Genes express themselves in different ways based on environmental pressures. There is no black and white, off and on, switch. It's far more complicated than we thought even 20 years ago. Visualization, in and of itself, is only one aspect of changing the core beliefs of a person -- the very beliefs that use methodology and platform to trade. Research has found that compassion is the emotion that actually de-constructs a neurally hardwired belief and empowers a new core belief about the self to become embedded into our neural circuitry. This is what moves self limiting beliefs about the self to the stage of change. It is here that visualization becomes a potent tool for the re-invention of the self in trading and in life. Rande Howell
It is the state of mind that we bring to uncertainty that opens or closes the possibilities that we see and act in. There is no final algorithm -- there is the opening and closing of possibility based on the observer you are. Schrodinger of quantum mechanics fame said that the very act of observation does in fact change the course of the experient. Powerful stuff. Most traders lose long before they actually begin trading. They are already in a fear based state of mind, and out of this state of mind, they "see" a restricted range of possiblities on the seas of uncertainty called trading. Learning to access more empowered parts of the self (what Carl Jung or Carol Pearson would call archetypes) brings a calm authority to the mind that trades. This different state of mind (rooted in calmness, dicipline, detachment, and patience) produces a different range of possibilies that the trader sees and acts in. We are the algorithm. This is what we must endeaver to be mindful of and explore. The Divine's impact on the trader's mind is more about discovering an inherent worth to our being -- rather than looking for it externally. Rande Howell
The mind is a terrible thing to waste. A waste is a terrible thing to mind. You have to keep the attic clean.
No argument here. Until we own something, we can not master it. Developing the mindfulness to be able to separate our sense of being from our beliefs and thoughts is a major step. "You and your thoughts are not the same" is a difficult concept to get your hands around. There are many forces in the mind. Most of us get locked into a very narrow focus of who we are. Getting past living with blinders on helps us to recognize that we are always actively creating the possibilities we live in. I call this process, waking up. Developing skills and tools to work with awareness of mind is essential. Rande Howell
Interesting conversation and the concept of "You and your thoughts are not the same" is a conclusion I arrived at many years ago. Rande do you see the commonality between golf and trading.
I'll tell you what I find interesting.... That traders that give little or no credance to the psychology of self as part of trading -- are actually in a trader psychology forum. Something's amiss here. Why not go someplace else that is more consistent with your beliefs about trading? Second thing. When I'm at Trader's Expo, it is the trader methodolgy guys who come to me and tell me that their client's psychology is the biggest problem they have in teaching their methodology to their clients. Yet, the clients (traders) don't want to hear that they are the problem that has to be fixed to arrive at profitability. Rande Howell
your ego is a stake in the ground, at 0 to 2 yrs old,you hold onto with your hand,at 5 its a short rope tied to your ankle,as we get older ,hopefully the rope gets longer and longer til we can barely see the stake,ultimately no rope at all and we are free to go anywhere we want ,no strings attached
On several levels. Actually I have worked with a number of golfers in the area of peak performance. The key is to determine what attributes are key to peak performance in a particular domain. In golf the peak performance state only has to be managed for fairly short periods of time -- very centered in the time frame of setting up the shot and actually hitting the ball. Trading uses a much longer time frame than golf. So there is going to be more discipline of mind involved over a longer time frame. The attributes are different also. As a physical and mental sport, golf requires that emotional arousal (all that energy in the body) be focused). You are also focused on winning. In trading low emotional arousal is required. Getting keyed up and asserting your will over the market in trading is dangerous. Also the notion of winning has to be rethought. In trading, you take what the market is willing to give. In golf, you are visualizing beating your opponent. I've worked with a guy who was both golfer and trader. It really improved his golf game as he developed a more extended time frame of self regulation. His mind had gotten off track between holes before he started psychological training for trading. He discovered that in the mental space between holes all sorts of things had taken root in his mind that took great effort to get back under control at golfing moments. Rande Howell