Datasets:

ksrepo

/

trading_in_the_zone_edited

like 2

a6aba09a735fa485213cf60996fb9b70

NarrativeText

At the most fundamental level, the market is simply a series of up and down tics that form patterns. Technical analysis defines these patterns as edges. Any particular pattern defined as an edge is simply an indication that there is a higher probability that the market will move in one direction over the other. However, there is a major mental paradox here because a pattern implies consistency, or, at least, a consistent outcome. But the reality is each pattern is a unique occurrence. They may look (or measure) exactly the same from one occurrence to the next, but the similarities are only on the surface. The underlying force behind each pattern is traders, and the traders who contribute to the formation of one

9a6e24b92f3cd4095d0e64277a61df4b

NarrativeText

pattern are always different from the traders who contribute to the next; so the outcome of each pattern is random relative to one another. Our minds have an inherent design characteristic (the association mechanism) that can make this paradox difficult to deal with. Now these edges, or the patterns they represent, flow by in every time frame, making the market a never-ending stream of opportunities to get in, get out (scratch a trade), take profits, cut losses, or add to or detract from a position. In other words, from the market's perspective, each moment presents each one of us traders with the opportunity to do something on our own behalf.

3062234ba87291e39c314b06d688cada

Title

DEFINING THE TERMS

37b45aea814936daa18c3fae8f0df8bd

NarrativeText

What prevents us from perceiving each "now moment" as an opportunity to do something for ourselves or to act appropriately even when we do? Our fears! What is the source of our fears? We know its not the market, because from the market's perspective, the up and down tics and the patterns they create are neither positively or negatively charged. As a result, the up and down tics themselves have no capacity to cause us to enter into any particular state of mind (negative or positive), lose our objectivity, make errors, or take us out of the opportunity flow. If it's not the market that causes us to experience a negatively charged state of mind, then what does cause it? The way we define and interpret the information we perceive. If that's the case, then what determines what we perceive and how we define and interpret that information? What we believe or what we assume to be true. Our beliefs working in conjunction with the association and pain- avoidance mechanisms act as a force on our five senses, causing us to perceive, define, and interpret market information in a way that is consistent with what we expect. What we expect is synonymous with.what we believe or assume to be true. Expectations are beliefs projected into some future moment. Each moment from the market's perspective is unique; but if the information being generated by the market is similar in quality, properties, or characteristic to something that is already in our minds, the two sets of information (outside and inside) automatically become linked. When this connection is made, it triggers a state of mind (confidence, euphoria, fear, terror, disappointment, regret, betrayal, etc.) that corresponds to whatever belief, assumption, or memory the outside information was linked. This makes it seem as if what is outside is exactly the same as whatever is already inside of us. It's our state of mind that makes the truth of whatever we're perceiving outside of us (in the market) seem indisputable and beyond question. Our state of mind is always the absolute truth. If I feel confident, then I am confident. If I feel afraid, then I am afraid. We can't dispute the quality of energy flowing through our mind and body at any given moment. And because I know as an indisputable fact how I feel, you could say that I also know the truth of what I'm perceiving outside of me in the same moment. The problem is that how we feel is always the absolute truth, but the beliefs that triggered our state of mind or feeling may or may not be

6dea2db838981c04f29ebfb7031d3315

NarrativeText

true relative to the possibilities that exist in the market at any given moment. Recall the example of the boy and the dog. The boy "knew" for an absolute fact that each dog he encountered after the first was threatening, because of the way he felt when one came into his field of awareness. These other dogs did not cause his fear; his negatively charged memory working in conjunction with the association and his pain- avoidance mechanism caused his fear. He experienced his own version of the truth, although that did not correspond with the possibilities that existed from the environment's perspective. His belief about the nature of dogs was limited relative to the possible characteristics and traits expressed by dogs. Yet the state of mind he experienced eveiy time he encountered a dog caused him to believe thats he "knew" exactly what to expect from them. This same process causes us to believe that we "know" exactly what to expect from die market, when the reality is there are always unknown forces operating at every moment. The trouble is, the instant we think we "know" what to expect, we simultaneously stop taking all the unknown forces and die various possibilities created by those forces into consideration. The unknown forces are other traders waiting to enter or exit trades, based on their beliefs about the future. In other words, we really can't know exactly what to expect from the market, until we can read the minds of all the traders who have the potential to act as a force on price movement. Not a very likely possibility. As traders, we can't afford to indulge ourselves in any form of "I know what to expect from the market." We can "know" exactly what an edge looks, sounds, or feels like, and we can "know" exactly how much we need to risk to find out if that edge is going to work. We can "know" that we have a specific plan as to how we are going to take profits if a trade works. But that's it! If what we think we know starts expanding to what the market is going to do, we're in trouble. And all that's required to put us into a negatively charged, "I know what to expect from the market" state of mind is for any belief, memoiy, or attitude to cause us to interpret the up and down tics or any market information as anything but an opportunity to do something on our own behalf. What Are the Objectives? Ultimately, of course, making money is everyone's objective. But if trading were only a matter of making money, reading this book wouldn't be necessary. Putting on a winning trade or even a series of winning trades requires absolutely no skill. On the other hand, creating consistent results and being able to keep what we've created does require skill. Making money consistently is a by-product of acquiring and mastering certain mental skills. The degree to which you understand this is the same degree to which you will stop focusing on the money and focus instead on how you can use your trading as a tool to master these skills. What Are the Skills? Consistency is the result of a carefree, objective state of mind, where we are making ourselves available to perceive and act upon whatever the market is offering us (from its perspective) in any given "now moment." What Is a Carefree State of Mind? Carefree means confident, but not euphoric. When you are in a carefree state of mind, you won't feel any fear, hesitation, or compulsion to do anything, because

9b77bc77e74dae877cb8f3be12e98557

NarrativeText

you've effectively eliminated the potential to define and interpret market information as threatening. To remove the sense of threat, you have to accept the risk completely. When you have accepted the risk, you will be at peace with any outcome. To be at peace with any outcome, you must reconcile anything in your mental environment that conflicts with the five fundamental truths about the market. What's more, you also have to integrate these truths into your mental system as core beliefs. What Is Objectivity? Objectivity is a state of mind where you have conscious access to everything you have learned about the nature of market movement. In other words, nothing is being blocked or altered by your painavoidance mechanisms. What Does it Mean to Make Yourself Available? Making yourself available means trading from the perspective that you have nothing to prove. You aren't trying to win or to avoid losing. You aren't trying get your money back or to take revenge on the market. In other words, you come to the market with no agenda other than to let it unfold in any way that it chooses and to be in the best state of mind to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities it makes available to you. What Is the "Now Moment'? Trading in the "now moment" means that there is no potential to associate an opportunity to get into, get out of, add too, or detract from a trade with a past experience that already exists in your mental environment.

25489c166c834f6479347035a07ebf34

Title

HOW THE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS RELATE TO THE SKILLS

c29045d763254e5b2e67fba08a1fcbf0

ListItem

1. Anything can happen. Why? Because there are always unknown forces operating in every market at every moment, it takes only one trader somewhere in the world to negate the positive outcome of your edge. That's all: only one. Regardless of how much time, effort, or money you've invested in your analysis, from the market's perspective there are no exceptions to this truth. Any exceptions that may exist in your mind will be a source of conflict and potentially cause you to perceive market information as threatening. 2. You don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money. Why? Because there is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. (See number 3.) In other words, based on the past performance of your edge, you may know that out of the next 20 trades, 12 will be winners and 8 will be losers. What you don't know is the sequence of wins and losses or how much money the market is going to make available on the winning trades. This truth makes trading a probability or numbers game. When you really believe that trading is simply a probability game, concepts like right and wrong or win and lose no longer have the same significance. As a result, your expectations will be in harmony with the possibilities. Keep in mind that nothing has more potential to cause emotional discord than our unfulfilled expectations. Emotional pain is the universal response when the outside world expresses itself in a way that doesn't reflect what we expect or believe to be true. As a result, any market information that does not confirm our expectations is automatically defined and interpreted as

a3627b03a7fe00dfab3cf5529528c387

NarrativeText

threatening. That interpretation causes us to adopt a negatively charged, defensive state of mind, where we end up creating the very experience we are trying to avoid. Market information is only threatening if you are expecting the market to do something for you. Otherwise, if you don't expect the market to make you right, you have no reason to be afraid of being wrong. If you don't expect the market to make you a winner, you have no reason to be afraid of losing. If you don't expect the market to keep going in your direction indefinitely, there is no reason to leave money on the table. Finally, if you don't expect to be able to take advantage of every opportunity just because you perceived it and it presented itself, you have no reason to be afraid of missing out. On the other hand, if you believe that all you need to know is: 1. the odds are in your favor before you put on a trade; 2. how much it's going to cost to find out if the trade is going to work; 3. you don't need to know what's going to happen next to make money on that trade; and 4. anything can happen; Then how can the market make you wrong? What information could the market generate about itself that would cause your pain-avoidance mechanisms to kick in so that you exclude that information from your awareness? None that I can think of. If you believe that anything can happen and that you don't need to know what is going to happen next to make money, then you will always be right. Your expectations will always be in harmony with the conditions as they exist from the market's perspective, effectively neutralizing your potential to experience emotional pain. By the same token, how can a losing trade or even a series of losers have the typical negative effect, if you really believe that trading is a probability or numbers game? If your edge puts the odds in your favor, then every loss puts you that much closer to a win. When you really believe this, your response to a losing trade will no longer take on a negative emotional quality.

179ed7d80abe354be75a1f82932eea64

NarrativeText

3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. If every loss puts you that much closer to a win, you will be looking forward to the next occurrence of your edge, ready and waiting to jump in without the slightest reservation or hesitation. On the other hand, if you still believe that trading is about analysis or about being right, then after a loss you will anticipate the occurrence of your next edge with trepidation, wondering if it's going to work. This, in turn, will cause you to start gathering evidence for or against the trade. You will gather evidence for the trade if your fear of missing out is greater than your fear of losing. And you will gather information against the trade if your fear of losing is greater than your fear of missing out. In either case, you will not be in the most conducive state of mind to produce consistent results.

6e1735c57285b72c446e0c3aa4541ae3

ListItem

4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another. Creating consistency requires that you completely accept that trading isn't about hoping, wondering, or gathering evidence one way or the other to determine if the next trade is going to work. The only

fc0af6022d6586acf7ab9ea1477e2fd1

NarrativeText

evidence you need to gather is whether the variables you use to define an edge are present at any given moment. When you use "other" information, outside the parameters of your edge to decide whether you will take the trade, you are adding random variables to your trading regime. Adding random variables makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine what works and what doesn't. If you're never certain about the viability of your edge, you won't feel too confident about it. To whatever degree you lack confidence, you will experience fear. The irony is, you will be afraid of random, inconsistent results, without realizing that your random, inconsistent approach is creating exactly what you are afraid of. On the other hand, if you believe that an edge is simply a higher probability of one thing happening over another, and there's a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge, why would you gather "other" evidence for or against a trade? To a trader operating out of these two beliefs, gathering "other" evidence wouldn't make any sense. Or let me put it this way: Gathering "other" evidence makes about as much sense as trying to determine whether the next flip of a coin will be heads, after the last ten flips came up tails. Regardless of what evidence you find to support heads coming up, there is still a 50-percent chance that the next flip will come up tails. By the same token, regardless of how much evidence you gather to support acting or not acting on a trade, it still only takes one trader somewhere in the world to negate the validity of any, if not all, of your evidence. The point is why bother! If the market is offering you a legitimate edge, determine the risk and take the trade.

