I have tourettes snydrome, so I try to read everything about it. It is comical what these kids who spend 6 years at Harvard and 6 years of Daddy's money come up with. If they just spent two weeks watching me they would know a hell of a lot more. I probably know more about it than any man alive since I have dealt with it for a very long time. And stress is very definately a trigger. So getting back to Opie's post, just like you said, stress is an indication something aint right, and no amount of sex drugs or rock in roll will cure it, not even religion. Getting things straight with mom and dad before they died seemed to help a little bit. It was really quite simple, I just had to convince them that I am not the good man they thought I was.
You are absolutely right about the role of formal education and real life practice. When formal education ends (you are standing with diploma in your hands, your happy parents are making a photo of you et cetera, lol), the real education is only about to start. Because nothing is better than real life cases. And trading is no different from any other profession. If you are not confident about your trading method, it's most likely because you did not practice this method long enough time, trading too big for your current experience, or both (in most cases as most people try trading in hope to get rich quick). Drop your size, even drop to demo account if necessary. And practice, practice, practice. Eventually you will be so sure about your method that it will become hard to RESIST from taking a signal, so sure you will be it makes money on average. Then increase size, but slooowly, no need for a rush. And eventually you'll notice that you trade pretty big, but there's no insane stress if any at all.
What works best for me is exercise; secondarily would be sex. Since returning to trading a few months ago, stress has increased... went bike riding this weekend, and after I was so mellow, so relaxed.... it felt like I'd taken a narcotic. Happens all the time. Just gotta get myself to do the work/exercise. It's the proverbial runners high; I challenge anyone to feel 'bad' after getting sufficient cardio to create such a "high." Doesn't take that much exercise. I heard Tm Cruise once said (and of course we know he is a scientologist): "it's not necessary to take all the medication that is prescribed for depression when exercise will do the same with less side effects" (to paraphrase and embellish)
no kidding, I spend more time in my paper account than in my real account. Sometimes I can't even tell which account I am trading in. I don't know why paper trading gets such a bad rap around here. People act like real money is so different. I agree, not enough time. I guess it's like you say, maybe real money means something to them. Once you have more than you need you see what an empty bag it is. The real fun is in the getting there, not the having it. And seeing as how I lost all that, I'm having fun getting there again.
yeah, once I had to spend two weeks at an uncles house in so cal. Some money was supposed to be transferred overnight and it ended up taking two weeks. He a had a pool, and there wasn't a whole hell of a lot to do with no money, so I swam for two hours every afternoon before dinner. (He was a real crank, but my aunt was a vegetarian so we hit it off real well) man two hours of swimming before dinner on a hot Calif afternoon will really mellow you out.
Some really good stuff here... thanks again. I think exercise and just doing less "work" related activities is key. I don't think I have the personally to go the spiritual/meditation route. I am generally calm as it is. Even when trading I am completely desensitized to the money aspect of it. Just got to grind it out I guess. I also don't think I have insomnia considering I never had a problem sleeping until recently. I could fall asleep now (~5pm) so maybe my sleep cycle is somehow disturbed. I don't know... we'll see how it goes.
you're about as fucked up as a man can get. First of all you are getting older, so sleeping like a baby is a thing of the past, and secondly you have a fear of sprituality. It is at least one third of the human existence and you are scared of it? no wonder you can't sleep. and thirdly, all great points have three parts to them so try and think up one. What am I? Your babysitter?
Yea I plan to start exercising. Did you miss that? The mediation stuff is not for me whatsoever. My mediation is vacation time... something I should plan on doing soon. No need to get offended if someone doesn't want to go down the spiritual route.