The Invisible Hand That Limits Your Trading

A great post! Thanks. May I ask who your trading coach is? That one quote of his or hers alone is priceless! Once heard, who can ever forget it?!

 

Andrew Menaker

 

Well JD

I trade LVS because it is on a “very” short list of stocks I trade over and over and over and over and over


I invest in oil and gold, and a very few others… in a separate investment account


I suspect it will go up – too many are fuked right now


But – its yet to break 50, and hold


I suspect some volatility coming, and I don’t have a high confidence in it breaking out the monthly range to the upside anytime soon


Good news is Monday – I’ll trade it again with a completely clear perspective


I did think the earnings we’re going to be good, and well received

Btw – this trade lost me a few K… the over all trade -

Oh I never woudashouldacoulda - any more...


eta I was thinking someone would ask the obvious question - what the hell am I doing swing trading my day trading account - any takers

RN

 

Red,

Here it goes. The year was 2005. I had just self-destroyed a relationship that was not good for me to begin with. That is the year when I realized something was wrong with me but I couldn’t tell what it was. I was having so much fun living life I had missed the fact that I had self-sabotaged everything I had achieved in my life. Everything I had gained, and I had gained a lot, I had given back and more in most if not all areas of my life.

Two years later, I discovered that what I had or still have, is referred to self-defeating personality disorder. In my case, this was and still is well hidden deep in my subconscious.

For those who are not familiar with the term, self-defeating personality disorder is something prevalent in all humans. It goes from extremes, from Adolf Hitler in self-destruction to Mother Theresa in self-sacrifice to Tiger Woods, to Charley Sheen etc….
As humans we all tend to have behaviors that go against our own best interest from time to time. This only becomes an issue if this affects your ability to live a wholesome life, as in my case.

Over the last four years I have tried everything there is to try to correct my behavior. NLP, EFT, Hypnosis, affirmations, visualizations, even industrial magnets!……I went to a psychologist, a psychiatrist, I tried medicine for anxiety, for mood disorders…..etc..

This disorder is hereditary as I later was able to put all the pieces together.

I guess I could write a book on this, so to make it short these are my findings in short form and what I think my next step should be. Also note the fact that I am not trying to solve any of the consequences of my problem but the cause itself.

As I was learning about personality disorders, I learned that a person that has one personality disorder normally has symptoms of others, something called comorbidity).

This has led me to believe that the cause of this disorder and probably most disorders is something that is missing within the chemistry of the brain. A chemical, a hormone, an enzyme, something is missing, and this vacuum makes the brain give dysfunctional orders to our conscious and subconscious mind.

To give an example to those who don't have problems, it is as if you were born uncomfortable, so you can’t tell you are uncomfortable because you have never felt what it is to be comfortable.

During the next few months I will be trying to fix the problem looking at this from a purely chemical perspective. I was going to start a thread precisely on this subject asking for ideas.

The good news is that I have now a trading system that works and will be able to tell in a very short period of time if I have been able to correct the problem without fear of self-destruction.

Serious comments and ideas welcomed.

p.s. Hope Rearden is reading this as I would love to hear his thoughts on this.

p.s.s. please excuse my grammatical errors.

 

007

Posting this is one huge step

Much respect to you…

Also My Sincere Apology if my other post rubbed the wrong way… there are times I simply don’t appreciate that I am not alone on this planet


Lemme mull it over before opening my mouth Sir

RN

 

Nothing rubbed me wrong way Red. I am happy to have the opportunity to share my case and see what others think of it.

 

optioonpro007 and RN,

I'm not a psychologist, but I've learned a few things along the way (i became friends with my trading coach, who is one). I thought I was going thru clinical depression during a tough trading period.

The whole notion of "personality disorders' comes from the DSM IV, which I've been told was primarily developed to justify treatment expenses for insurance companies. Medical insurers don't want to reimburse a mental health professional unless there is 'justification' based on 'empirical evidence' of an 'identifiable disorder'. So all the big time shrinks got together many years ago and did a lot of research to come up with a classification system for psychiatric/psychological problems. If you ask a mental health professional, 'off the record', they will tell you that the the DSM labels are merely labels for classification, not really for treatment. Most people have a few symptoms here and there from many of the disorders. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you are not a 'label'. You are a person. And because no one is perfect, all people exhibit some of the signs of several disorders. Its the human condition.

Optionpro007, again, I can't give you any definitive answer but I can tell you that treating a personality disorder with chemicals is only treating the symptoms. But if symptom relief is all you are looking for, then so be it.

Here's an interesting perspective to consider, what about the cultural differences? In some countries/cultures what may be perceived as a personality disorder is perceived as normal elsewhere. It's all relative.

 

Thanks for your post. Interesting ideas.

I have a question for you. You say you 'behave' while your psychologist is around but seem to have a natural tendency to 'misbehave' if he is not. Where do you think this natural tendency comes from?

 

Doesn't everyone have the power to treat their own imbalances through means of proper nutrition , exercise, meditation/spirituality? I'm not a fan of drugs that doctors get commission off of. Sideaffects are'nt worth it IMO from what I have seen from close friends/family.

 

I am truly sorry for your loss. Sorry I asked. I'll buy the ammo. But you pay the range fees. Mind telling me what else you trade over and over? I might want to take the other side of your trades.