Please excuse me for having misconstrued your posting. This was a great example. As I was replying to your message something in me told me I was misconstruing what you had written but I still went ahead and posted it. This is exactly what I need to fix.
The invisible hand is the part of the mind that's programmed to protect us from, and in, dangerous situations. We see a setup that fits our criteria, prepare to put on the trade, and the invisible hand senses possible danger (potential loss) and holds up a finger and signals "Wait, did you think about that, and that, and that?" and we hesitate for a moment to think about that, and that, and that, and the opportunity rapidly diminishes as price runs from our idea entry. We put on a trade (risk, danger). The trade shows a little profit (ahhh, we're safe!) and the invisible hand quickly (too quickly) moves the stop loss to break even to prevent danger (drawdown) from returning. We're stopped out break even just before price runs all the way to our profit target without us on board Sounds like you had a bias toward a specific outcome on this one, RN. The successful traders I know who've made live calls here or live calls in my old trading room or posted big fat profitable blotters on P/L threads all seemed to be very nice people. the rapist Yes, just as everyone has the power to define a trading edge, define rules that profit from that edge, follow the rules, and profit. You missed out on our long-running self-help group. We embarked on a journey and discovered the Holy Grail together. We now have but to deactivate the invisible hands that limit our trading.
Thank you very much Rande. It is quite obvious that you really understand human psyche and your craft. I have done extensive work with meditation and breathing exercises. Mindfulness in essence is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves as we grow and discover ourselves mentally and spiritually.
I don't want to sidetrack this exchange more than I already have. I apologize to all of you. I will just post this last idea hoping, probably that someone can give me an idea of which way to explore. I was given medicine for anxiety. Even though the medicine worked to calm me down, the issue I had didn't disappear. It just got repressed and bottled up for lack of a better term. What I am saying is that whatever substance is missing in the chemistry of my brain, creates an uncomfortable environment. When a person operates from an uncomfortable environment, be it physical or mental, most likely the person's choices are going to be limited and almost always not the best choices. It is impossible to achieve continued growth under these conditions. If the type of medicine used for anxiety and mood disorders didn't work, does anybody have any idea of which medicine would work only to make the mind achieve simple comfort? PMs are accepted. Good luck to you all.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3072573&highlight=add+adhd#post3072573 handle 123 and art deco in this thread gave us 2 examples of the ability to succeed in the NBA despite their avg height,they did it by recognizing the difference between true and false,when the truth is hard to accept,we deny it and adopt a lie,it's a defense mechanism,a bandaid like adding air to a tire until you have time to get it fixed,you apply enough bandaids and you'll soon be just driving from air pump to air pump,,your so preoccupied with keeping the tires full,you don't have time to notice your just going in circles.......One of Art Deco's tool's to handle the truth,besides being brutally honest with himself, appears to be a great sense of humor,it's smarter to twist it into humor and make it pallatable and then accept, than to accept a lie as good enough for now...Handle 123 didn't say it but i assume from what he wrote that he has a very disciplined mind discerning the difference between true and false and has enough problems, doesn't have time for the denial..also brutally honest....if you don't have that skill,adopt it,become great at being honest....one advantage these two guys have is preoccupation with the truth..any other preoccupations such as the women preoccupied with herself , described in the opening post ,are only another denial ,pacifier, used to avoid looking at the truth.examine your beliefs,true or false,get rid of the lies and denials,get rid of your limitations...a comedian once said,"sex is overrated,when's the last time you made it thru a day with out a good rationalization
