The Colour of Trading — How Colours May Affect Our Trading Performance

Here are the key points from our video ‘The Colour of Trading — How Colours May Affect Our Trading Performance’ that you can use as a reference guide or ‘cheat sheet’. The video is available on our YouTube channel and at the bottom of this article.

In trading, we know that our emotions and state of mind have a big effect on our performance and how we react to situations in the market. Surprisingly, it can sometimes be simple things that affect our moods and emotions, with one very simple thing being colours.

Therefore, as part of our continual search for more marginal gains in trading, we decided to understand more about how colours may affect our trading performance. You may recall us doing something similar with the subject of music, as we attempted to find the perfect music for trading.

Here is a summary (excluding black and white) of how the 4 different ‘psychological primary colours’ affect our mood:

Blue

A tranquil and cool colour, making us feel calm and relaxed. It has even been found to slow down your heart rate and blood pressure, so it is even calming from a physical point of view. However, blue can also be associated with feeling down, hence the saying ‘having the blues’ or ‘Blue Monday’.