527b05e897f242c6349c0f32bf4bf5ab

ListItem

5. Every moment in the market is unique. Take a moment and think about the concept of uniqueness. "Unique" means not like anything else that exists or has ever existed. As much as we may understand the concept of uniqueness, our minds don't deal with it very well on a practical level. As we have already discussed, our minds are hardwired to automatically associate (without conscious awareness) anything in the exterior environment that is similar to anything that is already inside of us in the form of a memory, belief, or attitude. This creates an inherent contradiction between the way we naturally think about the world and the way the world exists. No two moments in the external environment will ever exactly duplicate themselves. To do so, every atom or every molecule would have to be in the exact same position they were in some previous moment. Not a very likely possibility. Yet, based on the way our minds are designed to process information, we will experience the "now moment" in the environment as being exactly the same as some previous moment as it exists inside our minds. If each moment is like no other, then there's nothing at the level of your rational experience that can tell you for sure that you "know" what will happen next. So I will say again, why bother trying to know?! When you try to know, you are, in essence, trying to be right. I am not implying here that you can't predict what the market will do next and be right, because you most certainly can. It's in the trying that you run into all of the problems. If you believe that you correctly predicted the market once, you will naturally try to do it again.

ebb76134ba685843318218bd90486b55

NarrativeText

As a result, your mind will automatically start scanning the market for the same pattern, circumstance, or situation that existed the last time you correctly predicted its movement. When you find it, your state of mind will make it seem as if everything is exactly as it was the last time. The problem is that, from the market's perspective, it is not the same. As a result, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. What separates the best traders from all the rest is that they have trained their minds to believe in the uniqueness of each moment (although this training usually takes the form of losing several fortunes before they "really" believe in the concept of uniqueness). This belief acts as a counteracting force, neutralizing the automatic association mechanism. When you truly believe that each moment is unique, then by definition there isn't anything in your mind for the association mechanism to link that moment to. This belief acts as an internal force causing you to disassociate the "now" moment in the market from any previous moment filed away in your mental environment. The stronger your belief in the uniqueness of each moment, the lower your potential to associate. The lower your potential to associate, the more open your mind will be to perceive what the market is offering you from its perspective.

28e0c9dadfe8a67366f1234d90f41703

Title

MOVING TOWARD "THE ZONE"

aa0eb7b9d5828c5d3fc89b442e42c52d

NarrativeText

When you completely accept the psychological realities of the market, you will correspondingly accept the risks of trading. When you accept the risks of trading, you eliminate the potential to define market information in painful ways. When you stop defining and interpreting market information in painful ways, there is nothing for your mind to avoid, nothing to protect against. When there's nothing to protect against, you will have access to all that you know about the nature of market movement. Nothing will get blocked, which means you will perceive all the possibilities you have learned about (objectively), and since your mind is open to a true exchange of energy, you will quite naturally start discovering other possibilities (edges) that you formerly couldn't perceive. For your mind to be open to a true exchange of energy, you can't be in a state of knowing or believing that you already know what's going to happen next. When you are at peace with not knowing what's going to happen next, you can interact with the market from a perspective where you will be making yourself available to let the market tell you, from its perspective, what is likely to happen next. At that point, you will be in the best state of mind to spontaneously enter "the zone," where you are tapped into the "now moment opportunity flow." CHAPTER 9

7a6b338bd9f0e4e045d85e6d527ae082

Title

CHAPTER 9

b3b335a21806984bf0df211d7d0314f2

Title

THE NATURE OF BELIEFS

278c77e8425214991cd5a510ef78f083

NarrativeText

At this point, if you can sense the benefits of adopting the five fundamental truths about trading, then the task is to learn how to properly integrate these truths into your mental system as core beliefs that are not in conflict with any other beliefs you may hold. At first glance, this may seem like a daunting task and under other circumstances I would agree with you, but it won't be, because in Chapter 11 I'll give you a simple trading exercise specifically designed to properly install these truths as beliefs at a functional level. A functional level is, one where you find yourself just naturally operating out of a carefree state of mind, perceiving exactly what you need to do and doing it without hesitation or internal conflict. However, I do have a word of caution for those of you who have already looked at the exercise. On the surface, the trading exercise looks so simple that you may be tempted to do it now, before you thoroughly understand the implications of what you are doing. I strongly suggest that you reconsider. There are some subtle yet profound dynamics involved in the process of learning how to install new beliefs and change any existing beliefs that are in conflict with the new ones. Understanding the trading exercise itself is easy. Understanding how to use the exercise to change your beliefs is another matter entirely. If you do the exercise without understanding the concepts presented in this chapter and the next, you will not achieve the desired results. It is also important that you not take for granted the amount of mental effort you may have to expend to train your mind to fully accept these principles of success, regardless of how well you understand them. Remember Bob, the CTA who believed he thoroughly understood the concept of probabilities, but didn't have the ability to function from a probabilistic perspective. Many people make the mistake of assuming that once they understand something, the insight inherent in their new understanding automatically becomes a functional part of their identity. Most of the time, understanding a concept is only a first step in the process of integrating that concept at a functional level. This is especially true of concepts that deal with diinking in probabilities. Our minds are not naturally wired to be "objective" or to stay in the "now moment." This means we have to actively train our minds to think from these perspectives. In addition to the training involved, there may be any number of conflicting beliefs to work through. Conflicting beliefs will have the effect of sabotaging your best intentions to operate from an objective state of mind or to experience the "now moment opportunity flow." For example, let's say you've spent years learning how to read the markets, or spent large sums of money developing or buying technical systems, just so you could find out what was going to happen next.

fa5233e7173435d4f693d37b340dc941

NarrativeText

Now you have come to understand that you don't have to know what's going to happen next, and that even trying to know will detract from your ability to be objective or to stay in the moment. What we have is a direct conflict between your old belief that you need to know what will happen next to be successful and your new understanding that you don't need to know. Now, will your new understanding suddenly neutralize all the time, money, and energy expended on reinforcing the belief that you "need to know"? I wish it were that easy. And for some lucky few, it may be. If you will recall in Chapter 4 when I talked about psychological distance in relationship to software code, I said that some traders may already be so close to these new perspectives that all they need is to put together a few of the missing pieces to create a mindaltering, "ah, ha" experience. However, based on my experience of working with well over a thousand traders, I can say that most are not close to these perspectives at all. For those of you who are not, it may take a considerable amount of mental work (over a considerable amount of time) to properly integrate your new understandings about trading into your mental environment. The good news is that, ultimately, the exercise I present in Chapter 11 will install the five fundamental truths and resolve many of the potential conflicts, but only if you know exactly what you are doing and why you are doing it. That is the subject of this and the next chapter.

cd0a0529708e5c8953bdeed305390d3a

Title

THE ORIGINS OF A BELIEF

97cc09c5b35fb84155a4f583a0967ef6

NarrativeText

What can we learn about the nature of beliefs, and how can we use that knowledge to create a mind-set that fosters our desire to be a consistently successful trader? These are the two questions I am going to focus on answering in this chapter. First, let's look at the origin of our beliefs. As you may recall, memories, distinctions, and beliefs exist in the form of energy— specifically, structured energy. Earlier, I lumped these three mental components together to illustrate:

47efffaf1954e51450e675a0b3be19fb

ListItem

1. that memories, distinctions, and beliefs do not exist as physical matter; 2. that the cause-and-effect relationship that exists between ourselves and the external environment brings these components into existence; and 3. how the cause-and-effect relationship reverses so that we can perceive in the external environment what we have learned about.

62332d7381bba8f25ce7430e2910b2e7

NarrativeText

To get at the origins of our beliefs, we're going to have to unbundle these components to illustrate the difference between a memory and a belief. The best way to do this is to imagine ourselves in the mind of an infant. I would think that at the very beginning of a child's life, the memories of his experiences would exist in their purest form. By that I mean that the memories of what he has seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted exist in his mind as pure sensory information that is not organized or attached to any specific words or concepts. Therefore, I am going to define a pure memory as sensory information

d6c5e044dd3119e770f0f668b9075593

NarrativeText

stored in its original form. A belief, on the other hand, is a concept about the nature of the way the external environment expresses itself. A concept combines pure sensory information with a symbol system we call language. For example, most infants have a pure memory of how it feels to be lovingly nurtured by a parent, but it isn't until the infant is taught to link or associate certain words with the pure sensory information stored in his memory that he will form a concept about how it feels to be lovingly nurtured. The phrase "Life is wonderful" is a concept. By themselves, the words make up a meaningless collection of abstract symbols. But if a child is either taught or decides to connect these words to his positively charged feelings of being nurtured, then the letters are no longer a collection of abstract symbols and the words are no longer an abstract phrase. "Life is wonderful" becomes a definitive distinction about the nature of existence or the way the world works. By the same token, if the child didn't get enough nurturing, relative to his needs, he could just as easily link his feelings of emotional pain to a concept like "Life isn't fair" or "The world is an awful place." In any case, when the positive or negative energy from our memories or experiences become linked to a set of words we call a concept, the concept becomes energized and, as a result, is transformed into a belief about the nature of reality. If you consider that concepts are structured by the framework of a language and energized by our experiences, it becomes clear why I refer to beliefs as "structured energy." When a belief comes into existence, what does it do? What is its function? In some ways it seems ludicrous to ask those questions. After all, we all have beliefs. We are constantly expressing our beliefs both verbally and through our actions. Furthermore, we are constantly interacting with other peoples beliefs as they express them. Yet, if I ask, "What exactly does a belief do?" chances are your mind will go blank. On the other hand, if I were to ask about the functions of your eyes, ears, nose, or teeth, you would have no problem answering. Since beliefs are such important component parts of our make-up (in terms of their impact on the quality of our lives), it certainly has to be one of life's great ironies that they are also the least thought about and understood. What I mean by "least thought about" is, if we have a problem with one of our body parts, we naturally focus our attention on that part and think about what we need to do to fix the problem. However, it doesn't necessarily occur to us that the problems we may be having with the quality of our lives (for example, lack of happiness, a sense of dissatisfaction, or lack of success in some area) are rooted in our beliefs. This lack of consideration is a universal phenomenon. One of the prominent characteristics of beliefs is that they make what we experience seem self evident and beyond question. In fact, if it weren't for your intense desire to experience consistent success as a trader, it's unlikely you would be delving into this topic at all. Usually, it takes years of extreme frustration before people begin examining their beliefs as the source of their difficulties. However, even though beliefs are an intricate part of our identity, you don't have to take this process of self analysis so personally. Consider the fact that none of us was born with any of our beliefs. They were all acquired in a combination of ways. Many of the beliefs that have the most profound impact on our lives were not even acquired by us as an

a292c2be6b6af407c94ab7eca92f9970

NarrativeText

act of free will. They were instilled by other people. And it probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that usually the beliefs that cause us the most difficulty are those that were acquired from others without our conscious consent. By that I mean beliefs that we acquired when we were too young and uninformed to realize the negative implications of what we were being taught. Regardless of the source of our beliefs, once they are born into existence they all basically function in the same way. Beliefs have certain characteristic ways in which they do their jobs, not unlike the various parts of our bodies. For example, if you compare my eyes and your eyes, or my hands and your hands, or my red blood cells and your red blood cells, we can see that they are not exactly the same, but they have characteristics in common that cause them to function in similar ways. By the same token, a belief that "Life is wonderful" will perform its function in the same way as a belief that "Life is awful." The beliefs themselves are different and the effect that each has on the quality of the holder's life will be vastly different, but both beliefs will function in exactly the same manner.

954d015403097ed5a7f66cb50c8bbfd7

NarrativeText

In the broadest sense, our beliefs shape the way we experience our lives. As I have already said, we're not born with any of our beliefs. They're acquired, and as they accumulate, we live our lives in a way that reflects what we have learned to believe. Consider how different your life would be if you had been born into a culture, religion, or political system that has very little, if anything, in common with the one you were born into. It might be hard to imagine, but what you would have learned to believe about the nature of life and how the world works may not be remotely similar to what you currently believe. Yet you would hold these other beliefs with the same degree of certainty as your current beliefs.

