Welcome back and I’m glad to see you continuing your pursuit of better trading!
If you missed yesterday’s lesson, you can read it here
What we’ve got today is probably going to ruffle a few feathers, but it’s gotta be done.
If you’ve ever thought that the reason you’ve struggled for so long and just can’t get ‘unstuck’ is,
Then you need to understand something.
You’re right.
And you’re WRONG at the same time.
“How can this be?” you might be thinking…
Well for all those times you hesitated to pull the trigger,
…all those times you’ve gotten out of a trade WAY before the market gets to your target
… those times you pulled your stops, then hung onto that loser until you were ready to scream
… those times when you DID let your winner run, but then failed to take your profits when you should, only to watch those profits disappear completely
… everytime you look at your account and realize how much you should have made and WOULD have made, if you’d only done what you were supposed to do
And then you spend the next day or week replaying those trades in your head, saying stuff like,
“I’m an idiot!”
“I’ve invested all this time with so little to show for it…”
“Can’t I do anything right?”
“I am such a LOSER!”
“Can I really overcome where I’m at?”
“Trading is harder than everyone makes out”
So how are you RIGHT?
Well, you’re right in the sense that you as you are at this moment, are not likely to make it.
Something about you does need to change.
But how about if you, as a person, you’re okay as you are?
How about if you DIDN’T have a discipline problem?
How about if you DIDN’T have self-image issues?
How about if you DIDN’T have problems in your relationship to money?
How about if you DON’T need to head down to the lab to get your bolts tightened, because your head is actually on tight and straight right now?
How about if the root of the problem is that even though trading looks so simple on the surface, that even though you’re certainly smart enough and that even though trading is well within your capacity to master…
How about if the problem was simply that you’ve been missing something about trading itself?
Something NOT obvious to the ordinary person
Something that even the seasoned veterans don’t consciously realize, that they only picked through their years of hard lessons and eventually worked out
Something that would allow you to be a normal human being, with the full spectrum of emotions, yet trade in a calm, relaxed and poised manner
What that something is has been around for a long time and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.
For now, take solice in the fact that you truly are okay just as you are.
…that you don’t have “psychological issues” that require therapy
…that you can forgive yourself and stop beating yourself up
…that yes, you have some work to do, but it’s a whole lot easier than trying to fix YOU
Till then…
Cheers
Brian