Home » RDTS Training Home » Trading Psychology & Mindset » Sniper Mindset to Trading

In this video, we cover how thinking like a sniper can provide you with a huge edge in trading.

RexDog Trade System (RDTS) – Psychology of Trading

I am not a licensed financial advisor in any way shape or form. This training and everything I say about trading, cryptocurrencies, money, life or anything in general should not be taken as financial advice. Everything I say or write is my opinion. Make sure you do your own research and base all your decisions on what you find yourself. I’m simply stating opinions. I am not giving financial advice, trade advice, or any financial advice in any way whatsoever. Everything I write or state is an opinion.
I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR.

To Be Successful at Trading…

You have to master yourself. Who you are. Your strengths, your weaknesses.

You have to also understand how you’re built. How your emotions work. How your body responds to stress, pain, fear, greed, loss, uncertainty, and consistently being wrong.

Best Way to Improve

Find complimentary fields of study and find ways it relates to what you want to master…

The VELCRO® brand of hook and loop was invented by a man named George de Mestral in the 1940’s while hunting in the Jura mountains in Switzerland. Mr. de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, realized that the tiny hooks of the cockle-burs were stuck on his pants and in his dog’s fur and wondered how they attached themselves. Under the scrutiny of the microscope, he observed the hooks engaging the loops in the fabric of his pants. 

Why This Book

Trading is about the mind. It’s also about making decisions when you don’t have all the information in a very chaotic environment.

What we can learn from snipers…

  • They are force multipliers
  • They’ve developed “deity” like observational skills
  • They have brains that resist stress (understatement)
  • They have confidence (even under immense pressure)
  • Time and time again they accomplish amazing feats

What we can learn from snipers…


They can go from off to on in a split second…
Snipers stop only when they are done
It’s not the tools that make the difference, it’s what they do with them
Snipers get the best shot they can get. Not the perfect shot they want
Snipers pick shots for maximum effectiveness

They accomplish this by following a system…
Control, Analysis, and Action.
Snipers have brains that have been trained to resist the ravages of stress. The mind-set they employ can be broken down into three actionable steps that are of direct use to anyone in either a business or a personal situation: • Control • Analysis • Action
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It’s about gaining control over…
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND
It’s about not ignoring the way the mind works but having our mind work for us.
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The same centers of the brain that process physical pain, process mental discomfort.

The fear of failure lights up the same mental centers as the fear of predators does.

It shuts down… seeks to numb itself, transports us somewhere else.
The tendency of the brain to shut down on us, to seek to numb itself, to transport us somewhere else when things get tough, is a response that those who develop mental toughness have learned to recognize. When it happens they can blink it off, embracing it rather than fighting it, drawing strength from it rather than feeling helpless and weak, emerging from it in control instead of feeling helpless.
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Embrace that, draw strength.
Those who develop mental toughness have learned to recognize. When it happens they can blink it off, embracing it rather than fighting it, drawing strength from it rather than feeling helpless and weak, emerging from it in control instead of feeling helpless.
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Your biggest adversary…
Those who develop mental toughness have learned to recognize. When it happens they can blink it off, embracing it rather than fighting it, drawing strength from it rather than feeling helpless and weak, emerging from it in control instead of feeling helpless.
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Successful Trading is about using your intuition without ego or emotion.
Those who develop mental toughness have learned to recognize. When it happens they can blink it off, embracing it rather than fighting it, drawing strength from it rather than feeling helpless and weak, emerging from it in control instead of feeling helpless.

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Before you can act you must choose.
Before you can choose you must know.
Before you can know you must feel.
And before you can feel you must be trained.

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Pillar of Self Belief
Passion
Purpose
Persistence
Those who develop mental toughness have learned to recognize. When it happens they can blink it off, embracing it rather than fighting it, drawing strength from it rather than feeling helpless and weak, emerging from it in control instead of feeling helpless.
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Passion
If passion exists it creates a shortcut from something that is hard and grueling to something that is beyond a job or a chore.

For the markets
For trading
For being proven wrong consistently
To always be learning

Purpose
Purpose provides the mind the ability to have greater clarity and supports persistence

Why you wake up in the morning
Why you trade (or chose trading)
Why you want to succeed

Persistence
Never stop doing what you are doing…

Whatever the market throws your way– you’re going to make it through
No matter what you’re going to succeed
Realize you’re never going to master the market and will always have another rung to climb

When we believe in ourselves our brains operate differently.
This is why belief in yourself as a trader, as someone who can master themselves, who can control themselves is critical.
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Confidence, even when under pressure, has a way of turning an impossible situation into just another challenge to be met.
This is why belief in yourself as a trader, as someone who can master themselves, who can control themselves is critical.
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True passion requires purpose; both passion and purpose create persistence.
You want to take the first step into building a mind-set of trading excellence? Learn who you are. Understand what drives you. Discover what you really deeply care about. That’s the most solid foundation to build upon.
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Without knowing who you are and why you do what you do, you can’t hope to control your present or choose your future.
You want to take the first step into building a mind-set of trading excellence? Learn who you are. Understand what drives you. Discover what you really deeply care about. That’s the most solid foundation to build upon.
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Once you have self belief now you need an approach to trading…
This is why belief in yourself as a trader, as someone who can master themselves, who can control themselves is critical.
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Making good decisions, quickly, especially in the heat of battle, is not easy… your environment and mental state are two of the biggest contributors.