0fc75a62cb927cb6aa65b955af830780

Title

How Beliefs Shape Our Lives

03b47b97c4419f1b845d46201c21a084

ListItem

1. They manage our perception and interpretation of environmental information in a way that is consistent with what we believe. 2. They create our expectations. Keep in mind that an expectation is a belief projected into some future moment. Since we can't expect something we don't know about, we could also say that an expectation is what we know projected into some future moment. 3. Anything we decide to do or any outward expression of behavior will be consistent with what we believe. 4. Finally, our beliefs shape how we feel about the results of our actions.

6fd4bca610be4892f8e0a338186f79da

NarrativeText

There isn't much about the way we function that beliefs don't play a major role in. So what I am going

b6a56aaf242b4282e2ceabe231f97ba5

Title

BELIEFS AND THEIR IMPACT ON OUR LIVES

8e4fde4ebd961a6c8abf8f6bc89e6c81

NarrativeText

to do now is give you an example I used in my first book, The Disciplined Trader, to illustrate the various functions of a belief. In the spring of 1987, I was watching a locally produced television program called "Gotcha Chicago." It was about some local celebrities who played practical jokes on one another. In one segment of the program, the TV station hired a man to stand on the sidewalk along Michigan Avenue holding a sign that read "Free money. Today only." (For those of you who are not familiar with Chicago, Michigan Avenue is home to many fashionable, exclusive department stores and boutiques.) The TV station gave the man a considerable amount of cash, with instructions to give money to anyone who asked for it. Now, when you consider that Michigan Avenue is one of the busiest areas of the city, and if we assume that most of the people who passed the man on the street could read the sign, how many people would you think took him up on his offer and asked for some money? Of all the people who walked by and read the sign, only one person stopped, and said, "Great! May I have a quarter to buy a bus transfer?" Otherwise, no one would even go near the man. Eventually, the man grew frustrated because people weren't reacting the way he expected them to. He started crying out, "Do you want any money? Please take my money; I can't give it away fast enough." Everyone just kept walking around him as if he didn't exist. In fact, I noticed that several people went out of their way to avoid him. As a man wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase approached, he went right up to him and said, "Would you like some money?" The man responded, "Not today." Really frustrated now, he shot back, "How many days does this happen? Would you please take this?" as he tried to hand the man some cash. The man responded with a terse "No" and walked on. What was going on here? Why wouldn't anyone (except for the person who needed a bus transfer) ask for the money? If we assume that most or all of the passersby could read the sign, but still didn't make any effort to get the money, then one possible explanation for their behavior is that they just didn't care about money. This is extremely unlikely, though, considering how much of our lives is devoted to the pursuit of money. If we agree that people could read the sign and that money is very important to most of us, then what could have stopped these people from helping themselves? The environment was making available an experience that most people would love to have: someone giving them money with no strings attached. Yet everyone walked by, oblivious to what was awaiting them. They must not have been able to perceive what was available. That's hard to imagine, because the sign clearly stated "Free money. Today only." However, it's not hard to imagine if you consider that most people have a belief (an energized concept about how the world works) that "Free money doesn't exist." If free money really doesn't exist, then how does someone reconcile the obvious contradiction between that belief and the sign saying that it does? That's easy, just decide the man with the sign is crazy; what else could account for such bizarre behavior if, in fact, free money doesn't exist? The reasoning process that could compensate for the contradiction might go something like this: "Everyone knows getting money with no strings attached rarely happens. Certainly not from a stranger on one of the busiest streets in the city. In fact, if the man were really

e7e77913820fe6137ab12e6fcd075ced

NarrativeText

giving away money, he would already be mobbed. He might even be endangering his life. He must be crazy. I had better take a wide path around him; who knows what he might do?" Notice that every component of the thought process described is consistent with the belief that free money doesn't exist. 1. The words "free money" were neither perceived nor interpreted as they were intended from the environment s perspective. 2. Deciding the person with the sign must be crazy created an expectation of danger, or at least a perception that caution was warranted. 3. Purposefully altering one's path to avoid the person with the sign is an action that is consistent with the expectation of danger. 4. How did each person feel about the outcome? That's difficult to say without knowing each person individually, but a good generalization would be that they felt relieved that they successfully avoided an encounter with a crazy person. The feeling of relief that resulted from avoiding a confrontation is a state of mind. Remember that how we feel (the relative degree of positively or negatively charged energy flowing through our bodies and minds) is always the absolute truth. But the beliefs that prompt any particular state of mind may not be the truth with respect to the possibilities available from the environment's perspective. Relief from confrontation was not the only possible outcome in this situation. Imagine how different the experience would be if they believed that "free money exists." The process described above would be the same, except it would make the belief that "free money exists," seem self-evident and beyond question, just as it made the belief that "free money doesn't exist," seem self-evident and beyond question. A perfect example would be the one person who said "great, may I have a quarter for a bus transfer." When I saw this, I had the anybody for a quarter. A panhandler is someone who definitely believes in the existence of free money. Therefore, his perception and interpretation of the sign were exactly what was intended by the TV station. His expectation and behavior were consistent with his belief that free money exists. And how would he feel about the results? He got his quarter, so I would assume he felt a sense of satisfaction. Of course, what he didn't know is that he could have gotten a lot more. There's another possible outcome for our scenario. Let's look at a hypothetical example of someone who believes that "free money doesn't exist," but who takes a "what if approach to the situation. In other words, some people can be so intrigued and curious about the possibilities that they decide to temporarily suspend their belief that "free money doesn't exist." This temporary suspension allows them to act outside the boundaries created by a belief, in order to see what happens. So instead of ignoring the man with the sign, which would be our hypothetical person’s first inclination, he walks up to him and says, "Give me ten dollars." The man promptly pulls a ten-dollar bill out of his pocket and gives it to him. What happens now? How does he feel, having experienced something unexpected that completely contradicted his belief? For most people, the belief that free money doesn't exist is acquired through unpleasant circumstances, to put it mildly. The most common

78f3c8fbc20be035c24b455d7049579b

NarrativeText

way is being told that we can't have something because it's too expensive. How many times does the typical child hear, "Who do you think you are anyway? Money doesn't grow on trees, you know." In other words, it is probably a negatively charged belief. So the experience of having money handed to him with no strings attached and without any negative comments would likely create a state of mind of pure elation. In fact, most people would be so happy that they'd feel compelled to share that happiness and this new discovery with everyone they knew. I can imagine him going back to his office or going home, and the moment he encounters someone he knows, the first words out of his mouth will be “You won’t believe what happened to me today," and even though he desperately wants those he meets to believe his story, they probably won't. Why? Because their belief that free money doesn't exist will cause them to interpret his story in a way that negates its validity. To take this example a little further, imagine what would happen to this person's state of mind if it occurred to him that he could have asked for more money. He is in a state of pure elation. However, the moment the thought either pops into his mind or someone he relates his story to offers the idea that he could have asked for a lot more money, his state of mind will immediately shift to a negatively charged state of regret or despair. Why? He tapped into a negatively charged belief about what it means to miss out on something or not get enough. As a result, instead of being happy over what he got, he will lament what he could have had but didn't get.

5bc21551d5a41d873d818808fa8d9b36

Title

BELIEFS VS. THE TRUTH

6a539488940db18921c5d0ad2c098350

NarrativeText

In all three of these examples (including the hypothetical one), everybody experienced their own unique version of the situation. If asked, each person would describe what he or she experienced from their perspective, as if it were the only true and valid version of the reality of the situation. The contradiction between these three versions of the truth suggests to me a larger philosophical issue that needs to be resolved. If beliefs limit our awareness of the information being generated by the physical environment, so that what we perceive is consistent with whatever we believe, then how do we know what the truth is? To answer this question, we have to consider four ideas: 1. The environment can express itself in an infinite combination of ways. When you combine all the forces of nature interacting with everything created by humans, then add to that the forces generated by all the possible ways people can express themselves, the result is a number of possible versions of reality that would surelv overwhelm even the most onen-minded nerson. 2. Until we have acquired the ability to perceive eveiy possible way in which the environment can express itself, our beliefs will always represent a limited version of what is possible from the environment's perspective, making our beliefs a statement about reality, but not necessarily a definitive statement of reality. 3. If you find yourself taking exception to the second statement, then consider that if our beliefs were a true, 100-percent accurate reflection of physical reality, then our expectations would always be

2e99db80aa0f47e7b4986ce41caf9570

NarrativeText

fulfilled. If our expectations were always fulfilled, we would be in a perpetual state of satisfaction. How could we feel other than happy, joyful, elated, and with a complete sense of well-being if physical reality was consistently showing up exactly as we expected it to? 4. If you can accept the third statement as being valid, then the corollary is also true. If we are not experiencing satisfaction, then we must be operating out of a belief or beliefs that don't vork very well relative to the environmental conditions. we Taking these four ideas into consideration, I can now answer the question, "What is the truth?" The answer is, whatever works. If beliefs impose limitations on what we perceive as possible, and the environment can express itself in an infinite combination of ways, then beliefs can only be true relative to what we are attempting to accomplish at any given moment. In other words, the relative degree of truth inherent in our beliefs can be measured by how useful they are. Each of us has internally generated forces (curiosity, needs, wants, desires, goals, and aspirations) that compel or motivate us to interact with the physical environment. The particular set of steps we take to fulfill the object of our curiosity, needs, wants, desires, goals, or aspirations is a function of what we believe to be true in any given circumstance or situation. That truth, whatever it is, will determine:

175a0f30bcd21e6d7e20ec68f9db8513

ListItem

1. the possibilities we perceive in relation to what is available from the environment's perspective, 2. how we interpret what we perceive, 3. the decisions we make, 4. our expectations of the outcome, 5. the action we take, and 6. how we feel about the results of our efforts.

3501d6d1722d495a9ed9e910fc8c82bb

NarrativeText

At any given moment, if we find ourselves in a state of satisfaction, happiness, or well-being in relation to whatever we are attempting to accomplish, we can say that our truth (meaning whatever beliefs we are operating from) are useful because the process, as stated above, worked. What we perceived was not only consistent with our objective, it was also consistent with what was available from the environment's perspective. Our interpretation of the information we perceived resulted in a decision, expectation, and action that were in harmony with the environmental situation and circumstance. There was no resistance or counteracting force offered by the environment (or in our own mind) that would diminish the outcome we were trying to achieve. As a result, we find ourselves in a state of satisfaction, happiness, and well-being. On the other hand, if we find ourselves in a state of dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration, confusion, despair, regret, or hopelessness, we can say that relative to the environmental situation and circumstances, the beliefs we are operating from don't work well or at all, and therefore are not useful. Simply put, the truth is a function of whatever works in relation to what we are trying to accomplish at any given moment. CHAPTER

