Dear Traders,
The past weeks I have explained how various sports and jobs can support your trading career, but this time our focus is on hobbies. Wondering what pastime activities can build the trader's skills? Check out our list of the top eight hobbies.
Charting on graphs
When you are searching for a hobby that can improve your trading skills, there is perhaps nothing better than charting. There are numerous occasions when charting skills can be practiced such as reviewing a topographic map for sailing your boat or checking weather charts for your next road trip.
The type of charting you do is superfluous, because in most cases it will be the quickest leisure-focused way to improve your technical analysis expertise. The more you work on charting, technical analysis and price reading - the more chance you have to trade successfully moving forward. However, not all charting time is equally valuable – see the video below for more information.
Read about trading
Whereas charting provides traders with real time experience, reading is a key method for improving theory and knowledge. Not all the books and other info you read will be equally valuable, but most of it will provide a golden nugget of information that pushes your trading forward. Expanding your trading knowledge is always a wise investment for the future.
Play sports
Sports is healthy for traders because it allows you to remain physically healthy and therefore mentally better prepared too. Your brain also receives a well deserved break, which allows you to regain focus again. Sports help our level of persistence too. For more sports info, check-out our recommended five best sports.
Socialise with traders
Talking to traders can boost your experience and knowledge, because you often gather insights from more experienced traders. Now, you may be asking why a trader would bother to take the time for socialising? The answer is that traders generally love to share tips and tricks with co-traders.
Trading can be an isolated affair - reaching out to other traders helps satisfy your inbuilt human need for social engagement. You can also benefit from sharing your knowledge - as much as you can from learning yourself - because giving feels good. And lastly of course, nothing beats talking about your passion, which is probably why conversations about market analysis, tools or methods quickly become lively
Playing poker
Playing this game can hone your trading skills, because it requires a combination of two vital trading aspects - strategy and psychology.
Video games
The impact of video games is a much debated topic, but evidence suggests that some games can improve focus in some areas of life. Daniel Goleman recently stated in his book Focus that "various games have been found to improve visual acuity and spatial perception, attention switching, decision-making, and the ability to track objects."* The results were published in the journal Nature after speaking to half a dozen experts about the harm and benefits.
If Daniel is right then this skillset could help traders better recognise visual patterns, handle multiple open setups or opportunities and focus on price movement across multiple charts. But again, the topic is heavily debated.
Puzzles
Working with different types of puzzles, helps improve your pattern recognition skills. For example, cracking a code puzzle is a strategic task while building a puzzle is a visual assignment. Working with puzzles has a positive impact on how you analyze charts and your ability to spot trends or patterns, regardless of the type of puzzle you choose. 8)
Strategy board games
Board games sound boring? Think again. There are literally thousands of games available nowadays and some of the best games offer strategically challenging settings. And as trading is heavily strategic in nature, a strategic board gamer can improve their trading skills while having fun.
I hope this post helps you choose a hobby that can improve your trading skills. But perhaps you already have a great option that you want to share? Let me know in the comments section below. Who knows, maybe testing the MT4 Supreme Edition from Admiral Markets could soon become your favorite hobby?
Cheers and good trading,
Chris
(*) Goleman, D. (2013). Focus. London, UK. Bloomsbury.