I find your honesty refreshing. What you are calling "whatever substance missing in the chemistry of my brain" is often called a chemical imbalance in the brain and many drugs, particular SSRI's for anxiety and sadness, are rampantly prescribed to "correct" this imbalance. The medical people don't tell you how hard it is going to be to get off these medications though. Nor do they solve the problem -- as you are discovering. To vastly over simplify things, an emotion is composed of a number of different elements. Two of those elements are arousal and feeling (the subjective experience of the emotion -- what you are trying to change). Medications, whether legal or illegal, act on these two parts of the emotion. The medication is not capable of having an impact on the meaning aspect of the emotion. The drug medicates the feeling and therefore interrupts the arousal (that's all the muscle tenseness, heart palpatations, and shallow breathing). This is what you refer to as calming down. Emotional labor is still required to get at the meaning aspect of the emotion. This is why it is not dissappearing. Brain chemistry is governed by emotional state. Change your emotional state and you will change brain chemistry. If you want to produce long term change in the mood you see life through, you find the meaning (or what I call core wound) that circumstance or events have grafted into the emotional mass. Most of us cover this up -- avoid it -- in various ways. Facing a sense of not mattering, powerlessness, inadequacy, or worthiness (our existential angst) is at the core of the brain chemistry cocktail that produces worry or fear. Many people, men in particular, avoid this meaning problem by becoming oblivious to their nature as human beings. They cut off feeling. You see alot of this in this thread. Many even create a virtual world persona that is remarkedly different than their real world circumstance. Unless you have a serious genetic predisposition toward anxiety, it is your beliefs that create the sustained worry. This is called negative attribution toward the future (part of which is biological and exaserbated by the uncertainty found in trading). If you want to shift the brain chemistry this is where to look. When I first started working with peak performance and traders, I thought I was leaving mental health behind. I was so wrong. I was very naive. The difference is that in trading, our psychological demons cannot be avoided as they can in many other domains of our lives. In trading they staulk you. It is hard to stay in denial with your trading account. So, from where I stand, trading is a great teacher of awareness. Trading, to become successful, will force you to root out the beliefs that give rise to anxiety, confront it, and master it. Then your brain chemistry will produce a very different feeling state (brain chemistry). And you will be the creator of it. Not something "out there". I hope this helps you. Now onward to exercise..... to change my brain chemistry and so I can eat what I want to! Rande Howell
On a simple literacy level I object to your spelling of staulk and exaserbate. Everybody knows they are spelt stawlk and eggsasserbate. But even more I object, once more, with mind-dulling repetition, to the notion that you have to become anxiety-free before you can trade successfully. Je repete: the experience of developing and trading a robust and profitable system thrusts any and all psychological issues into the background. The problems you address arise in traders who have no reason to be confident that they are trading an approach which has positive expectation. The process of converting what you think is an edge into unambiguous rules, simplifying those rules to practicality, and testing and optimizing them eliminates all doubt about your ability and prospects as a trader. This is akin to the advice Richard Bandler gave to a hospital patient who could not get released because he insisted upon drinking imaginary blood in the cafeteria. Bandler didn't tell him to quit drinking blood. He told him to do it in private. We are private traders because most of us need to practice in private. I have panic attacks in public places for no good reason, but I never have them when I am trading. Perhaps because I don't understand people. But I do understand trading. So I urge those who think psychological issues are behind their trading probems to seek a system development coach, not a psych counselor. The worst that can happen to you is that you might find out that your presumed edge is more fucked up than you are. Which might even make you feel better.
Just facing facts NOD It gaped down overnight a hellofa lot more that itâs ADR â Contemplating it would recover would have been fantasy (imo) - but I did try to work out of it at the open - just didn't happen Figured it would lose, so I had a plan where to get out, then reverse - where I stood a high probability of not getting chopped/ or have the move re-reverse against my reversal I spent a lot of time sitting on my hands yesterday allowing it prove itself out â by taking my stop out⦠But if my stop hadn't been taken out - I would still be in it (eta This one was one of those - if price ain't doing this, then it must be doing that) RN
This is righteous - and needs to (must) be the mantra of all traders Iâve heard some say the truth is brutal⦠or to quote a line âYou canât handle the truthâ The truth is simply the truth â it is neither good nor bad⦠but it is necessary No where more so - than in trading RN