d1e0bbf0390338f5956f7217bddf0972

Title

CHAPTER 10

8b2878f64b5d40aec56227498ecd6bc7

Title

THE IMPACT OF BELIEFS ON TRADING

f43978a033782a28833fc3a4147b140f

NarrativeText

If the external environment can express itself in an infinite combination of ways, then there's really no limit to the number and types of beliefs available to be acquired about the nature of our existence. That is an elaborate way of saying that there's a lot out there to be learned about. Yet, to make a general observation about the nature of humanity, I would say that we certainly don't live our lives in a manner that is consistent with that statement. If it's true that it's possible to believe almost anything, then why are we always arguing and fighting with each other? Why isn't it all right for all of us to express our lives in a way that reflects what we have learned to believe? There has to be something behind our relentless attempt to convince others of the validity of our beliefs and to deny the validity of theirs. Consider that every conflict, from the smallest to the largest, from the least to the most significant, whether between individuals, cultures, societies, or nations, is always the result of conflicting beliefs. What characteristics of our beliefs make us intolerant of divergent beliefs? In some cases, we are so intolerant that we are willing to kill each other to get our point across. My personal theory is that beliefs are not only structured energy, but also energy that seems to be conscious, at least to the extent of having some degree of awareness. Otherwise, how can we account for our ability to recognize on the outside what is on the inside? How would we know our expectations are being fulfilled? How would we know when they are not? How would we know we are being confronted with information or circumstances that contradict what we believe? The only explanation I have is that each individual belief has to have some quality of either awareness or self-awareness that causes it to function as it does. The idea of energy that has some degree of awareness may be difficult for many of you to accept. But there are several observations we can make about our individual and collective natures that support die possibility. First, everyone wants to be believed. It doesn't matter what the belief is; the experience of being believed feels good. I think these positive feelings are universal, meaning that they apply to everyone. Conversely, no one likes to be disbelieved; it doesn't feel good. If I said, "I don't believe you," the negative feeling that would resonate throughout your body and mind is also universal. By the same token, none of us likes to have our beliefs challenged. The challenge feels like an attack. Everyone, regardless of the belief, seems to respond in the same way: The typical response is to argue, defend ourselves (our beliefs), and, depending on the situation, attack back. When expressing ourselves, we seem to like being listened to. If we sense our audience isn't paying attention, how does it feel? Not good! Again, I think this response is universal. Conversely, why is it so difficult to be a good listener? Because to be a good listener, we actually have to listen, without thinking about how we are going to express ourselves the moment we can either

caa72a33182e2cfedf0cef4cf476626c

NarrativeText

politely or rudely interrupt the person who's speaking. What's the compelling force behind our inability to listen without waiting to interrupt? Don't we like being with people with similar beliefs, because it feels comfortable and secure? Don't we avoid people with dissimilar or conflicting beliefs, because it feels uncomfortable or even threatening? The bottom line implication is, the moment we acquire a belief, it seems to take on a life of its own, causing us to recognize and be attracted to its likeness and repelled by anything that is opposite or contradictory. Considering the vast number of divergent beliefs that exist, if these feelings of attraction or comfort and being repelled or threatened are universal, then each belief must somehow be conscious of its existence, and this conscious, structured energy must behave in characteristic ways that are common to all of us.

b3df60af918cd4434d7425f064062f76

Title

THE PRIMARY CHARACTERISTICS OF A BELIEF

513d701bee95dd10710e43bc9ec5f486

NarrativeText

There are three basic characteristics you need to understand in order to effectively install the five fundamental truths about trading at a functional level in your mental environment:

7af63b529ae1a0b84ac08be84cdef0bc

ListItem

1. Beliefs seem to take on a life of their own and, therefore, resist any force that would alter their present form. 2. All active beliefs demand expression. 3. Beliefs keep on working regardless of whether or not we are consciously aware of their existence in our mental environment.

28ee064ada81603c98e041d196312136

ListItem

1. Beliefs resist any force that would alter their present form. We may not understand the underlying dynamics of how beliefs maintain their structural integrity, but we can observe that they do so, even in the face of extreme pressure or force. Throughout human history, there are many examples of people whose belief in some issue or cause was so powerful that they chose to endure indignities, torture, and death rather than express themselves in a way that violated their beliefs. This is certainly a demonstration of just how powerful beliefs can be and the degree to which they can resist any attempt to be altered or violated in the slightest way. Beliefs seem to be composed of a type of energy or force that naturally resists any other force that would cause them to exist in any form other than their nresent form. Does this mean that thev can't be altered? Absolutely not! It just means that we have to understand how to work with them. Beliefs can be altered, but not in the way that most people may think. I believe that once a belief has been formed, it cannot be destroyed. In other words, there is nothing we can do that would cause one or more of our beliefs to cease to exist or to evaporate as if they never existed at all. This assertion is founded in a basic law of physics. According to Albert Einstein and others in the scientific community, energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed.

24584df82b508c697041507a2b337975

NarrativeText

If beliefs are energy—structured, conscious energy that is aware of its existence—then this same principle of physics can be applied to beliefs, meaning, if we tiy to eradicate them, it's not going to work. If you knew someone or something was trying to destroy you, how would you respond? You would defend yourself, fight back, and possibly become even stronger than you were before you knew of the threat. Each individual belief is a component of what we consider to be our identity. Isn't it reasonable to expect that, if threatened, each individual belief would respond in a way that was consistent with how all the parts respond collectively? The same principle holds true if we tiy to act as if a particularly troublesome belief doesn't exist. If you woke up one morning and everyone you knew ignored you and acted as if you didn't exist, how would you respond? It probably wouldn't be long before you grabbed someone and got right in their face to try to force them to acknowledge you. Again, if purposely ignored, each individual belief will act in the very same way. It will find a way to force its presence into our conscious thought process or behavior. The easiest and most effective way to work with our beliefs is to gently render them inactive or nonfunctional by drawing the energy out of them. I call this process de-activation. After de-activation, the original structure of the belief remains intact, so technically it hasn't changed. The difference is that the belief no longer has any energy. Without energy, it doesn't have the potential to act as a force on our perception of information or on our behavior. Here is a personal illustration: As a young child, I was taught to believe in both Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. In my mental system, both of these are perfect examples of what are now inactive, nonfunctional beliefs. However, even though they are inactive, they still exist inside my mental system, only now they exist as concepts with no energy. If you recall from the last chapter, I defined beliefs as a combination of sensory experience and words that form an energized concept. The energy can be drawn out of the concept, but the concept itself remains intact, in its original form. However, without energy, it no ! T.gCI h-15 th? nOt?ptial to act on my perception of inforlYiation or on my behavior. So, as I'm sitting here typing into my computer, if someone came up to me and said that Santa Claus was at the door, how do you think I would define and interpret this information? I would treat it as being irrelevant or a joke, of course. However, if I were five years old and my mother told me that Santa Claus was at the front door, her words would have instantly tapped me into a huge reservoir of positively charged energy that would have compelled me to jump up and run to the front door as fast as I could. Nothing would have been able to stop me. I would have overcome any obstacle in my path. At some point, my parents told me Santa Claus didn't exist. Of course, my first reaction was disbelief. I didn't believe them, nor did I want to believe them. Eventually, they convinced me. However, the process of convincing me did not destroy my belief in Santa Claus or cause it not to exist any longer; it just took all the energy out of the belief. The belief was transformed into a nonfunctional, inactive concept about how the world works. I'm not sure where all that energy went, but I know that some of it was transferred to a belief that Santa Claus doesn't exist.

e793cb2545f94d3aaa9f0616f6ffb8e5

NarrativeText

Now I have two contradictory distinctions about the nature of the world that exist in my mental system: one, Santa exists; two, Santa doesn't exist. The difference between them is in the amount of energy they contain. The first has virtually no energy; the second has energy. So from a functional perspective, there is no contradiction or conflict. I propose that, if it's possible to render one belief inactive, then it's possible to de-activate any belief, despite the fact that all beliefs seem to resist any force that would alter their present form. The secret to effectively changing our beliefs is in understanding and, consequently, believing that we really aren't changing our beliefs; we are simply transferring energy from one concept to another concept, one that we find more useful in helping us to fulfill our desires or achieve our goals.

fe53175873b323a86b1b479674426a94

ListItem

2. All active beliefs demand expression. Beliefs fall into two basic categories: active and inactive. The distinction between the two is simple. Active beliefs are energized; they have enough energy to act as a force on our perception of information and on our behavior. An inactive belief is just the opposite. It is a belief, that for any number of reasons, no longer has energy, or has so little energy that it's no longer able to act as a force on how we perceive information or how we express ourselves. When I say that all active beliefs demand expression, I don't mean to imply that every belief in our mental environment is demanding to express itself simultaneously. For example, if I ask you to think about what's wrong with the world today, the word "wrong" would bring to your mind ideas about the nature of the world that reflect what you believe to be troubling or disturbing. Unless, of course, there is nothing about the state of the world you find troubling. The point is, if there is something you do believe is wrong, you weren't necessarily thinking about those ideas before I asked the question; but the moment I did, your beliefs about these issues instantly moved to the forefront of your conscious thinking process. In effect, they demanded to be heard. I say that beliefs "demand" to be expressed because once something causes us to tap into our beliefs, it seems as if we can't stop the flood of energy that's released. This is especially true of emotionally sensitive issues or beliefs we feel particularly passionate about. You might ask, "Why would I want to hold back expressing my beliefs?" There could be several reasons. Consider a scenario in which you're this person is saying something that you completely disagree with, or even find utterly absurd. Will you express your truth or hold back? That will depend on the beliefs you have about what is proper in such a situation. If your beliefs dictate that speaking up would be inappropriate, and those beliefs have more energy than the ones that are being contradicted, then you'll probably hold back and not argue openly. You might be looking at this person (the boss) and nodding your head in agreement. But is your mind in agreement? More to the point, is your mind silent? Absolutely not! Your position on the issues being presented are effectively countering each point the boss is making. In other words, your beliefs are still demanding expression, but they aren't being expressed externally (in the environment) because other beliefs are acting as a counteracting; force. However O O ' they will soon find a way to get out, won't they? As soon as you are out of the situation, you will probably

3f713334fb1e0deab2d12c1f105243f7

NarrativeText

find a way to "unload," or even spew out your side of the argument. You will probably describe what you had to endure to anyone you think will lend a sympathetic ear. This is an example of how our beliefs demand to be expressed when they are in conflict with the external environment. But what happens when one or more of our beliefs are in conflict with our intents, goals, dreams, wants, or desires? The implications of such a conflict can have a profound effect on our trading. As we have already learned, beliefs create distinctions in how the external environment can express itself. Distinctions, by definition, are boundaries. Human consciousness, on the other hand, seems to be larger than the sum total of everything we have learned to believe. This "larger than" quality of human consciousness gives us the ability to think in any direction we choose, either inside or outside of the boundaries imposed by our beliefs. Thinking outside of the boundaries of our beliefs is commonly referred to as creative thinking. When we purposely choose to question a belief (question what we know), and sincerely desire an answer, we make our minds available to receive a "brilliant idea," "inspiration," or "solution" to the issue at hand. Creativity, bv definition, brings forth something- that didn't we will (by definition, automatically) receive ideas or thoughts that are outside of anything that already exists in our rational mind as a belief or memory. As far as I know, there is no consensus among artists, inventors, or the religious or scientific communities as to exactly where creatively generated information comes from. However, what I do know is that creativity seems to be limitless and without boundaries. If there are any limits on the ways we can think, we certainly haven't found them yet. Consider the staggering pace at which technology has developed in the last 50 years alone. Every invention or development in the evolution of humanity was born in the minds of people who were willing to think outside the boundaries dictated by what they had learned to believe. If all of us have the inherent ability to think creatively (and I believe that we do), then we also have the potential to encounter what I call a "creative experience." I define a creative experience as the experience of anything new or outside the boundaries imposed by our beliefs. It could be a new sight—something we've never seen before, but from the environment's perspective was always there. Or we could experience a new sound, smell, taste, or touch. Creative experiences, like creative thoughts, inspirations, hunches, and brilliant ideas, can occur as a surprise or can be the result of our conscious direction. In either case, when we experience them we can be confronted with a major psychological dilemma. A creative occurrence, whether in the form of a thought or an experience, can cause us to be attracted to or desire something that is in direct conflict with one or more of our beliefs. To illustrate the point, let's return to the example of the boy and dog. Recall that the boy has had several painful experiences with dogs. The first experience was real from the environment's perspective. The others, however, were the result of how his mind processed information (based on the operation of the association and painavoidance mechanisms). The end result is that he experiences fear every time he encounters a dog. Let's suppose that the boy was a toddler when he

