Axia Futures
The Digital Distraction and the reducing valve of consciousness
The younger trading generation arrive on our trading floor with an inherited cultural deficiency of having a digital leash connected to their senses waiting for the digital gas pump to fill them up with entertainment, distraction from the “now” and the need for a new hit of mental Class “A” stimulation.
This lack of concentrated, fully absorbed attention leaves an individual with little chance to map the inner landscape of the market and the structure of patterns, not only from a probabilistic perspective but also from a more subtle angle of constant evolutionary market change which in the end slows down the trader’s market adaptation process. Coupled with this is how the individual interfaces with the market from a sensory and emotional perspective so as to ensure his/her decision making protocol is geared towards executing trades with a solid, definable yet dynamic edge.
None of this is possible when your phone vibrates inside your pocket whilst at your desk and your immediate gaze and concentration from the market is arrested to the age of “likes” and “retweets”. At that very moment you are losing edge in the market.
Our Elite Traders, I’m speaking about traders with the ability to make six figure plus days, have one common trait. Ruthless focus in the markets when their edge is in play. Nothing distracts them from a fully absorbed experience whilst they dynamically question their trade through every sensory input the market supplies them in every second. This application is consistent, month in, month out, and when there is no market movement within their current edge framework, their attention shifts to updating new ways to perform better next time they are faced with a similar pattern of events or they prepare themselves for potential market opportunities that will be coming out later in the week. They are fully absorbed in what it is to be a market speculator and an ultimate professional.
I often hear from the older trading generation outside of our firm – those who began before the day trading game and the art of speculation became truly professional and the need for a solid approach started becoming an edge – that the markets are different and dominated by algorithms and market efficiencies leave very little opportunity for the discretionary trader. The integration of AI and machine with humans is the way forward they mutter to give themselves an excuse for their own skill deficiencies. This all falls on deaf ears at Axia Futures. We have traders having the best performance years of their careers and climbing new realms of profitability that would leave the past generation with having to revise their current belief systems of making money in today markets.
At Axia Futures we are a group of fully discretionary traders who continue in pursuing the path of the great and unlimited potential in our cognitive, multi sensory and awareness capacities in order to extract edge from the market.
At Axia Futures we fully believe in the high cognitive intelligence of the human decision making matrix within the arena of market speculation. This capacity for success as mentioned in the start of this article lays in the ability of having fully absorbed attention which generates heightened awareness.
So how do we cultivate our attention in the current age of distraction and fragmented attention?
The accelerated adoption of eastern practices into our western reductionist culture is encircling our reasoning mind at an accelerated rate. The shift from our immediate sensory perception to make sense of our surroundings to the inner world, or the doors of our perception, to enhance our experience behind the veil of our sensory diluted vision seems to have seeped into the way we wish to make sense of our surroundings through a more awakened state. Many Eastern practices and ideas are being adopted within the high performance arena of speculation.
The age of reason seems to be making way to the age of awareness
Last weekend, a group of our traders attended a workshop by the renowned Guy Burgs who studied and practised many years in meditation and chi Kung in Asia under the guidance of some of the worlds greatest living masters. Much of the teachings were breath based and how to harness your breath so as to operate in a fully aware state beyond the interference of our mind. His principal teachings focused on operating in a highly cognitive and aware state whilst being non stimulated but rather in a calm but effective state of being. They learnt that the architecture of our breathe movement can significantly alter the immediate experience of how we process our sensory environment and hence the success of how we execute in a state of clarity and full attention.
At Axia Futures one of our principal beliefs is that once a trader has developed his/her edge in the evolutionary landscape of the financial markets, then he/she has the cognitive skill set and broad concentrated awareness to apply his/her edge in a consistent manner. So for this to happen we continue to explore practises in modern western approaches and/or the more mystical eastern philosophies and teachings so as to develop a framework of performance that keeps us not only extracting profits from the market but also turns us into happy and fully aware individuals in this full experience of life whilst also being significant contributors to our community. And this is because a fully rounded human is one that can fully contribute to oneself and the broader community.
Edge pursuit is a continuum and thus our exploration of our development should operate on the same spectrum within a fully absorbed state.
So how are you ensuring that you have the techniques and practices to remain fully focused and absorbed in your chosen discipline of performance?
By Alex Haywood
Axia Futures Co-Founder
To learn more about how to day trade and develop your career as a futures trader within a professional environment then check out the Axia Futures 8 Week Intensive Trading Course and other our specialised Trader Training offers. It is the most comprehensive training programme in the proprietary futures trading industry and is based upon years of successful in-house skills development.
