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The Daily Helping

Ep. 178: The Psychology of Trading | with Chris Tate

The Daily Helping
The Daily Helping

Today our expert guest is Chris Tate, one of the first people to ever release a share trading book in Australia, and he has had an extraordinary impact on thousands of traders. The best selling author of “The Art of Trading” and “The Art of Options Trading in Australia,” his brutally honest approach and meticulous pursuit of excellence ensure that exceptional traders all around the world quote his market comments.

Chris Tate was a 6’4”, 230 pounds, and worked as a bouncer while he was in school. It almost felt like a natural fit. Chris, however, saw it as an interesting sociological experiment. He loved talking to people and observing the way various people behaved. He’d often wonder how people got to where they are in life. Through observing people’s behaviors, he realized he could map out the trajectory of their lives. You can get a sense of why people are the way they are, and that’s a skill he’s carried with him throughout his life.

How does this relate to trading? People view trading as a financial skill, but it’s really a psychological endeavor. People fail when they don’t have their psychological skills developed. In life, we generally boil down complex ideas into a reductionist viewpoint, and it ends up failing in practice because it ignores the human element.

If people want to start investing during this time, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. First, take a deep breath, pause, and wait. Too many decisions are made in the heat of the moment. Educate yourself. Second, do not take any financial advice out there. The majority of people giving advice have no idea what they’re doing, they don’t have the proper experience, and the only person who is taking a risk is you.

How do you trade successfully? Chris says there are only three things to know:

  1. When the market is going up, you buy it
  2. When the market is going down, you sell it
  3. You do not bet the farm

That last one is the most important one. You should not make any decision that, if it goes wrong, will create immense financial grief. It’s the capacity to control our impulses that is the defining line between people who are successful and who are not.

The Biggest Helping: Today’s Most Important Takeaway

“Remember, we all want to be the hero of our own narrative, but very few people take the time and effort to look at what their narrative is and what sort of hero they want to be. If more people did that, their narrative would become clearer, calmer, and more peaceful.”

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Thank you for joining us on The Daily Helping with Dr. Shuster. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Google Play to download more food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, and tools to win at life.

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