7299bb8bc3851152f606451c24185c6f

NarrativeText

had his first negatively charged experience. As he grows up and begins associating specific words and concepts with his memories, he will form a belief about the nature of dogs. It would be reasonable to assume that he adopted a belief something like, "All dogs are dangerous." With the use of the word "all," the boy's belief is structured in a way that assures that he will avoid all dogs. He has no reason to question this belief, because every experience has confirmed and reinforced its validity. However, he (and everyone else on the planet) is susceptible to a creative experience. Under normal circumstances, the boy will do everything possible to make sure he does not encounter a dog. But what if something unexpected and unintended occurs? Suppose the boy is walking with his parents and, as a result, feels safe and protected. Now, suppose he and his parents come to a blind corner and cannot see what is on the other side. They encounter a scene in which several children of about the same age as the boy are playing with some dogs and, furthermore, they are obviously having a great deal of fun. This is a creative experience. The boy is confronted with indisputable information that what he believes about the nature of dogs isn't true. What happens now? First, the experience was not at the boy's conscious direction. He didn't make a decision to willingly expose himself to information that contradicted what he believed to be true. We might call this an inadvertent creative experience, because the external environment forced him to confront other possibilities that he didn't believe existed. Second, the experience of seeing other children playing with dogs and not getting hurt will throw his mind into a state of confusion. After the confusion wears off, meaning as he begins to accept the possibility that not all dogs are dangerous, several scenarios are possible. Seeing other children his own age (with whom he could strongly identify) having such a great time playing with dogs could cause the boy to decide that he wants to be like the other children and have fun with dogs, too. If that's the case, this inadvertent creative encounter has caused him to become attracted to express himself in a way that he formerly didn't believe was possible (interacting with dogs). In fact, the notion was so impossible that it wouldn't have even occurred to him to consider it. Now, he not only considers it, he desires it. Will he be able to express himself in a way that is consistent with his desire? The answer to this question is a matter of energy dynamics. There are two forces within the boy that are in direct conflict with each other, competing for expression: his belief that "all dogs are dangerous" and his desire to have fun and be like the other children. What he will do the next time he encounters a dog will be determined by which has more energy: his belief or his desire. Given the intensity of the energy in his belief that "All dogs are dangerous," we can reasonably assume that his belief will have far more energy than his desire. If that's the case, then he will find his next encounter with a dog very frustrating. Even though he may want to touch or pet the dog, he'll find that he can't interact with it in any way. The word "all" in his belief will act as a paralyzing force, preventing him from fulfilling his desire. He might be well aware of the fact that the dog he wants to pet is not dangerous and won't hurt him;

5660d0ee418063c0f9a7607168a81555

NarrativeText

but he won't be able to pet it until the balance of energy tips in favor of his desire. If the boy genuinely wants to interact with dogs, he will have to overcome his fear. This means that he will have to de-activate his belief that all dogs are dangerous so he can properly install a belief about dogs that is more consistent with his desire. We know that dogs can express themselves in a wide range of ways, from loving and gentle to mean and nasty. However, very few dogs on a percentage basis fall into the mean and nasty category. A good belief for the boy to adopt, then, would be something like, "Most dogs are friendly, but some can be mean and nasty." This belief would allow him to learn to recognize characteristics and behavior patterns that will tell him which dogs he can play with and which ones to avoid. However, the larger issue is, how can the boy de-activate the "all" in the belief that "All dogs are dangerous" so he can overcome his fear? Remember that all beliefs naturally resist any force that would alter their present form, but, as I indicated above, the appropriate approach is not to try to alter the belief, but rather to draw the energy out of it and channel that energy into another belief that is better suited to our purposes. To de-activate the concept the word "all" represents, the boy will have to create a positively charged experience with a dog; at some point, he will have to step through his fear and touch one. Doing this might require a great deal of effort on the boy's part over a considerable amount of time. Early in the process, his new realization about dogs might be strong enough only to allow him to be in the presence of a dog, at a distance, and not run away. However, each encounter with a dog, even at a distance, that doesn't result in a negative outcome will draw more and more of the negative energy out of his belief that "All dogs are dangerous." Eventually, each new positive experience will allow him to close the gap between himself and a dog, little by little, to the point that he can actually touch one. From an energy dynamics perspective, he will be able to touch a dog when his desire to do so is at least one degree greater in intensity than his belief that all dogs are dangerous. The moment he actually does touch a dog, it will have the effect of drawing most of the remaining negative energy out of the "all" concept and transfer it to a belief that reflects his new experience. Although it's probably not that common, there are people who, for various reasons, are motivated enough to purposely put themselves through the above described process. However, they may not be consciously aware of the dynamics involved. People who work through a childhood fear of this magnitude usually do so somewhat haphazardly over a period of years, without knowing for sure exactly how they did it (unless they seek and get competent professional help). Later on, as adults, if they are asked or if they happen to encounter a situation that reminds them of their past (for instance, observing a child who is terrified of dogs), they typically characterize the process they went through as "I remember when I was afraid of dogs, but I grew out of it." The end result of the first scenario was that the boy worked through his fear by de-activating his limiting belief about the nature of dogs. This allowed him to express himself in a way that he finds pleasing and that otherwise would have been impossible. The second scenario that could result from the child's inadvertent creative experience with dogs is that he isn't attracted to the possibility of playing with a

7ced6bd6cf4069d1c6a984b69e17993e

NarrativeText

dog. In other words, he could not care less about being like the other children or interacting with dogs. In this case, his belief that all dogs are dangerous and his new realization that all dogs are not dangerous will exist in his mental environment as contradictory concepts. This is an example of what I call an active contradiction, when two active beliefs are in direct conflict with each other, both demanding expression. In this example, the first belief exists at a core level in the boy's mental environment, with a great deal of negatively charged energy. The second belief is at a more superficial level, and has very little positively charged energy. The dynamics of this situation are interesting, and extremely important. We have stated that beliefs control our perception of information. Under normal circumstances, the boy would have been perceptually blinded to the possibility of interacting with dogs, but the experience of seeing other children playing with them created a positively charged concept in his mental environment that dogs are not all dangerous; some can be friendly. However, he hasn't done anything to de-activate the "all" in his belief that "All dogs are dangerous," and, as far as I know, beliefs have no capacity to de-activate themselves. As a result, beliefs exist in our mental environment from the moment they are born to the moment we die, unless we consciously take steps to deactivate them. However, in this scenario, the boy has no desire and consequently no motivation to step through his fear. Therefore, the boy is left with an active contradiction where his minimally charged belief that not all dogs are dangerous gives him the ability to perceive the possibility of playing with a dog, but his powerfully charged belief that all dogs are dangerous still causes him to experience some level of fear every time he encounters a dog (maybe not enough fear to cause him to run in terror, because some of that fear will be offset by the other belief, but there will certainly be enough fear to cause a great deal of discomfort). The ability to "see" and consequently know that a situation is not dangerous, but at the same time find ourselves immobilized with fear, can be quite baffling if we don't understand that what we discover as the result of thinking creatively or realize from an inadvertent creative experience doesn't necessarily have enough energy to become a dominant force in our mental environment. In other words, our new awareness or discovery could very well have enough energy to act as a credible force on our perception of information, thereby causing us to perceive possibilities that would otherwise be invisible; but it might not have enough energy to act as a credible force on our behavior. In making this statement, I am operating out of the assumption that it takes more energy to act or express ourselves than the amount of energy it takes to observe something. On the other hand, new awareness and discoveries instantly and effortlessly become dominant forces if there's nothing inside us that's in conflict with them. But if there are conflicting beliefs and we aren't willing to de-activate the conflicting forces (expending some effort), especially if they're negatively charged, then acting on what we've discovered will be a struggle at the very least, and perhaps down right impossible. What I have just described is the psychological dilemma that virtually every trader has to resolve. Let's say you have a firm grasp of the nature of probabilities

9e53d62eb3a64993ba28a3dde229b7bb

NarrativeText

and, as a result, you "know" that the next trade is simply another trade in a series of trades that has a probable outcome. Yet you find you're still afraid to put that next trade on, or you're still susceptible to several of the fear-based trading errors we've discussed in previous chapters. Remember that the underlying cause of fear is the potential to define and interpret market information as threatening. What is the source of our potential to interpret market information as threatening? Our expectations! When the market generates information that doesn't conform to what we expect, the up and down tics seem to take on a threatening quality (become negatively charged). Consequently, we experience fear, stress, and anxiety. What is the underlying source of our expectations? Our beliefs. In light of what you now understand about the nature of beliefs, if you are still experiencing negative states of mind when you trade, you can assume there's a conflict between what you "know" about probable outcomes and any number of other beliefs in your mental environment that are arguing (demanding expression) for something else. Keep in mind that all active beliefs demand expression, even if we don't want them to. To think in probabilities, you have to believe that every moment in the market is unique, or more specifically, that every edge has a unique outcome. When you believe at a functional level that every edge has a unique outcome (meaning that it's a dominant belief without any other beliefs arguing for something different), you will experience a state of mind that is free of fear, stress, and anxiety when you trade. It really can't work any other way. A unique outcome is not something we have already experienced, therefore it is not something we can already know. If it were known, it could not be defined as unique. When you believe that you don't know what is going to happen next, what exactly are you expecting from the market? If you said "I don't know," you are absolutely right. If you believe that something will happen and that you don't need to know exactly what that something is to make money, then where s the potential to define and interpret market information as threatening and painful? If you said "There is none," you are absolutely right again. Here is one more example of how beliefs demand expression. Let's look at a situation where a child's first encounter with a dog was a very positive experience. As a result, he has absolutely no problem interacting with dogs (any dog for that matter), because he has not encountered one that's unfriendly. Therefore, he has no concept (an energized belief) that it is possible for a dog to inflict any damage or cause him to experience pain. As he learns to associate words with his memories, he will probably acquire a belief along the lines of "all dogs are friendly and fun." Therefore, every time a dog comes into his field of awareness, this belief will demand expression. From the perspective of someone who fi with a do?, it will seem as if this child has an attitude of reckless abandon. If you tried to convince the child that he'll get bitten someday if he doesn't exercise caution, his belief will cause him to either discount or completely disregard your advice. His response would be something like "No way!" or "It can't happen to me." Let's say at some point in his life he approaches an unfamiliar dog that wants to be left alone. The dog growls. The warning will go unheeded and the dog attacks the boy. From the perspective of the boy's belief system, he's just had

553bb889127a72b56a0bc5f516991ffd

NarrativeText

a creative experience. What effect will this experience have on his belief that "all dogs are friendly"? Will he now be afraid of all dogs as the child in the first example was? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are not cut and dried, because there may be other beliefs, also demanding expression, that don't have anything specifically to do with dogs that come into play in a situation like this. For example, what if this child has a highly developed belief in betrayal (he believes he's been betrayed by some very significant people in some very significant situations that have caused him to experience intense emotional pain). If he associates the attack by this one dog as a "betrayal" by dogs in general (in essence a betrayal of his belief in dogs), then he could easily find himself afraid of all dogs. All of the positive energy contained in his original belief could instantly be transformed into negatively charged energy. The boy could justify this shift with a rationalization like "If one dog can betray me, then any dog can." However, I do think this is an extreme and very unlikely occurrence. What is more likely is the word "all" in his original belief will instantly be de-activated and that energy will get transferred to a new belief that better reflects the true nature of dogs. This new experience caused an energy shift that forced him to learn something about the nature of dogs that he otherwise refused to consider possible. His belief in the friendliness of dogs remains intact. He will still play with dogs, but he will now exercise some discretion by consciously looking for signs of friendliness or unfriendliness. I think that a fundamental truth about the nature of our existence is every moment in the market, as well as in evervdav life, has elements of what we know (similarities) and elements that we don't or can't know because we haven't experienced it yet. Until we actively train our minds to expect a unique outcome, we will continue experiencing only what we know; everything else (other information and possibilities that are not consistent with what we know and expect) will pass us by, unperceived, discounted, distorted, outright denied, or attacked. When you truly believe that you don't need to know, you will be thinking in probabilities (the market perspective) and will have no reason to block, discount, distort, deny, or attack anything the market is offering about its potential to move in any particular direction. If you are not experiencing the quality of mental freedom implied in that statement, and it is your desire to do so, then you must take an active role in training your mind to believe in the uniqueness of each moment, and you must de-activate any other belief that argues for something different. This process isn't any different from the one the boy in the first scenario went through, nor is it going to happen by itself. He wanted to interact with dogs without fear, but to do so he had to create a new belief and de-activate the conflicting ones. This is the secret to achieving consistent success as a trader.