The best decision-making is done without really thinking about it—you process the visual and aural information you have in the moment, and make a decision weighted toward success.

This makes it somewhat subconscious—you’re not necessarily going through a decision tree in real time in your head, because chances are by the time you run through the plays, the enemy has collapsed on you.

4 Step Approach Snipers Are Trained On…
Plan
Execute
Reassess Plan
Execute
(until it becomes 2nd nature)
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Craves Control
Overthinking
Avoidance of negative outcomes
Inhibition of emotions
They adopt these because the mind craves control.
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How to do this in trading…
Plan your trade
Execute your trade
Reassess trade
Execute on findings
(until it becomes 2nd nature)
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Identify & Observation

“I can’t emphasize enough that sniping is not about shooting every day. It’s about hours and hours of observation,”
Sniper – Page 67
Trading isn’t about consistently opening and closing positions. It’s about observing the market and entering and exiting the market at the right time.

Observation requires patience.

The careful collection of facts and their verification so that all the variables are gathered and itemized.

Even the ones that are mutable and therefore can create surprises.

Visual information is used by the brain to create a detailed construct of the world.
Looking at a chart or watching the market you’re creating a construct of the world.
That construct becomes the model which allows pattern recognition to take place.

Observation requires detachment when each element that is noted is factored in, weighed carefully even if the weighing has to happen fast, on the fly.
Develop the ability to observe the market with complete detachment. No immediate action… even (especially) if you have an active position.
Observation creates a sense of detachment because it negates the need for immediate action.

“You hide things in different areas, camouflage them. And then lie observing those who observe them or go past them. You need to understand the reasons people might have spotted some and not others.”
In trading you’re not hiding things, things are already hidden.

You want to look at the market for clues of what others might have spotted. Or reasons why others are noticing things and see if you can benefit from that.
Building a personal database.
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Data & Information

Data is often thought to be information, but that isn’t quite true.

Data is a building block. As raw building material, at its point of acquisition it hasn’t yet been shaped, processed, or interpreted.
What you see on a chart is data. It’s a building block of a pattern.

Information, on the other hand requires meaning and context to be useful.
Always have in the back of your mind… the difference between data and information.

Execution

My training took over and I got myself in quickly but calmly into the perfect sniping position.
We follow a set pattern, placing part of our bodies in optimum position in strict order starting with left hand, elbow, legs, right hand and cheek.
Finally, we’re trained to relax and to start to control our breathing focusing solely on the target.
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The brain is like a muscle… it needs to be primed.
Exercises or patterns of behavior prime your mind and control your emotions.
Develop a set pattern you do for each and every trade. Track results of the trades and adjust. This pattern will help you remove emotions, fears, greed, and other unhelpful thoughts from your trading decisions.

Shaping
Instead of setting a desired outcome “become more alert,” it’s always easier to break it down into stages, identify how to get immediate feedback so those stages can be assessed, and increase it incrementally.

I want to be better at…
Entries
Exits
Being patient with profits
Getting out of losing trades

Create a step by step approach on how to get feedback.
Break down where your uncertainty is and what you want to improve.

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How Snipers Get Better or Deal with Issues
Reformulate
Reformulate it if necessary
Evaluate
Evaluate it
Formulate
Formulate a plan of action to tackle it
Identify
Identify the problem
How stnipers deal with issues in a systematic way.
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I let my losing trades run too long…
Identified the problem
Why do I let my losing trades run to long?
When do I recognize it’s been too long?
Create a plan to tackle it (pick 1)
Set stop losses and stick to them no matter what
Create 2 scenarios per trade that should happen if they don’t I get out of the trade
Set a timeframe for my trades, if they don’t meet my expectations I exit
Will this chosen plan work
On current trades I’m in
On past trades where I made this mistake
On trades I’m looking at now
Reformat Plan

4 Step Process
Reformulate
Reformulate it if necessary
Evaluate
Evaluate it
Formulate
Formulate a plan of action to tackle it
Identify
Identify the problem
How stnipers deal with issues in a systematic way.
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Do extensive internal modeling and role-play.
To help them speed up the process they do extensive internal modeling and role-play. They run scenarios in their heads. They go over the shots they have recorded that did well and try to understand why. They look at the missions that failed, see how they could have improved them, and apply everything they
know to everything they see so that they are learning all the time. Over time this helps them build the handy mental shortcuts that greatly speed up their decision-making process.

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How This Works in Trading…
Go over every trade you’ve done
The ones that went in your favor try to figure out why
The ones that failed, see how you could have improved
Run scenarios on current trades

Next Steps…
Define your self belief
Daily improve your trading mind
Practice your market observation skills
Create a trade plan your follow that will create your mental flow
Identify your biggest challenges and create a plan to consistently address them