Due to high demand and the recognition of his global thought leadership in this area, much of Andrew’s coaching is done remotely, using Skype video or other services. Andrew travels and goes on site to meet with clients as needed.
True long-lasting change only occurs when we acknowledge and understand how we feel, adapt our thinking, and change how we ‘do’ things. The ‘doing’ part may seem like the hardest, but in practice it comes fairly naturally when we first learn about our emotions and our thought patterns and create an internal structure for behaving differently. The road to becoming a more disciplined or better trader requires a focus on all three areas: emotions, thinking, and behavior. As a trading performance coach, Dr. Menaker helps the trader to focus on all three areas and coaches clients to develop their own mental edge ™.
There are many frameworks available for behavior change, Dr. Menaker develops a customized approach grounded in the latest neuroscience and based upon his many years of experience and the unique needs each client. Regardless of what framework is used, the bottom line is that true long-lasting change only occurs when we attend to how we feel, how we think, and how we ‘do’; feeling, thinking, and ‘doing’ influence each other.
Depending on the client, Dr. Menaker utilizes various approaches beyond traditional psychology, including the use of behavioral medicine with HRV (heart rate variability) biofeedback, and mindfulness.
Emotions, including subconscious emotions, act as a filter on our perception of the market. The majority of our mental processes are outside our awareness – subconscious. A trader who is repeating mal-adaptive behavior patterns will continue to struggle until they understand the subconscious motivations that underlie their decisions and actions. Logic may drive our thinking, but its emotion, including subconscious emotion, that fuels our actions, and performance is a result of action. Therefore, working with conscious and subconscious emotions is a big part of performance improvement.
Although it might seem difficult to overcome bad habits, it is much easier to create new behavior when enlisting the help of the sub-conscious part of our mind rather than ignoring it.
Coaching that results in real change will usually involve some type of work with the subconscious part of the mind. In practical terms, this often includes a focus on two areas; working with sub-conscious beliefs, and the critical space or brief moment in time between a thought-emotion and the reaction (behavior) to the thought-emotion. When you make a promise to yourself to do something differently next time but end up doing the same thing, that is a sign the behavior has subconscious roots and will not change simply because you want it to. Understanding the root of the behavior or the true underlying motivation for the behavior/decision is necessary for real change.
Much of our activity is controlled sub-consciously. For example, breathing requires a complex system of integrated fine muscle coordination, but we do it all the time without thinking about it, even when we are sleeping. Another example is driving a car. Have you ever had the experience of getting from point A to point B while your mind is preoccupied with other things and later realizing, ‘I must have of been on auto-pilot’? Many traders repeat the same dysfunctional behavior patterns and are able to look back and realize it, or sometimes even realize it in the moment but continue with the behavior anyway. That is an example of being controlled by the subconscious.
In his consultation and coaching Dr Menaker draws from his knowledge of the latest cognitive and affective neuroscience, and a wide variety of performance enhancement techniques, developing a customized approach unique for each client.