3b39dc0c4dd7420e670221e5ae107633

ListItem

3. Beliefs keep on working regardless of whether we are consciously aware of their existence in our mental environment. In other words, we don't have to actively remember or have conscious access to any particular belief for that belief to act as a force on our perception of information or on our

efeb907ac912eb3684d18c3501b36a67

NarrativeText

behavior. I know it s hard to "believe" that something we can't even remember can still have an impact on our lives. But when you think about it, much of what we learn throughout our lives is stored at an unconscious or subconscious level. If I asked you to remember each specific skill you had to learn so that you could drive a car with confidence, chances are you wouldn't remember all the things you needed to concentrate and focus on while you were in the process of learning. The first time I had the opportunity to teach a teenager how to drive, I was absolutely amazed at how much there was to learn, how much of the process I took for granted and no longer thought about at a conscious level. Possibly the best example that illustrates this characteristic is people who drive under the influence of alcohol. On any given day or night, there are probably thousands of people who have had so much to drink that they have no idea that they have no conscious awareness of how they drove from point A to point B. It is difficult to imagine how this is possible, unless you consider that driving skills and one's belief in his ability to drive operate automatically on a much deeper level than waking consciousness. Certainly, some percentage of these drunk drivers get into accidents, but when you compare the accident rate with the estimated number of people driving under the influence of alcohol, it's remarkable that there aren't a great many more accidents. In fact, a drunk driver is probably most likely to cause an accident when he either falls asleep or something requires a conscious decision and a fast reaction. In other words, the driving conditions are such that operating out of one's subconscious skills is not enough.

b8a50e9e5c452efb012c2b05c2c8a6da

Title

SELF EVALUATION AND TRADING

e533a50a553462dc526cf37a6cf8a1c5

NarrativeText

How this characteristic applies to our trading is also quite profound. The trading environment offers us an arena of unlimited opportunities to accumulate wealth. But just because the money is available and we can perceive the possibility of getting it, that doesn't necessarily mean that we (as individuals) have an unlimited sense of selfvaluation. In other words, there could be a huge gap between how much money we desire for ourselves, how much we perceive is available, and how much we actually believe we are worth or deserve. Everyone has a sense of self-valuation. The easiest way to describe this sense is to list every active belief, both conscious and subconscious, that has the potential to argue either for or against accumulating or achieving greater and greater levels of success and prosperity. Then match the energy from the positively charged beliefs against the energy from the negatively charged beliefs. If you have more positively charged energy arguing for success and prosperity than negatively charged energy arguing against them, then you have a positive sense of self-valuation. Otherwise, you have a negative sense of self-valuation. The dynamics of how these beliefs interact with one another is not nearly so simple as I'm making it sound. In fact, it can be so complex that it could take years of sophisticated mental work to organize and sort out. What you need to know is that it's almost impossible to grow up in any social environment and not acquire some negatively charged beliefs that would argue against success or accumulating vast sums of money.

70ffab9662ed7d9136eae3b89b4e79dc

NarrativeText

Most of these self-sabotaging beliefs have long been forgotten and operate at a subconscious level, but the fact that we may have forgotten them doesn't mean they've been de-activated. How do we acquire self-sabotaging beliefs? Unfortunately, it's extremely easy. Probably the most common way is when a child engages in some activity that a parent or teacher doesn't want him to do and the child accidently injures himself. Many parents, to get their point across to the child, will respond to a situation like this by saying, "This (whatever pain you are experiencing) wouldn't have happened to you if you didn't deserve it," or "You disobeyed me and look what happened, God punished you." The problem with making or hearing statements like this is that there's a potential for the child to associate every future injury with these same statements and, subsequently, form a belief that he must be an unworthy person, undeserving of success, happiness, or love. Anything we feel guilty about can have an adverse effect on our sense of self-worth. Usually guilt is associated with being a bad person, and most people believe that bad people should be punished, certainly not rewarded. Some religions teach children that having a lot of money isn't godly or spiritual. Some people believe that making money in certain ways is wrong, even though it may be perfectly legal and moral from society's perspective. Again, you may not have a speoifir recollection of learning something that would argue against the success you perceive as possible, but that doesn't mean that what you learned is no longer having an effect. The way these subconscious self-sabotaging beliefs manifest themselves in our trading is usually in the form of lapses in focus or concentration, resulting in any number of trading errors, like putting in a buy for a sell or vice versa, or allowing yourself to give in to distracting thoughts that compel you to leave the screen, only to find out when you return that you missed the big trade of the day. I've worked with many traders who achieved various levels of consistent success, but found they just couldn't break through certain thresholds in acquiring equity. They discovered an invisible but very real barrier similar to the proverbial glass ceiling that many women executives experience in the corporate world. Every time these traders hit the barrier, they experienced a significant draw down, regardless of the market conditions. However, when asked about what happened, they typically blamed their sudden run of bad luck on just that—luck or the vagaries of the market. Interestingly, they typically created a steadily rising equity curve, sometimes over a period of several months, and the significant draw down always occurred at the same spot in their equity curve. I describe this psychological phenomenon as being in a "negative zone." As magically as money can flow into a trader's accounts when he is "in the zone," it can just as easily flow out, if he is in a negative zone where unresolved self-valuation issues mysteriously act on his perception of information and behavior. I am not implying here that you have to de-activate every belief that would argue against your ever-expanding positive sense of selfvaluation, because you don't. But you must be aware of the presence of such beliefs, and take specific steps in your trading regimen to compensate when they start expressing themselves. CHAPTER

8462057c2beb73eb24a3aea60f62e0fb

Title

CHAPTER 11

829be6371ee6d48ef97a19e3c6119a64

Title

THINKING LIKE A TRADER

1b1a57b9b3a388323451ac8415d0d644

NarrativeText

If you asked me to distill trading down to its simplest form, I would say that it is a pattern recognition numbers game. We use market analysis to identify the patterns, define the risk, and determine when to take profits. The trade either works or it doesn't. In any case, we go on to die next trade. It's that simple, but it's certainly not easy. In fact, trading is probably the hardest thing you'll ever attempt to be successful at. That's not because it requires intellect; quite the contrary! But because the more you think you know, the less successful you'll be. Trading is hard because you have to operate in a state of not having to know, even though your analysis may turn out at times to be "perfectly" correct. To operate in a state of not having to know, you have to properly manage your expectations. To properly manage your expectations, you must realign your mental environment so that you believe without a shadow of a doubt in the five fundamental truths. In this chapter, I am going to give you a trading exercise that will integrate these truths about the market at a functional level in your mental environment. In the process, I'll take you through the three stages of development of a trader. The first stage is the mechanical stage. In this stage, you:

4d579eefb876269f1d1225830ce01ae1

ListItem

1. Build the self-trust necessary to operate in an unlimited environment. 2. Learn to flawlessly execute a trading system. 3. Train your mind to think in probabilities (the five fundamental truths). 4. Create a strong, unshakeable belief in your consistency as a trader.

2d2f20dee98af08d71e18bd8862d1a41

NarrativeText

Once you have completed this first stage, you can then advance to the subjective stage of trading. In this stage, you use anything you have ever learned about the nature of market movement to do whatever it is you want to do. There's a lot of freedom in this stage, so you will have to learn how to monitor your susceptibility to make the kind of trading errors that are the result of any unresolved self- valuation issues I referred to in the last chapter. The third stage is the intuitive stage. Trading intuitively is the most advanced stage of development. It is the trading equivalent of earning a black belt in the martial arts. The difference is that you can't try to be intuitive, because intuition is spontaneous. It doesn't come from what we know at a rational level. The rational part of our mind seems to be inherently mistrustful of information received from a source that it doesn't understand. Sensing that something is about to happen is a form of knowing that is very different from anything we know rationally. I've worked with many traders who frequently had a very strong intuitive sense of what was going to happen next, only

832afd02f8d93c068b10a5628d66fc97

NarrativeText

to be confronted with the rational part of themselves that consistently, argued for another course of action. Of course, if they had followed their intuition, they would have experienced a very satisfying outcome. Instead, what they ended up with was usually very unsatisfactory, especially when compared with what they otherwise perceived as possible. The only way I know of that you can try to be intuitive is to work at setting up a state of mind most conducive to receiving and acting on your intuitive impulses.

59cd764b6969326b98a8d87f9af5d3c6

Title

THE MECHANICAL STAGE

084aaafc3bc81fbbcf20a7110bd5493d

NarrativeText

The mechanical stage of trading is specifically designed to build the kind of trading skills (trust, confidence, and thinking in probabilities) that will virtually compel you to create consistent results. I define consistent results as a steadily rising equity curve with only minor draw downs that are the natural consequence of edges that didn't work. Other than finding a pattern that puts the odds of a winning trade in your favor, achieving a steadily rising equity curve is a function of systematically eliminating any susceptibility you may have to making the kind of fear, euphoric or self-valuation based trading errors I have described throughout this book. Eliminating the errors and expanding your sense of self-valuation will require the acquisition of skills that are all psychological in nature. The skills are psychological because each one, in its purest form, is simply a belief. Remember that the beliefs we operate out of will determine our state of mind and shape our experiences in ways that constantly reinforce what we already believe to be true. How truthful a belief is (relative to the environmental conditions) can be determined by how well it serves us; that is, the degree to which it helps us satisfy our objectives. If producing consistent results is your primary objective as a trader, then creating a belief (a conscious, energized concept that resists change and demands expression) that "I am a consistently successful trader" will act as a primaiy source of energy that will manage your perceptions, interpretations, expectations, and actions in ways that satisfy the belief and, consequently, the objective. Creating a dominant belief that "I am a consistently successful trader" requires adherence to several principles of consistent success. Some of these principles will undoubtedly be in direct conflict with some of the beliefs you've already acquired about trading. If this is the case, then what you have is a classic example of beliefs that are in direct conflict with desire. The energy dynamic here is no different from what it was for the boy who wanted to be like the other children who were not afraid to play with dogs. He desired to express himself in a way that he found, at least initially, virtually impossible. To satisfy his desire, he had to step into an active process of transformation. His technique was simple: He tried as hard as he could to stay focused on what he was trying to accomplish and, little by little, he de-activated the conflicting belief and strengthened the belief that was consistent with his desire. At some point, if that is your desire, then you will have to step into the process of transforming yourself

95ec68377ca3e825524f9ed54a6b5b1c

NarrativeText

into a consistent winner. When it comes to personal transformation, the most important ingredients are your willingness to change, the clarity of your intent, and the strength of your desire. Ultimately, for this process to work, you must choose consistency over eveiy other reason or justification you have for trading. If all of these ingredients are sufficiently present, then regardless of the internal obstacles you find yourself up against, what you desire will eventually prevail.

