Table Of ContentHypnoTrading
A practical guide to using hypnosis and
NLP to improve your
trading performance
Catherine Stott BSc, DHP, Clinical
Hypnotherapist
HARRIMAN HOUSE LTD
18 College Street
Petersfield
Hampshire
GU31 4AD
GREAT BRITAIN
Tel: +44 (0)1730 233870
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.harriman-house.com
First published in Great Britain in 2016
Copyright © Catherine Stott
The right of Catherine Stott to be identified as the author has been asserted in accordance
with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
Print ISBN: 978-0-85719-503-6
eBook ISBN: 978-0-85719-504-3
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publisher. This book may
not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding
or cover other than that in which it is published without the prior written consent of the
Publisher.
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that information in this book is accurate, no
liability can be accepted for any loss incurred in any way whatsoever by any person relying
solely on the information contained herein.
No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person or corporate body acting or refraining to
act as a result of reading material in this book can be accepted by the Publisher, by the
Author, or by the employers of the Author.
CONTENTS
About the author
Preface
Introduction
Part One. An Introduction to Therapeutic Techniques
Chapter One. Hypnosis, Psychotherapy and the Trader
Part Two. Trading Challenges And How To Deal With Them
Chapter Two. Common Client Issues
Chapter Three. Understanding Your Trading Challenges
Chapter Four. Coping With Losing Trades
Chapter Five. Stress and Anxiety
Chapter Six. Negative Self-Talk
Chapter Seven. The Role of Fear
Part Three. Personal Development
Chapter Eight. Visualisation – Aiming for Success
Chapter Nine. Affirmations
Chapter Ten. Modelling Success
Chapter Eleven. Boosting Confidence and Motivation
Chapter Twelve. Mental Preparation and Discipline
Chapter Thirteen. Your Future
Chapter Fourteen. Finding a Suitable Hypnotherapist
HypnoTrading courses
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Catherine Stott studied at the University of Reading, where she obtained a
degree in Psychology. She then went to work as a human factors
psychologist at a science and technology company. Her focus was
predominantly on training and designing training systems for human
use. Following this she trained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist at the Royal
Berkshire College of Clinical Hypnosis (RBCCH), obtaining a Diploma in
Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy.
Catherine is fully trained in hypnotherapy, suggestion therapy,
hypnoanalysis, psychotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). She is a Licentiate of the Association
of Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (APHP), a member of the
National Council of Hypnotherapy (NCH) and one of the
first hypnotherapists in the UK to become registered with the
Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CHNC). In addition to
this she is also a member of the British Psychological Society.
Catherine first began working with traders in 2010 and has developed an in-
depth knowledge of trading psychology as well as how hypnotherapy, NLP
and EFT can help traders with the challenges they face.
PREFACE
What this book covers
Trading is a minefield of psychological and emotional challenges that are
often underestimated. It is usually only once you have started trading that
you realise how mentally and emotionally involved you become and notice
the complex relationship that develops between the trader and the trade.
This book provides you with a set of tools to help you deal with some of the
common psychological issues in trading. You will be introduced to
hypnotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and Havening as three
key therapies that can help you change your mindset and how you cope
with the challenges of trading and the trading environment.
Specifically, this book covers four main overarching challenges that traders
face:
1. Coping with losing trades
2. Stress and anxiety
3. Negative self-talk
4. The role of fear.
It also looks at areas for self-development:
1. Using visualisation for success
2. How to write affirmations
3. Modelling success
4. Boosting motivation and confidence
5. Mental preparation and discipline
6. Building your future
Who this book is for
This book is for all traders who want to change how they trade and improve
their success. Whether you are a novice trader who wants to trade well from
the start or an experienced trader who wants to tweak your self-belief or
motivation, this book is for you. It will be useful for traders who want to:
1. Improve their trading consistency
2. Stick to their trading plan
3. Overcome fear
4. Learn how to deal with losing money
5. Take the leap from part-time trader to full-time trader
6. Trade with a calm and positive mindset
7. Have better mental preparation for trading
8. Reduce how much they lose when trading
9. Have better decision-making skills
How this book is structured
This book is broken down into three sections.
The first section will introduce you to three types of therapy: hypnotherapy,
NLP and Havening. You will learn the basic concepts and theories behind
each and the basic steps needed for self-hypnosis.
The second section outlines common trading issues and then moves on to
cover in depth four key areas of challenge for traders. These are: coping
with losing trades, stress and anxiety, negative self-talk and fear.
The final section contains more general self-help discussion. Specifically, it
covers using visualisation, how to write affirmations, building confidence
and motivation, modelling success, mental preparation and discipline.
The book concludes with advice on how to choose a hypnotherapist should
you want more help.
Within each chapter, you will find a number of activities and techniques
that encompass hypnotherapy, NLP or Havening. These are designed to
help you address the challenges that have been identified. You will be
guided through each technique step by step so that you can practise it and
use it correctly.
The techniques are designed to provide you with a toolkit of
psychotherapeutic approaches that you can use as often as required to help
you create the changes you want. You will find that some suit you more
than others and you will learn how to adapt the techniques outlined to
address a variety of areas, both within and outside of trading.
How to use this book
To make the best use of the book, firstly read through each chapter and each
activity before you start. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time. There
is no need to rush and, although it will be tempting to move straight to the
chapters that you think apply to you the most, work through each one in
turn. You can repeat each activity and technique as often as you want or
need to.
Once you have completed all the activities you can then dip into the book in
the future, using the relevant techniques when needed. Once you are
familiar with the book and the activities, you’ll be able to bookmark those
that you want to return to so you can practise and use them as often as you
need to.
Within each chapter, you will see the following:
Text in italics indicates an activity where you should make notes.
Perhaps use a notepad specifically for the work you complete in this
book; it will help you to keep all of your notes in one place.
TIPS! Specific tips are displayed in bold.
Techniques
Practical techniques are displayed in boxes. They are written in a straightforward,
step-by-step manner.
INTRODUCTION
Y
ou’ve picked up this book and you are flicking through it. Clearly, you
think you need some help breaking down some of the psychological
challenges of trading.
Do you lack discipline? Are you annoyed at yourself for letting fear get in
the way? Perhaps you have a great trading strategy but for whatever reason
you don’t follow it. Perhaps you can’t stop yourself from exiting trades too
early and you experience both elation that you have made a profit, and
frustration you didn’t stay in as long as you intended and missed out.
If you have these problems when trading then HypnoTrading can help you.
HypnoTrading is not your typical trading psychology textbook. It goes a
step further than describing problems – it guides you step-by-step through a
number of self-help solutions. You will discover the power of hypnosis and
how to use self-hypnosis with neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and
Havening, a modern psycho-sensory technique, to master your trading
issues, help you make better trading decisions, perform in a calm and
consistent manner, and go on to improve your trading life.
I have been working with traders since 2010, when I was first approached
by a trader who wanted to use hypnotherapy to help control his reactions to
losing trades and improve his levels of discipline.
Working with this client, I became intrigued by trading issues and the
similarities to gambling, and I soon knew that I wanted to work with traders
as a specialism. From this point on, I began to develop my knowledge of
trading psychology.
I quickly realised there was a common set of themes that seemed to appear
in my clinic as I saw more and more traders: discipline (or lack thereof),
fear, stress and how you react to losing trades, to name but a few. I realised
the huge number of home-based traders out there in the world and the
demand for my services began to grow.
Having seen the brilliant effects that hypnotherapy has had on my trader
clients, the next logical step was for me to write this book, to bring
