GETTING REAL
"The single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don't cut their losses short. It is a curiosity of human nature that, no matter how many books talk about this rule, and no matter how many experts offer this advice, people keep making the same mistake." Victor Sperandeo ( Trader Vic)
This note from subscriber, O.S., points to the importance of being in the real and in the "now" in terms of trading:........before I read your articles, I had been practicing "regrouping" or "next" mental skills and just wanted to thank you for your article explaining how the brain processes memory and training yourself to immediately forget. There are so many mental trading skills that are so useful and healthy for living in general. Sometimes just a few words or a different viewpoint can reveal the obscure."
If you take a position, and it is a losing position, cut it short and forget it. Take it off your screens and move on. If you are in a winning position, let it run. Take partial profits if the stock moves in your favor, but keep some and let your winnings accumulate.
It doesn't matter if you get in at the bottom or out at the top. It only matters that you are "with the trade" and that you follow the trade until you are out of it.
One major reason most people lose money in the markets is that they sell winners too quickly, and hold on to losers too long. The reasons behind this are complex.
Since childhood, some of you have been told that you were not " good enough." This message took many forms, but it left you with the thought that, no matter what you did, it was never enough. So, you tried and tried to succeed. Even if you did not, you kept hoping that you would succeed in order to demonstrate to those that gave the messages to you that you really were good enough and smart enough and successful enough.
So- you keep trying and trying. And failing. The harder you try, the more you fail. But you keep HOPING that you will get it right. You will succeed if you just keep doing what you are doing. That, of course, is insanity. If you keep doing and thinking the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, you will keep getting what you are getting. Failure.
At some point, you began to believe these negative messages and they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You are not good enough and you deserve to lose. The desire to fail is very powerful. You may not be aware of it consciously, but subconsciously, it is living up to the expectations that were placed upon you as a child, and which you carry with you into adulthood.
How crazy are you, Doctor Janice? Are you telling me that I am, in a sense, programmed to lose?
Yes. That is what I am telling you. That is the reason that you hold onto losing and self-defeating aspects of your life, including jobs, interpersonal relationships and stocks. That is why you do not have the courage to break away from old habits which put you in a negative framework and lead to more losing.That is why, when you see gains, you are shocked and know that you better take them right now, because you are destined to lose them if you do not. That is why you hold onto losing positions, because you know that they are losing and that is your lifelong modus operandi, but you have HOPE that they may not actually be losing, or that something you do or say or think will change that. Or that you will be magically "rescued" from your losing ways.
Unfortunately, none of this is going to happen.
Be they stocks, commodities or human beings, the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.
IF you have a challenge like this, look inside of you for the solution. All of the answers are within you.
Stop holding onto the past, since it is history. Do not look to the future, since it is a mystery. All you have is right now, this moment, today.That is why we call the present a gift. The present is your opportunity to make yourself strong. Make yourself a winner.
In order to move through this and to adopt a winning mindset, it is essential that you throw off all negative messages from the past.
It is time to grow up, to put childish attitudes and concepts aside. When it comes time to do your own life, you either perpetuate your childhood or you stand on it and finally kick it out from under.
You are more powerful than you will ever know, but you must give the power to yourself. No one and nothing can give power to you.
This does not happen overnight, because time takes time. BUT, if you apply yourself, tell yourself that you do have worth, that you are a winner and that no one can bring you down, you are on the way. It's about progress, baby steps every day.
If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you won't If you would like to win, but think you can't...you won't
The winners in life and in the markets are not the strongest, the fastest or the brightest..They are those who believe in themselves and live and breathe an authentic winning mindset.
You need to claim the events in your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality. ..Florida Scott-MaxwellJanice Dorn, MD, PhD
Neuropsychological Trading CoachDr. Janice Dorn is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she received her Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy. She did her postdoctoral work in Neurophysiology at the New York Medical College. She received her M.D. from La Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, did one year of clinical clerkships in Phoenix, Arizona. and then completed a Neurology Internship at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
She trained in Anesthesiology at UCLA, where she also did a Fellowship in Cancer Pain Management. She completed a Psychiatric Residency at the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix. She has been a faculty member to the rank of Associate Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, The University of Missouri Medical Center at Columbia and the Chicago Medical School, where she won numerous awards for outstanding teaching. She also held the position of Director, International Clinical Research for a major pharmaceutical company, in which capacity she traveled internationally for nine years, and has visited almost every country in the world, including living in Scotland, Germany and South Africa. Dr. Dorn began a private boutique practice of Biological Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry and Psychoneuroendocrinolgy in Phoenix in 1987.
Dr. Dorn holds the following Board Certifications:
Diplomate, General Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Diplomate, Addiction Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Diplomate, American Society of Addiction Medicine
For the past twelve years, Dr. Dorn has focused her attention on trading, mentoring and commentary in the financial markets, with emphasis on Behavioral NeuroFinance, Mass Psychology and Trading Neuropsychology. A graduate of Coach University, she is an active trader, trading coach, and the author of 300 publications, relating to trading and investing neuropsychology, market mass psychology, psychoneuroeconomics, behavioral neurofinance and holistic wellness. Dr. Dorn is a sought-after media personality, lecturer and trading mentor who has provided real-time, web-based personal coaching for more than 600 traders and investors.
TOP MENTAL TRADING EDUCATION BOOKS
Think and Grow Rich
12 Habatudes of Succesful Traders
Exceptional Traders - The Mind Game
The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes
The Investor's Quotient
Winner Take All: A Top Commodity Trader Tells It Like It Is
Disclaimer - I am not a commodity trading advisor. The information on this site is for trading education only. There are no trading recommendations for any one individual made on this site and this information is paper trades for trading education. All trades are extemely risky and only risk capital should be used when trading.
U.S. Government Required Disclaimer - Commodity Futures Trading Commission Futures and Options trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept them in order to invest in the futures and options markets. Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose. This is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell futures or options. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this web site. The past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results.
CFTC RULE 4.41 - HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.