ac45697f56464c4134df79a7d09ca94c

Title

Observe Yourself

36b9d17cf8a71c60133618cad911ebd3

NarrativeText

The first step in the process of creating consistency is to start noticing what you're thinking, saying, and doing. Why? Because everything we think, say, or do as a trader contributes to and, therefore, reinforces some belief in our mental system. Because the process of becoming consistent is psychological in nature, it shouldn't come as a surprise that you'll have to start paying attention to your various psychological processes. The idea is eventually to learn to become an objective observer of your own thoughts, words, and deeds. Your first line of defense against committing a trading error is to catch yourself thinking about it. Of course, the last line of defense is to catch yourself in the act. If you don't commit yourself to becoming an observer to these processes, your realizations will always come after the experience, usually when you are in a state of deep regret and frustration. Observing yourself objectively implies doing it without judging about yourself. This might not be so easy for some of you to do considering the harsh, judgmental treatment you may have received from other people throughout your life. As a result, one quickly learns to associate any mistake with emotional pain. No one likes to be in a state of emotional pain, so we typically avoid acknowledging what we have learned to define as a mistake for as long as possible. Not confronting mistakes in our everyday lives usually doesn't have the same disastrous consequences it can have if we avoid confronting our mistakes as traders. For example, when I am working with floor traders, the analogy I use to illustrate how precarious a situation they are in is to ask them to imagine themselves walking across a bridge over the Grand Canyon. The width of the bridge is directly related to the number of contracts they trade. So, for example, for a one-contract trader the bridge is very wide, say 20 feet. A bridge 20 feet wide allows you a great deal of tolerance for error, so you don't have to be inordinately careful or focused on each step you take. Still, if you do happen to stumble and trip over the edge, the drop to the canyon floor is one mile. I don't know how many people would walk across a narrow bridge with no guardrails, where the ground is a mile down, but my guess is relatively few. Similarly, few people will take the kinds of risks associated with trading on the floor of the futures exchanges. Certainly a one-contract floor trader can do a great deal of damage to himself, not unlike falling off a mile-high bridge. But a one-contract trader also can give himself a wide tolerance for errors, miscalculations, or unusually violent market moves where he could find himself on the wrong side. On the other hand, one of the biggest floor traders I ever worked with trades for his own account with an average position of 500 Treasury bond futures at a

61c00977cf868ec4e38e390813b34e20

NarrativeText

time. He often puts on a position of well over a thousand contracts. A position of 1,000 T-bond contracts amounts to $31,500 per tic (the smallest incremental price change that a bond contract can make). Of course, T-bond futures can be very volatile and can trade several tics in either direction in a matter of seconds. As the size of a traders position increases, the width of our bridge over the Grand Canyon narrows. In the case of the large bond trader, the bridge has narrowed to the size of a thin wire. Obviously, he has to be extremely well-balanced and very focused on each step that he takes. The slightest misstep or gust of wind could cause him to fall off the wire. Next stop, one mile down. Now, when he's in the trading pit, that tiny misstep or slight gust of wind is the equivalent to one distracting thought. That's all, just a thought or anything else where he allows himself to lose his focus for even a second or two. In that moment of distraction, he could miss his last favorable opportunity to liquidate his position. The next price level with enough volume to take him out of his trade could be several tics away, either creating a huge loss or forcing him to give a substantial winning trade back to the market. If producing consistent results is a function of eliminating errors, then it is an understatement to say that you will encounter great difficulty in achieving your objective if you can't acknowledge a mistake. Obviously, this is something very few people can do, and it accounts for why there are so few consistent winners. In fact, the tendency not to acknowledge a mistake is so pervasive throughout mankind, it could lead one to assume that it's an inherent characteristic of human nature. I do not believe this is the case, nor do I believe we are born with the capacity to ridicule or think less of ourselves for making a mistake, miscalculation, or error. Making mistakes is a natural function of living and will continue to be until we reach a point at which:

ff173c61d414bb56bf406fd05a0fd6e1

ListItem

1. all our beliefs are in absolute harmony with our desires, and 2. all our beliefs are structured in such a way that they are completely consistent with what works from the environment's perspective. Obviously, if our beliefs are not consistent with what works from the environments perspective, the potential for making a mistake is high, if not inevitable. We won't be able to perceive the appropriate set of steps to our objective. Worse, we won't be able to perceive that what we want may not be available, or available in the quantity we desire or at the time when we want it. On the other hand, mistakes that are the result of beliefs that are in conflict with our objectives aren't always apparent or obvious. We know they will act as opposing forces, expressing their versions of the truth on our consciousness, and they can do that in many ways. The most difficult to detect is a distracting thought that causes a momentary lapse in focus or concentration. On the surface this may not sound significant. But, as in the analogy of the bridge over the canyon, when there's a lot at stake, even a slightly diminished capacity to stay focused can result in an error of disastrous proportions. This principle applies whether it's trading, sporting events, or computer programming. When our intent is clear and undiminished by any opposing energy, then our

cc7bae5ceac73a2a4ccf66e249c3c70b

NarrativeText

capacity to stay focused is greater, and the more likely it is that we will accomplish our objective. Earlier I defined a winning attitude as a positive expectation of our efforts, with an acceptance that whatever results we do get are a perfect reflection of our level of development and what we need to learn to do better. What separates the "consistently great" athletes and performers from everyone else is their distinct lack of fear of making a mistake. The reason they aren't afraid is that they don't have a reason to think less of themselves when they do make a mistake, meaning they don't have a reservoir of negatively charged energy waiting to well up and pounce on their conscious thought process like a lion waiting for the right moment to pounce on its intended prey. What accounts for this uncommon capacity to quickly move beyond their errors without criticizing themselves? One explanation may be that they grew up with extremely unusual parents, teachers, and coaches, who by their words and examples taught them to correct their miscalculations and errors with genuine love, affection, and acceptance. I say "extremely unusual" because many of us grew up with just the opposite experience. We were taught to correct our mistakes or miscalculations with anger, impatience, and a distinct lack of acceptance. Is it possible that, for the great athletes, their past positive experiences with respect to mistakes caused them to acquire a belief that mistakes simply point the way to where they need to focus their efforts to grow and improve themselves? With a belief like that, there's no source of negatively charged energy and consequently no source for self-denigrating thoughts. However, the rest of us, who did grow up experiencing a plethora of negative reactions to our actions, would naturally acquire beliefs about mistakes: "Mistakes must be avoided at all costs," "There must be something wrong with me if I make a mistake," "I must be a screw-up," or "I must be a bad person if I make a mistake." Remember that every thought, word, and deed reinforces some belief we have about ourselves. If, by repeated negative self-criticism, we acquire a belief that we're "screw-ups," that belief will find a way to express itself in our thoughts, causing us to become distracted and to screw up; on our words, causing us to say things about ourselves or about others (if we notice the same characteristics in them) that reflect our belief; and on our actions, causing us to behave in ways that are overtly self-sabotaging. If you're going to become a consistent winner, mistakes can't exist in the kind of negatively charged context in which they are held by most people. You have to be able to monitor yourself to some degree, and that will be difficult to do if you have the potential to experience emotional pain if and when you find yourself in the process of making an error. If this potential exists, you have two choices:

9fb09c9f925d59b05dbaa0062d083a18

ListItem

1. You can work on acquiring a new set of positively charged beliefs about what it means to make a mistake, along with de-activating any negatively charged beliefs that would argue otherwise or cause you to think less of yourself for making a mistake. 2. If you find this first choice undesirable, you can compensate for the potential to make errors by the way you set up your trading regime.

ab2aed46704d7cb3e8550b605ef0c3b3

NarrativeText

This means that if you're going to trade and not monitor yourself, but at the same time you desire consistent results, then trading exclusively from the mechanical stage will resolve the dilemma. Otherwise, learning how to monitor yourself is a relatively simple process once you have rid yourself of negatively charged energy associated with mistakes. In fact, it's easy. All you have to do is decide why you want to monitor yourself, which means you first need to have a clear purpose in mind. When you're clear about your purpose, simply start directing your attention to what you think, say, or do. If and when you notice that you're not focused on your objective or on the incremental steps to accomplish your objective, choose to redirect your thoughts, words, or actions in a way that is consistent with what you are trying to accomplish. Keep redirecting as often as necessary. The more willfully you engage in this process, especially if you can do it with some degree of conviction, the faster you will create a mental framework free to function in a way that is consistent with your objectives, without any resistance from conflicting beliefs.

1f8f43360bf4dc15cbbc99734235bcc1

Title

THE ROLE OF SELF-DISCIPLINE

3e5ade57ef50b0611e7319bcb2cd4baf

NarrativeText

I call the process I just described self-discipline. I define self-discipline as a mental technique to redirect (as best we can) our focus of attention to the object of our goal or desire, when that goal or desire conflicts with some other component (belief) of our mental environment. The first thing you should notice about this definition is that self-discipline is a technique to create a new mental framework. It is not a personality trait; people aren't born with self-discipline. In fact, when you consider how I define it, being born with discipline isn't even possible. However, as a technique to be used in the process of personal transformation, anybody can choose to use self-discipline. Here is an example from my life that illustrates the underlying dynamics of how this technique works. In 1978 I decided that I wanted to become a runner. I don't exactly remember what my underlying motivation was, except that I had spent the previous eight years in a very inactive life style. I wasn't involved with any sports or hobbies, unless you call watching television a hobby. Previously in both high school and at least part of college I was very active in sports, especially ice hockey. However, coming out of college, my life was unfolding in the way that was very different from what I had expected. It was not to my liking, but at the time I felt powerless to do anything about it. This led to a period of inactivity, which is a nice way of saying that I was severely depressed. Again, I'm not sure what prompted me to suddenly want to become a runner (maybe I saw some TV program that sparked my interest). I do, however, remember that the motivation was verv strong. So, I went out and bought myself some running shoes, put them on, and went out to run. The first thing I discovered was that I couldn't do it. I didn't have the physical stamina to run more than fifty or sixty yards. This was very surprising. I didn't realize, nor would I have ever believed, that I was so out of shape that I couldn't run even a hundred yards. This realization was so disheartening that I didn't attempt to run again for two or three weeks.

81d6ec2ebeea4ab8c89c8f8926274dee

NarrativeText

The next time out, I still couldn't run more than fifty or sixty yards. I tried again the next day with, of course, the same result. I became so discouraged about my deteriorated physical condition that I didn't run again for another four months. Now, it's the spring of 1979. I'm once again determined to become a runner, but, at the same time, very frustrated with my lack of progress. As I was contemplating my dilemma, it occurred to me that one of my problems was that I didn't have a goal to work towards. Saying that I wanted to be a runner was great, but what did that mean? I really didn't know; it was too vague and abstract. I had to have something more tangible to work towards. So I decided that I wanted to be able to run five miles by the end of the summer. Five miles seemed insurmountable at the time, but thinking that I might be able to do it generated a lot of enthusiasm. This increased level of enthusiasm gave me enough impetus to run four times that week. At the end of this first week, I was really surprised to discover even a little bit of exercise improved my stamina and ability to run a little farther each time. This created even more enthusiasm, so I went out and bought a stop watch and blank book to be used as a running diary. I set up a two-mile course, and marked off each quarter mile. In the diary I entered the date, my distance, my time, and how I felt physically each time I ran. Now I thought I was well on my way to the five miles, until I literally ran into my next set of problems. The biggest were the conflicting and distracting thoughts that flooded my consciousness every time I decided I wanted to go out and run. I was amazed at the number (and intensity) of the reasons I found for not doing it: "It's hot [or] cold outside," "It looks like it's going to rain," "I'm still a little tired from the last time I ran (even though it was three days ago)," "Nobody else I know is doing this," or the most prevalent, "I'll go as soon as this TV program is over" (of course I never went). I didn't know any other way to deal with this conflicting mental energy except to redirect my conscious attention on what I was trying to accomplish. I really wanted to get to five miles by the end of the summer. I found that sometimes my desire was stronger than the conflict. As a result, I managed to get my running shoes on, actually step outside, and start running. However, more times than not, my conflicting and distracting thoughts caused me to stay put. In fact, in the beginning stages, I estimate that two-thirds of the time I was unable to get past the conflicting energy. The next problem I encountered was that when I started approaching the point where I was able to run one mile, I was so thrilled with myself that it occurred to me I was going to need an additional mechanism to get me to the five miles. I reasoned that once I got to the point where I could run two or maybe three miles, I would be so overwhelmingly pleased with myself that I wouldn't feel any need to fulfill my five-mile objective. So I made a rule for myself. You could call it the five-mile rule. "If I managed to get my running shoes on and get outside in spite of all the conflicting thoughts trying to talk me out of it, I committed myself to running at least one step farther than the last time I ran." It was certainly all right if I ran more than one step further, but it couldn't be less than one step, no matter what. As it turns out, I never broke this rule, and by the end of the summer, I made it to five miles.

