Dress For Trading Success
Don’t skip over this!
Since the early 2000s, the gradual climate of what it means to ‘get dressed for work’ especially for traders who work from home, has devolved greatly. This is not a good thing for traders at any level of experience who strive to become wealthy and claim their God-given birthright to become financially independent.
Many spouses, partners, SO’s, and family members with someone in their life they care about who [now] works as a trader from home, have called me in distress because they see their loved ones sitting in front of the trading computers and monitors – many times in the same sweatpants, pair of jeans, same socks, same pajamas, wrinkled shirts and such, for days or weeks on end. Quite a few of those calling who are concerned also comment that a somewhat diminished sense of personal hygiene with their traders has developed as well.
One of the most challenging things for people to understand when working from home is – just because you are working from home no matter what business you may occupy, that does not equate into becoming lazy about starting your day without showering, getting dressed, for women to put on makeup, having your coffee or tea or other normal routines you used to do before becoming self-employed – meaning all the usual regimens you were accustomed to doing before your work day, when you worked outside of your home. The saying “dress for success” has not evaporated in today’s business world by any stretch of the imagination.
For instance, you don’t see any staff no matter what level of professional experience on Wall Street, in Washington D.C., any CEOs of major corporations, wearing pajamas, sweatpants, shorts, flip-flops, tank tops etc. to work do you? No, you don’t. So why would you think that you should do so yourself as a trader? What has happened to you as a trader, that you have lost self-respect about yourself that you no longer feel the need to dress for success? And not getting “on the day” which is the term I coined for this industry in terms of dressing for your business means you do not believe 1) that trading is a business; 2) in your ability to create wealth as a trader; and 3) therefore there is no need to get dressed.
Let’s backtrack a bit here.
Traders in general can be superstitious, this is common knowledge. Most people in the trading industry believe this, know this, and understand this. Each one of us has our own idiosyncrasies (i.e. superstitions) that we employ whether as traders or just in daily life. For instance, how many times have you locked your front door, but maybe you walked back to re-check that it was locked? How many times might you have been just about to leave the house, and went back in to make sure the iron was unplugged or a burner on the stove turned off? These are simple idiosyncrasies that countless people do, simply to reassure themselves they are keeping their home and themselves safe. Taking this a step further, considering many traders are connected to social media – don’t buy into or stop buying into the notion there is something wrong with you double-checking yourself at any time, by anyone in the media. There is nothing wrong with checking things even more than once as I do myself, it’s just human nature that humans have employed for decades if not centuries to ensure their individual and family’s safety. And, I have relayed countless stories in my coaching, workshops, and podcasts about traders whose superstitions either benefitted them greatly in their trading, or else turned them into “boom & busters” on a consistent basis. Hence the reason for this article. You can have superstitions as a trader, but only if those superstitions assist you in taking, and keeping profit consistently.
As far as ‘superstitions’ go, quite a few floor traders I have known, dated, and worked with had no problem wearing the same type of socks (or even the same pair of socks) day after day while on a winning streak; as a matter of fact, they would buy the same color, style socks in quantity to keep that streak going. Other institutional traders I knew would wear the same tie to their brokerage firm office while on a winning streak – only changing the tie after a large drawdown to begin a new winning streak, due to their belief in that specific tie or set of ties. And in many cases, they would never wear the tie they had the drawdown(s) with again.
Other types of superstitions include not touching the medal of a patron saint pendant hung around their neck while trading which was always considered blasphemous (!) equating to an erroneous belief that you can’t ask a saint or God for wealth as a trader. And let’s not forget the story I have told countless times about the penny found in the urinal at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange men’s restroom where Mark Douglas and I had our offices some years ago – when Mark went to use that particular urinal a floor trader pulled him away with an “OMG what are thinking, there’s a penny in the urinal…” I always wondered what would have happened if someone had put a penny in all the men’s restrooms at the CME! Of course, we can see that having a penny in a urinal could be viewed as disastrous while trading; as urinating on ‘money’ would mean you were about to ‘piss’ away profit. These are real and present beliefs that traders have.
