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Live Group Coaching Session Summaries

Members of the Sound Performance Psychology Online Community (SPPOC) can access comprehensive summaries and audio recordings of our group coaching sessions. These resources can help them to review and enhance their trading psychology skills.

SPPOC provides two 90-minute group coaching sessions weekly, including live and archived mindfulness sessions specifically created for traders. It is a unique Discord community with no shot callers or market predictions, just a small group working together to build a mindset for trading and beyond.

Our archive of live sessions dates back to 1/7/24 when the SPPOC beta testing began.

#073 | Four Steps to Integrating the C.L.E.A.R. Mindset in Trading

In this session, Sean introduces an updated four-step process for integrating the C.L.E.A.R. Mindset into daily trading practice. These steps build on familiar concepts but provide a more structured and robust approach to self-regulation and decision-making. The foundation lies in clarifying trading values, helping traders distinguish between meaningful engagement and addictive tendencies. By assessing one’s emotional and cognitive state with tools like the field scale, traders can prevent emotional hijacking and remain grounded in rational decision-making.

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#072 | Navigating Schema Triggers on Deep Seek Day

When the markets experience significant volatility, as on “Deep Seek Day,” stress can awaken deeply embedded schemas—core beliefs and patterns rooted in childhood experiences. Sean explained how these schemas, like mistrust, abandonment, and vulnerability to harm, can distort a trader’s decision-making by amplifying emotional responses and creating harmful thought spirals. He emphasized the importance of understanding these schemas and maintaining perspective during volatile events.

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#071 | Choosing Your Attitude: Insights from Viktor Frankl

In this dynamic session, Sean explores Viktor Frankl’s timeless wisdom, particularly his insights on finding meaning amidst suffering, and connects them to the challenges traders face. Using Frankl’s philosophy as a foundation, Sean explores how our attitude toward any situation can shape our experience—a volatile market or an unchangeable life circumstance. By confronting hyper-reflection and engaging with our values, we can create an environment of internal resilience, clarity, and accountability.

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#070 | Crafting a Clearer Trading Debrief

Sean guided the SPP community through the evolution of his revamped trading debrief worksheet, a powerful tool designed to cultivate self-awareness and empower you to make more informed trading decisions.

One of the standout moments came when a member asked, “How can we constructively use the baggage from a bad trading day?” By ‘baggage ‘, the member referred to negative emotions, biases, or unhelpful thoughts that can linger after a challenging trading day. This sparked a nuanced conversation about transforming setbacks into opportunities for growth. As Sean pointed out, “Good stuff grows out of shit. If you’re not honest or bold enough to get your hands in the dirt, you don’t grow.” Another member shared a personal story of applying lessons from a stressful Monday to achieve a highly disciplined, profitable Tuesday—demonstrating the power of reflective awareness.

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#069 | Debriefing Done Right: Ending Your Trading Day with Purpose

In this engaging session, Sean breaks down the often-overlooked art of debriefing, the crucial end-of-day ritual for traders looking to maintain their mental clarity and financial edge. Inspired by his work with a trader whose most profitable trades happen before the New York market opens, Sean dives into how to “leave the market at the market” while fostering growth and accountability. Drawing parallels to the meticulous post-game reviews of professional athletes, he emphasizes the importance of balancing honest self-reflection with celebrating what went well—without turning the process into a mental beatdown.

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#068 | The Perils of Mount Stupid

In this engaging New Year’s session, Sean reflects on the “Mount Stupid” phase of the Dunning-Kruger effect. In this phase, traders with limited experience and a few wins often feel overconfident, leading to poor decisions and potential losses. Sean humorously describes this phase as “a melting pot of stupidity,” emphasizing how euphoria, greed, and inflated competence can trap even seasoned traders. He explains that this pattern is not unique to trading but is a common phenomenon across professions, where individuals initially overestimate their abilities.

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#067 | Refining Trading Practices: New Tools and the CLEAR Framework

This session explores new resources, including updated Discord channels and documents to streamline your trading psychology practice. Sean emphasizes the importance of the CLEAR Mindset and highlights its application across the newly refined steps of the trading process. A fresh daily worksheet concept is also in the works, providing traders with a structured yet customizable tool to enhance clarity and focus throughout the trading day.

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#066 | Trading Isn’t a F*cking Sport!

In this session, Sean delves into the perils of using sports metaphors in trading. He argues that trading is not a competition or a zero-sum game but a form of commerce, likening it to managing inventory or selling a product rather than scoring a goal. The adversarial, “win-lose” mindset inherent in sports analogies fosters impulsive reactions, heightens emotional stakes, and hinders traders from focusing on long-term success and process-oriented thinking.

Participants shared how removing sports analogies and embracing a commerce mindset felt more calming and sustainable. One SPP member highlighted that thinking of trading as a business rather than a game helped reduce pressure, allowing them to make more precise decisions. Sean reinforced that this shift encourages flexibility, patience, and mindfulness—vital to navigating the market’s uncontrollable forces

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#065 | Navigating Trading Euphoria and Risk Management

In this session, Sean and SPP community members explored how emotions, especially euphoria, influence trading decisions. The discussion began with reflections on Tesla’s historic price jump, serving as a backdrop for emotions like FOMO and post-trading exhilaration. Members shared personal experiences of handling emotional extremes, including impulsive trades after stepping away from their desks, only to return to a heightened state of excitement.

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#064 | Emotions Drive Decisions: The Hidden Catalyst of Trading Choices

In this session, Sean Sawyer delves into the pivotal role emotions play in decision-making in life and trading. Citing research by Antonio Damasio, Sean explains that decisions cannot occur without an emotional framework—a fact underscored by case studies of individuals with damaged emotional centers in the brain. Emotions like confidence, contentment, and even neutrality subtly guide our choices, often going unnoticed unless consciously examined.

Sean challenges the trading community’s common pursuit of “emotionless trading,” labeling it a fallacy. Instead, he advocates for emotional literacy and cognitive defusion—recognizing and naming emotions to gain clarity and make deliberate choices. The discussion highlights the risks of extremes, like euphoria, which can impair judgment, and emphasizes the value of balance and recovery after emotional highs

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