way that the game is set up is that you have points with points. And you have games with games you and you have sets. Then sets turn it into matches.
You’re playing a ton of points throughout the match. The thing is that you’re going to be often failing. You’re going to hit a ball outside the scope of the court. You’re going to hit the ball in the net. Also, you might even whiff and not yet hit the ball.
The truth is that you’re failing quite a bit. And it’s just the nature of the game. But that doesn’t mean you can’t win the match. It doesn’t mean you can’t win the tournament.
Just because you have a lot of failures throughout all of this tournament, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be a winner.
You need to recognize is that all these failures lead up to moving forward to be able to be successful and to be able to get the outcome. With trading, it’s no different. You might have500 failed trades throughout your year.
But out of that, you might have a hundred and fifty that are very successful. They’re so successful that those little micro fails are not a big deal. It’s a numbers game.
- How do you stand to win from the game of trading?
- How do you stand to become profitable?
Is it that you have a lot of micro, small losses and tons of huge wins. Or just a handful of huge wins to be able to make up those micro losses. Or do you have maybe only a handful of losses and just a ton of tiny wins?
Failing often is going to happen. You’re going to fail at trading, but the question is how do you win at the overall bigger picture. Maybe you’re trying to catch your goal. And that goal might be retirement or making money on the side.
You might not win day-to-day. You might not have winning trading days, but on a month-to-month or a quarter to quarter or an annual basis, you might still be fine and be successful.
A lot of people like to blame other people or other things. It’s just human nature to push things aside that we don’t want to take responsibility.
When we’re playing tennis we might say something like:
- the weather was crummy
- it was windy
- I had a tough time with that match
- they were just better than me
All these things are, of course, excuses. Maybe you’re just not good enough. Perhaps you’re not ready yet. But taking responsibility is a better approach.
You might want to be honest and say something like this:
- I need to work on my running
- I am a slow runner
- I need to work on my swings
- my stroke is not good
- my drop shots are not good
- my serve is not good
At those things, you have to work on and get better at. Taking that responsibility rather than pushing things aside is what you need to do if you want to become successful in trading.
Take responsibility for the outcome and be honest with yourself if you created a losing trade and position. If you take responsibility, at least, you know what you can improve on in the future. It allows you to step up and become better in the future. It allows you to work at things. But brushing things aside is not taking responsibility. It’s like alcoholics. The first step is that you have to admit the alcoholism. You have to admit drug use. And then you can make those changes happen. Responsibility is key.
In tennis, it happened quite a lot. Sometimes you’re down on the set. Sometimes you’re down on the game, and you’re losing a little bit, and you’re behind. But it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the match. It doesn’t mean you’ve lost the tournament. Sometimes you’re not ahead, and you have to scrape yourself out of that hole to become successful. You need to persist if you want to win the match and tournament.
You have to make it work. Focus on point after point. Take it one point at a time. Take it one swing, one stroke, one ball at a time, and then you get out of it, and then you become more successful.
It’s vital to keep moving forward. Michael Jordan missed a shot or two now and then, and he didn’t throw in the towel. Don’t quit when you are down as a trader. If you have a few losing trades in a week – it’s not the end of the world. It’s going to happen.
What you need to do is step up to the plate and make some changes. Keep pushing forward. Maybe you trade a little less. Perhaps you trade a little lighter. Or perhaps you should be a bit more cautious with your strokes as you’re swinging or you’re doing a serve.
But don’t quit. Keep moving forward, keep pushing yourself to rise to the occasion a little bit at a time. And eventually, you scrape out of that little hole, or you continue to improve. You continue to get better. And that continues to accelerate and ramp up your account.
You’ll become more confident, and then you could trade larger if you want. Or, if not, then enjoy your life then somewhere else once you’ve accumulated the amount of funds you want from trading. Whatever you do, don’t quit if you are just down a little bit.
One of the most important things I found and learn from doing anything in life is to keep working and educating yourself.
This is why I do these videos. That way, I keep refreshing my mind and training myself personally at some of the things that I lack.
Look at the pros in tennis.
They don’t just go out and play tournaments all the time. They also train. Sometimes it’s training mentally. Sometimes it’s training physically. In some cases, they are training with another trainer (lifting weights).
Whatever the case is, they’re still training, and they continue to work and grow at their craft. You, as a trader, continue to evolve your education. If you’re enjoying swing trading and you’re profitable at it – that’s fine.
But there’s nothing wrong with spending two hours this month to learn a little bit more about the mental game.
Figure out how to be a little calmer while trading. That’ll help you personally. Maybe it won’t help you with profits as much because perhaps you’re not doing anything new or different.
However, you’ll feel better while you’re trading. That’ll help out in your personal life. Maybe you’ll spend 10 hours this year learning about options. If you’ve never learned or taken the time to learn about options and you’re only a day trader, a swing, or a Forex trader, this might be the right decision.
Maybe you want to learn a little more about options. Investing some time in education is a small step with massive potential in the future. It’s like in tennis. You’re constantly learning, evolving, and growing. Just like a human being constantly learning from new situations, things that come into your life.
These six lessons will help you to continue to take your game your trading game to the next stage. That way, you will improve your skills and get better at trading and life in general.
