Is your blood sugar affecting your trading without you even realizing?

This is a slightly different piece of trading advice than the usual! But don’t say that we don’t tell you everything you may need to be successful!!

A few years ago I started to have really bad migraine headaches during and after trading. You can have a profitable trading method and a great mindset, but if your mindset feels as though its being hit over the head with a sledge hammer, I can attest that its pretty hard to trade.

Initially I thought the headaches were caused by stress and staring at the screens all day. After seeing too many doctors and having too many brain scans, blood tests, heart and kidney tests, all of which showed me to be healthy as an ox, I eventually discovered that I had hypoglycemia - low blood sugar.

By changing my diet, not only did my headaches get better and I droped 30 pounds, but I discovered that it had huge benefits for my trading. I was able to concentrate better, stay calmer, and think clearer.

You may be thinking, what the heck has this got to do with me? But did you know that an estimated 20 million+ Americans suffer from low blood sugar. Even a few Europeans, and the odd Englishman have been know to sucumb! Sufferers get its associated side effects - increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, palpitations, light-headedness, fatigue, anxiety. Many don’t know they have it. The american diet, and that of many developed countries, with its excess of sugar and refined carbs makes it highly likely that many people reading this blog post are more or less affected. Maybe even you?

As if trading wasn’t difficult enough already without having to counter problems with concentration, exascerbated emotions, and fatigue. Here’s the pattern: you eat a meal - say breakfast. Your body kicks into hyperdrive to digest the food and your blood sugar shoots up - you feel good. Only problem for people with low blood sugar, is that when your blood sugar goes up, a little alarm goes off and the insulin bunny dumps a mother load of insulin into your system. After an hour or so, your blood sugar is lower than when you started - and you feel like crap.

If you are anything like me, an hour and a half after breakfast is market opening time - and the last thing you need as a trader is to start getting foggy when the bell rings.

Most people react to a feeling of low blood sugar by having a pick me up, a cup of coffee, a cookie, a pastry. Only problem is, the roller coster begins over - blood sugar shoots up, insulin kicks in, blood sugar bombs. On top of this, the insulin released affects your adrenals, releasing adrenalin into your system. So there you are sitting in front of the screens trying to stay calm and collected - meanwhile inside your body there’s a regular battlefield of chemical reactions going on, none of which are helping you stay calm - quite the opposite. In fact the natural adrenalin release of trading will itself help to lower your blood sugar.

What to do? You need to eat in a way that keeps your blood sugar stable - and avoids the rollercoaster. If you are feeling really bold, quit coffee, sugar, and refined carbohydrates. Eat more protein, veggies, and complex low glycemic carbs. At the very least eat small meals/low glycemic snacks every 1.5 to 2 hours.

Nowdays I always make sure that I have snacks on hand so that I don’t have to leave the screens at a key moment. There are a couple of snack bars that work really well to keep your blood sugar stable - extendbar (the best but only available online - no its not an affiliate program!) and Luna bars (available at Walmarts and many supermarkets). If you are diabetic ignore this advice completely and if you have any concerns check with your doctor first before taking any guidance you read here. Here’s a good book to read about managing low blood sugar.