BarroMetrics Views: Trading and The Emerging Science of The Brain II
Yesterday I wrote that making decisions requires a great deal of energy. Consequently, when making trading decisions, we need to take this into consideration. The questions that arise are:
- Is there a best time for decision making and if so, when is the best time?
- Are there any strategies we can use to conserve energy.
Marcia Conner wrote an interesting article in July 2008: Brain, Body and Butt. In this article, she introduced me to the science of chronobiology (the science of biological clocks within living organisms). I learnt that different times of days are better for different activities.
For the human, the best times for decision-making and internalization of new information is in the morning, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. For me, it’s more like 5:00 am to 12:00 pm That’s why I have been taking myself off to bed at 11:30 pm- so I can get up at 5:00 am. I find I get loads done.
Marcia callsl this ‘brain’ time and is almost universally true, independent of age, time zone, or level of wakefulness. It follows therefore that it’s best to schedule this time for our trading decisions.
In addition to this, taking a 5 to 10 minutes break every 40 to 60 minutes is not only desirable but a must. It gives our brain time to recharge. And, a glucose drink during break time would not go astray.
Another strategy is unload ‘from mind to paper’: use mindmaps, decision-trees etc to help us organise our thoughts. In addition we ought to schedule our mental activities according to Maria’s ‘brain, body and butt times.
I’ll end this blog by describing Maria’s other times.
The ‘body time’ runs from about 12:30pm to 2:30 pm. This is when we are physically strongest and geared for exercise. So if you are going to take in information, do so by moving around.
‘Butt time’ lasts from 2:30pm to 4:00 pm. Physically and mentally we are at our lowest ebb. This time is best used for sitting and reflecting ‘laterally rather than deeply’: read and hear what others have to say to integrate their responses into your mindset.
By 4:00 pm, we have perked up. We can again count on our mental focus. In addition, our long-term memory improves with the day so this is the best time for revising new information and asking: “How can I use what I have learned today?”
These three stages repeat their sequence during the evening, night-time and early morning.
Tomorrow, more on Maria’s time and emerging science of the brain.
Refer this blog post to a friend or colleague…
