Coaching Market Wizards
Published February 2015
Coaching Market Wizards
by André Ribeiro
He makes millions year after year beating the performance of financial indices with his investments. Friends tell him he looks like crap. His face is of a man 10 or more years older than he is.
Most people working in financial markets know someone like that.
There is another way.
Paul Tudor Jones had his reputation established in October 1987 when he correctly anticipated the market plunge and made huge profits (said to be half a billion dollars in the single biggest drop day of the crash) earning his investors a 200% return that year. It was like going to the moon, what to do next? He lost his mojo and went through a slump for a couple of years which was having consequences in his health, relationships and results.
In 1993, the billionaire hedge fund manager hired Tony Robbins, who coached him back into shape and got him fired up again. Since the relationship started more than two decades ago, his returns have been positive every year. He continues to email Robbins on a daily basis. In a Fortune magazine article, Tudor says coaching has helped both his longevity as a trader and peace of mind as a person.
For high performers getting to the top sometimes is not the hardest part. Many individuals develop and try trading systems using the best technology and formulas, others are just wired to have intuition for the markets. Some achieve a great system that generates top returns and become high net worth individuals. They may have beat the market, but at what cost? And what then? “Being the richest man in the cemetery“, Steve Jobs used to quote.
In the book The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, John Coates gives a brilliant illustration of what happens to the body when placing a bet in the financial markets. Taking the reader inside the traders’ bodies to see the biology of risk taking at work.
Traders resemble high performance athletes. They have to learn to manage the stress of failure and success; and train their bodies so that they help them thrive while taking risks. Staying at the top — requires something special. To stay there you need to develop a mindset and an experienced and a trained coach with proven results can be of help.
Ray Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, credits Transcendental Meditation with contributing to his success.
In the famous series of Market Wizards books, Jack Schwager interviews several legendary masters of wealth such as Ed Seykota, Bruce Kovner, Marty Schwartz, Richard Dennis, Paul Tudor Jones and Jim Rogers.
There is a section in each of the books, called “Psychology of Trading” in which he interviews coaches of traders such as Ari Kiev, Charles Faulkner and Van Tharp. They use tools and techniques that range from traditional psychology to sports psychology, neuro linguistics programming and hypnosis.
For thousands of years philosophers talked about Health, Wealth, and Relationships. Everyone wants the good life; it’s like the three legged stool, it can only stand with the three pillars that support it.
André Ribeiro is the founder of BonsInvestimentos
EXECUTIVE COACHING & INVESTMENTS COACHING