In all those instances however, not one of those traders would have considered at any moment not to wear acceptable business-type clothing while trading – whether a pair of [ironed] khakis, an oxford shirt, polo shirt, clean underwear, decent pair of jeans (meaning no holes) and never, ever did I see any traders wearing shoes that were not polished or at least clean. These successful traders made and continue to make the choice to look like professionals while trading.
My point here is, if you have superstitions about your trading, there is nothing wrong with that. Mark Douglas used to share his daily regimen before trading with traders who asked, and I continue what he and I employed as our routine before ever turning on the computer or putting on the first trade of the day. And when we began trading from our condo in the Parkshore high-rise in downtown Chicago, it would have never occurred to us not to get on the day by not getting “Dressed for Trading Success.”
Again, if you are working from home as a trader, you must make a quantitative decision as to who you are as a trader. Are you a trader that takes your trading seriously, or are you a trader that no longer believes or cares you have to get dressed to go to work?
Obviously, office attire, even home office attire has changed in the past 15 years. Yes, society at large has dumbed-down their personal appearance because they have become lazy and complacent. And yet, every single successful person we see in the media, any reality-show people, professional athletes, musicians, race car drivers, Wall Street brokers, politicians, doctors, and more – anyone who is thinking like a winner – Dresses For Success in their field.
This is not to say if you are running errands or performing daily tasks you must look your best; there are times I get groceries in jeans and a sweatshirt myself, so please don’t think this dialogue is suggesting you take this too far. This narrative is about approaching your trading as a business. To remind traders that if you don’t care how you approach your trading by waking up and heading to your computer without showering, getting dressed in work clothes, in other words not following a business routine to start you day – not caring about the way you look or feel, then you can’t expect the ethers of the Universe, and the Universal Laws of Prosperity to care whether you make money or not. Creating wealth as a trader is all about attitude and positive energy – and Dressing for Trading Success. I have paraphrased from the book written by the great prosperity teacher, author of The Dynamic Laws of Trading Psychology, my friend Catherine Ponder here:
“When you get definite about trading success by looking your best each morning and getting ready to work – before you put on your first trade – then you begin to act like you know you will take profits; and then trading success gets definite about you. Why? Because you will have attracted that success to yourself by telling God and the Universe – I believe in myself as a trader who takes profits at any given moment because I am “Dressed for Trading Success!” ©®
To this day, I still put on my trading jacket before I start trading. Now, you don’t have to have a trading jacket, but we will be adding trading jackets to our storefront very soon for you to do so. Make up your mind what outfit you are going to wear as a successful trader and do this before you begin trading because visually you need to start seeing yourself as successful – otherwise it will never manifest. This can be a nice pair of jeans, a clean polo shirt, loafers, your best pair of sneakers, showering, and so forth. The point is – you must make a decision as to how you view yourself as a trader and DRESS for that level of success.
When I first began working on the trading floor of the MidAm, making a mere pittance in salary as a Runner (taking the orders from the Phone Clerks and running them into the Pit Brokers), I was given a jacket to wear associated with the brokerage firm I worked for at the time. This job was during the time I was learning and being taught by that firm’s brokers how to trade. I was so proud to be wearing a jacket associated with floor trading I can’t begin to describe the feeling – I felt successful even while learning my craft. So, even today, when I am trading, I wear my trading jacket that represents my ability to take all profit as it becomes available to me. In other words, I am a trader. I am dressed as a successful trader every day I trade.
More importantly, I am dressed for success. I am “on the day” and dressed with a mindset of a “Disciplined Warrior Trader.” Make up your mind if you want to take wealth out of the markets consistently or simply roll out of bed and head to your computer, or multi-task on social media while putting on trades sporadically – not geared, not inspired, not dressed to win.
The choice is up to you. Questions? Schedule your Introductory Call with Dr. Paula today!
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