Most traders spend a good bit of time looking at charts.
Well here is a chart we traders should all take a look at.
The chart shown is the Yerkes-Dodson Law.
The Yerkes-Dodson law is a proposition that people perform best at intermediate levels of arousal, and that performance is lower at high or low levels of arousal.
The theory behind this is visually represented by the graphic in this idea.
No arousal levels or a bored/laidback approach to life will mean no stress but no real performance in what you are trying to achieve or do.
However when arousal and stress gets too high by pushing to hard, performance starts to decrease.
It's about finding the right balance to achieve an optimal performance.
A certain level of stress about what you are trying to achieve motivates you to study, learn or train in order to do your best.
A sportsperson has to get bumped up before an event as well as train hard, But getting to worked up and training to hard could cause a decrease in performance when it comes to the event.
Pushing not hard enough to pass an exam will lead to a fail as you haven't studied or don't care, But also pushing to hard could lead to a fail as you've let stress and anxiety take over forgetting everything you studied.
Moderate levels of arousal is best for overall performance.
This theory can be applied to your trading.
Take a non interested approach or bored approach and you performance in this area will be affected. Less potential profits etc.
Get to focused on your trading or trade to hard could lead to poor performance along with a load of stress in your life.
You as an individual will have to self reflect and determine where you fit on the curve in the idea graphic.
If you fell more success, achievement and happiness can be had, by all means crack on and go for it!
However, if you are getting to a point where you feel you might have reached your limit, it could well be time to dial it back a bit.
Don’t push to hard for it that you go down the opposite side of the curve.
This theory can be applied to every aspect in your life by using it to balance all aspects of your life will also help your trading as well as work, relationships and everything else we all go through day to day.
Thanks for taking time to read this.
Darren 🙌