A few interesting quotes: "Dreams are a dime a dozen. The people who can make them happen aren't." "Not everyone changes the world, but those who have purposed to do so."
If I ask a hundred people to perform a measured task and monitor them without their knowing it, I will get a certain pecentage of winners and losers and some in the middle. If I ask them to peform a measured task and tell them that they are being monitored, then the curve shifts upward and the number of winners increase as well as the number of moderates, decreasing the number of losers. The act of being watched and measured changes their performance. Now, if I tell them that they are being given super powers (hypnosis, NLP, pick a pile of horseshit-any pile will do) and measure them again, the peformance dramatically improves-- for a short while! Then when the spell wears off, the ruby slippers turn into galoshes and everybody reverts back to their previous froggy selves. Except for the true believers- they start fibonacci webites or try to sell chaos or cassettes with windchimes. Live in the here and now. If you suck, you suck. Keep good records and try to apply some (but not too much) intelligence to your past few trades and try to do better. There ain't no cavalry coming. Albert
And what if it persists? would it still be equine fertilizer? Albert, the whole point is this: you construct your own reality. What you consider to be horseshit will be horseshit. That's radical constructivism in a nutshell. The corollory is that you have the power to decide your reality (something most don't know they can control). The 3 minute mile is a great example. Another is when Henry Ford refused to go along with his engineers when they told him an engine couldn't be cast from one single block. He locked them in a room and said yes it can, find the way. He constructed his own reality. Is that horseshit too? Doesn't matter. If you say it is, it is. If you say its brilliant, it is also. That's my point. Just know that you are constructing your own reality, thought by thought each second of your life. Its there, even when you aren't aware of it. Some become aware and choose their own destiny.
One accepts that each one of us is in his or her own cerebral compartment. Far from creating your own reality, it is the only one you have and there is no escape from it. The point here is how can your material advantage (a la trading) be best increased by relating to the "objective reality" around you? In short, any visualization, while it may assist your motivation temporarily or longer, will have no effect without the necessary tools, such as the knowledge and capabilities, to achieve your goals and imagined success.
It's a small, small (relatively speaking) world and if REALITY is that which you perceive, then so be it. But it is also a fact-based objective world out there that knows the difference between a $10 gain ("Look, I'm the king.") and a $10 loss (Look, I'm the king anyway, because I feel the positive rays flowing toward me.") Either way the stupid, brutish mass of unenlightened accountant-types sees the plus 10 and smiles and the minus 10 and frowns. No way to hide. As much as I like making happy to-do lists like 1. Love yourself 2. Envision happiness 3. Ride that gentle wave of bliss of inner peace and 4. Throttle that S&P bitch like the serpentine whore that she is... At the end of the day, it's all about the P/L. All you guys looking for inner nirvana- good luck. I mean it. All I have to say is that style doesn't mean squat. I don't care if I have a throbbing, bleeding forehead vein during the day as long as I get where I want to go- I can relax later, juggle sharp axes or something. I'm done. I wish you the best. Albert
You need to clearly see the right trading habit and focus on that instead and put it into practice. Slowly over time it becomes natural as it becomes part of your conscious and unconscious routine. Physical stimulus / reminders can be very effective in the beggining until the subconscious begins to remember the new behavior. Very simple techniques can be extremelly usefull for this. An example ...simply write down your desired behavior or change you desire on something that gets your attention, stick it in front of your monitor and leave it there to constantlly see every day for a few weeks or longer. Look at it and read it frequentlly and start putting it into practice. Sounds simple and it is but its very effective helping shift attention of your subconscious to your goal. If you continue to follow through and put it into practice it will eventually become natural and will become your new behaviour.
I agree with darkhorse that the psychological factor is overrated. I do not mean it is not important. The visualization works great for me because it gives me more chance to practice trading. But without my technical setups, none of the mental aspect of trading will "fall" into place. Yet without dealing with mental limits, I had been too timid to grow out of my old self. I will say they come together at the same time for me. Other people told me they did extremely well with "mediocre" setup and their magic is psychology. That has never worked for me... maybe just my lack of talent. I need a machine gun to deal with switch blades.
Don't underestimate the importance of the mental aspect of this game. The proper mindset allows you to follow through with big trades and keep you on plan when times get tough. I will be ordering some information from the ari, thanks to the original poster for bringing to light. Without a doub, 90% of the game is half mental!
aren't you supposed to enter trades based on the opportunity that the market gives you? like the old adage, you should trade opportunity and not your p&L. So then how can one possibly use RC and create your own future (i.e. create your own opportunities in the market). Wouldn't this force some people to overtrade and force trades just to met a P&L goal?