|
|
|
|
|
|
|
yourself "hoping" that the market will come around, you are fighting the market. The market never does anything to anyone. It is totally indifferent to you, and your trades. You as a trader are competing only with yourself. In order for you to become the trader you desire, you need to control your thoughts and change your limiting beliefs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Hope" is a four-letter word that your ego uses to curse you out. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So how do you change from being an egocentric trader to a trader who accepts the market as it is? In order to change, you need to understand that your mind is only reacting to the events of the outside world, your unconscious desires and thoughts, and your conscious thoughts and desires. Mastering your ego (or self) means strengthening your virtues, values, and beliefs. It also demands that your internal beliefs and their related rules empower your conscious thought process, and therefore powerfully influence the unconscious thought process. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The two strongest virtues that will help your ego balance the demands of your conscious and unconscious minds are integrity and discipline. Integrity allows you to be brutally honest with yourself. Discipline allows you to begin to live and focus in the present moment. When you are able to exist (trade) in the present, you will be able to accurately tell what direction the market is heading. If you enter a trade and have an instant winner, your undisciplined ego feels great; if the trade is an immediate loser, your undisciplined ego makes it hard to do the right thing. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your gut instinct will be to get rid of the losing trade immediately; however, your ego will generate perfectly valid reasons to hold the losing trade. The correct action is to quickly exit the trade, and take the loss before it gets expensive. However, because of its myopic view of what being a winner is, your ego will prevent you from swallowing your pride (another vice) and exiting the position. Your sense of self will attempt to preserve esteem no matter what the actual consequence is. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How many times have you heard traders say that they don't have a loss until they take it (i.e., it is just a paper loss)? That is their ego talking. It is their ego that allows them to hold on to the losing position until the markets turn around, proving them right. It is their ego stating that it is right and the market is wrong. Do you have any idea how much money has been lost because of this reasoning? The logic of not having a loss until it is taken is false; a paper loss is a very real loss. Ask your objective self: "If I honestly |
|
|
|
|
|