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Fear and anxiety are different, but not separate. They exist within each other. Fear is being afraid of somethinga threat, a pain, the rejection or loss of something or somebody, the moment of dying. Anxiety is anticipating the threat, and the resultant possible implications. It is not the negativity itself of the threat that is frightening, but what we perceive it to mean. Our minds will always attempt to turn anxiety into fear, because fear can be met by courage. |
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Courage is most often associated with combat. The battlefront is where humanity has been trained to look for and discover courage. Some traders equate trading with a constant ongoing battle, and expect to find courage. The courage to trade within your rules requires the fortitude to do what is right, no matter how uncomfortable you feel and no matter what your ego is telling you. Although the courage of an outstanding trader in the marketplace is not as dramatically evident as that of a warrior on the field of battle, it is no less exemplary. In many ways the Samurai warriors of Japan had many of the same beliefs as great traders today. |
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Traders always face a market that requires them to enter or exit when their emotions tell them to do otherwise. Courageous trading is a crucial element of your success. Possessing courage requires that you accept the responsibility for your profitable trades as well as the losing ones. It is far easier to say that the markets conspired to take your money away from you than it is to accept responsibility for the risk of trading. |
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You need to understand that even though you possess courage, you will still experience fear. Fear is a natural human emotion, and all traders experience it. It doesn't matter how much experience you have or don't have; everyone will get a visit from Mr. Fear. Outstanding traders will face it, get control of themselves, and obey the rules they developed; cowardly and novice traders will embrace the fear and fail to properly execute their trades. |
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When do you need courage? The natural answer is when you are fearful. However, do you think that courage might also be required to exit a winning trade? What vice would a trader with a "profitable trade" experience that would create fear? Courage will combat the greed that a trader with a winning trade experiences. |
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Courage will always counteract the power of fear. Fear results from thinking a multitude of different thoughts. Some of these thoughts are that the market will take your money, that you are leaving money on the table, that the pit just loves to run your stop, or that you have rotten luck. The way I like to see fear is that it is false evidence that appears real, and that by changing my perspective and trusting myself, there is nothing to be anxious about. Courage is the ability to do the right thing when you are naturally |
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