3383cfd3bfa19b2055d2bf82359658ae

NarrativeText

But then, something really interesting and completely unanticipated happened before I got there. As I got closer to fulfilling my five-mile objective, little by little, the conflicting thoughts began to dissipate. Eventually they didn't exist at all. At that point, I found that if I wanted to run, I was completely free to do so without any mental resistance, conflict, or competing thoughts. Given what a struggle it had been, I was amazed (to say the least). The result: I went on to run on a very regular basis for the next 16 years. For those of you who may be interested, I don't run so much now because five years ago I decided to start playing ice hockey again. Hockey is an extremely strenuous sport. Sometimes I play as many as four times a week. Considering my age (over u\j) and the level of exertion the sport requires, it usually takes me a day or two to recover, which doesn't leave much room for running any more. Now, if you take these experiences and put them into the context of what we now understand about the nature of beliefs, there are a number of observations we can make:

d2171acce1a5510b75a4c585eebeb0e3

ListItem

1. Initially, my desire to be a runner had no foundation of support in my mental system. In other words, there was no other source of energy (an energized concept demanding expression) consistent with my desire. 2. I actually had to do something to create that support. To create a belief that "I am a runner" required that I create a series of experiences consistent with the new belief. Remember that everything we think, say, or do contributes energy to some belief in our mental system. Each time I experienced a conflicting thought and was able to successfully refocus on my objective, with enough conviction to get me into my running shoes and out the door, I added energy to the belief that "I am a runner." And, just as important, I inadvertently drew energy away from all of the beliefs that would argue otherwise. I say inadvertently because there are various techniques specifically designed to identify and de-activate conflicting beliefs, but at that time in my life, I didn't understand the underlying dynamics of the process of transformation I was going through. So, it wouldn't have occurred to me to avail myself of such techniques. 3. Now I can effortlessly (from a mental perspective) express myself as a runner, because "I am a runner." That energized concept is now a functioning part of my identity. When I first started out, I happened to have a number of conflicting beliefs about running. As a result, I needed the technique of self-discipline to bfCCITic One. Now I don't need self-discipline because "bHn" a. rj^iicr" 'c "who I L - ~o am." When our bfeliers are completely aligned with our goals or desires, there's no source of conflicting energy. If there's no source of conflicting energy, then there's no source of distracting thoughts, excuses, rationalizations, justifications, or mistakes (conscious or subconscious). 4. Beliefs can be changed, and if it's possible to change one belief, then it's possible to change any belief, if you understand that you really aren't changing them, but are only transferring energy from one concept to another. (The form of the belief targeted for change remains intact.) Therefore, two completely contradictory beliefs can exist in your mental system, side by side. But if you've drawn the

52b7886c3198c513b9968098f5420cc3

NarrativeText

energy out of one belief and completely energized the other, no contradiction exists from a functional perspective; only the belief that the energy will have the capacity to act as a force on your state of mind, on your perception and interpretation of information, and your behavior. Now, the sole purpose of trading mechanically is to transform yourself into a consistently successful trader. If there's anything in your mental environment that's in conflict with the principles of creating the belief that "I am a consistently successful trader," then you will need to employ the technique of self-discipline to integrate these principles as a dominant, functioning part of your identity. Once the principles become "who you are," you will no longer need self-discipline, because the process of "being consistent" will become effortless. Remember that consistency is not the same as the ability to put on a winning trade, or even a string of winning trades for that matter, because putting on a winning trade requires absolutely no skill. All you have to do is guess correctly, which is no different than guessing the outcome of a coin toss, whereas consistency is a state of mind that, once achieved, won't allow you to "be" any other way. You won't have to try to be consistent because it will be a natural function of your identity. In fact, if you have to try, it's an indication that you haven't completely integrated the principles of consistent success as dominant, unconflicted beliefs. For example, predefining your risk is a step in the process of "being consistent." If it takes any special effort to predefine your risk, if you have to consciously remind yourself to do it, if you experience any conflicting thoughts (in essence, trying to talk you out of doing it), or if you find yourself in a trade where you haven't predefined your risk, then this principle is not a dominant, functioning part of your identity. It isn't "who you are." If it were, it wouldn't even occur to you not to predefine your risk. If and when all of the sources of conflict have been de-activated, there's no longer a potential for you to "be" any other way. What was once a struggle will become virtually effortless. At that point, it may seem to other people that you are so disciplined (because you can do something they find difficult, if not impossible), but the reality is that you aren't being disciplined at all; you are simply functioning from a different set of beliefs that compel you to behave in a way that is consistent with your desires, goals, or objectives.

96c39f59d836b9fff1d2191c0cb012f2

Title

CREATING A BELIEF IN CONSISTENCY

0f69df24ed5767e3a4b26cb96199887f

NarrativeText

Creating a belief that "I am a consistent winner" is the primary objective, but like my intention to become a runner, it's too broad and abstract to implement without breaking it down into a step-by-step process. So what I'm going to do is break this belief down into its smallest definable parts and then give you a plan to integrate each part as a dominant belief. The following sub-beliefs are the building Thinking Like a Trader 185 blocks that provide the underlying structure for what it means "to be a consistent winner."

2205ba71717bf7ec6999534d5e2e48a2

NarrativeText

I AM A CONSISTENT WINNER BECAUSE:

8af3a3b8330469a8f2569c3ef79022d7

ListItem

1. I objectively identify my edges. 2. I predefine the risk of every trade. 3. I completely accept risk or I am willing to let go of the trade. 4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation. 5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me. 6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors. 7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them.

7dbaecd50a1013722a2c9b3c453663b0

NarrativeText

These beliefs are the seven principles of consistency. To integrate these principles into your mental system at a functional level requires that you purposely create a series of experiences that are consistent with them. This is no different from the boy who wanted to play with dogs or my desire to be a runner. Before he could play with a dog, the boy first had to make several attempts just to get close to one. Eventually, as the balance of energy in his mental system shifted, he could play with dogs without any internal resistance. To become a runner, I had to create the experience of running in spite of everything inside me that argued otherwise. Eventually, as the energy shifted more and more in favor of this new definition of myself, running became a natural expression of my identity. Obviously, what we're trying to accomplish here is far more complex than becoming a runner or petting a dog, but the underlying dynamics of the process are identical. We'll start with a specific objective. The first principle of consistency is the belief, "I objectively identify my edges." The key word here is objectively. Being objective means there's no potential to define, interpret, and therefore perceive any market information from either a painful or euphoric perspective. The way to be objective is to operate out of beliefs that keep your expectations neutral and to always take the unknown forces into consideration. Remember, you have to specifically train your mind to be objective and to stay focused in the "now moment opportunity flow." Our minds are not naturally wired to think this way, so to be an objective observer you have to learn to think from the market's perspective. From the market's perspective, there are always unknown forces (traders) waiting to act on price movement. Therefore, from the market's perspective, "every moment is truly unique," even though the moment may look, sound, or feel exactly the same as some moment logged away in your memory bank. The instant you either decide or assume you know what's going to happen next, you will automatically expect to be right. However, what you know, at least at the rational level of thinking, can only take into consideration your unique past, which may not have any relationship to what is actually happening from the markets perspective. At that point, any market information that is not consistent with your expectation has the potential to be defined and interpreted as painful. To avoid experiencing the pain,

6b4874b71d60470a73886f4875f419e4

NarrativeText

your mind will automatically compensate, with both conscious and subconscious pain-avoidance mechanisms, for any differences between what you expect and what the market is offering. What you will experience is commonly referred to as an "illusion." In a state of illusion, you are neither objective nor connected to the "now moment opportunity flow." Instead, you become susceptible to committing all the typical trading errors (hesitating, jumping the gun, not predefining your risk, defining your risk but refusing to take the loss and letting the trade turn into a bigger loser, getting out of a winning trade too soon, not taking any profits out of a winning trade, letting a winning trade turn into a loser, moving a stop closer to your entry point, getting stopped out and watching the market trade back in your favor, or trading too large a position in relationship to your equity). The five fundamental truths about the market will keep your expectations neutral, focus your mind in the "now moment opportunity flow" (by disassociating die present moment from your past), and, therefore, eliminate your potential to commit these errors. When you stop making trading errors, you'll begin trusting yourself. As your sense of self-trust increases, so will your sense of selfconfidence. The greater your confidence, the easier it will be to execute your trades (act on your edges without reservation or hesitation). The five truths will also create a state of mind in which you will genuinely accept the risks of trading. When you genuinely accept the risks, you will be at peace with any outcome. When you're at peace with any outcome, you will experience a carefree, objective state of mind, where you make yourself available to perceive and act upon whatever the market is offering you (from its perspective) at any given "now moment." The first objective is to integrate as a dominant belief, "I objectively identify my edges." The challenge now is, how do you get there? How do you transform yourself into a person who can consistently think in the market's perspective? The process of transformation starts with your desire and your willingness to refocus on the object of your desire (self-discipline). Desire is a force. It does not have to coincide or agree with anything that you currently believe to be true about the nature of trading. A clear desire aimed squarely at a specific objective is a very powerful tool. You can use the force of your desire to create an entirely new version or dimension to your identity; shift energy between two or more conflicting concepts; or change the context or polarity of your memories from negative to positive. I'm sure you are familiar with the saying, "Make up your mind." The implication of "making up our minds" is that we decide exactly what we desire with so much clarity (absolutely no lingering doubts) and with so much conviction that literally nothing stands in our way, either internally or externally. If there's enough force behind our resolve, it's possible to experience a major shift in our mental structure virtually instantaneously. De-activating internal conflicts is not a function of time; it's a function-focused desire (although it can take a considerable amount of time to get to the point where we really make up our minds). Otherwise, in the absence of extreme clarity and conviction, the technique of self-discipline, over time, will do the job quite nicely (if, of course, you're willing to use it). To get there, you must "make up your mind,"

339f2b3312b4d2342e7cf1253ac33b4d

NarrativeText

with as much conviction and clarity as possible, that more than anything else you desire consistency (the state of mind of trust, confidence, and objectivity) from your trading. This is necessary because if you're like most traders, you're going to be up against some very formidable conflicting forces. For example, if you've been trading to get high from the euphoria of catching a big move, to impress your family and friends, to be a hero, to fulfill an addiction to random rewards, to be right about your predictions, or for any other reason that has nothing to do with being consistent, then you'll find the force of these other motivations will not only act as an obstacle making the trading exercise I'm about to give you veiy difficult, but it could very well be strong enough even to keep you from doing the exercise at all. Remember the boy who had no desire to be like the other children and interact with dogs? In essence, he decided to live with the active contradiction between his minimally charged positive belief that not all dogs are dangerous and his core, negatively charged belief that all dogs are dangerous. He had the ability to perceive friendly dogs, but at the same time found it impossible to interact with them. Unless he desires to change it, the imbalance of energy between these two beliefs will stay exactly as it is for his entire life. To even start this process, you have to want consistency so much that you would be willing to give up all the other reasons, motivations, or agendas you have for trading that aren't consistent with the process of integrating the beliefs that create consistency. A clear, intense desire is an absolute prerequisite if you're going to make this process work for you.

59c2a6ff997fea08246d07dec3bf15ca

Title

EXERCISE: LEARNING TO TRADE AND EDGE LIKE A CASINO’

cb315f00b0082610fb88583265d2a3b9

NarrativeText

The object of this exercise is to convince yourself that trading is just a simple game of probabilities (numbers), not much different from pulling the handle of a slot machine. At the micro level, the outcomes to individual edges are independent occurrences and random in relationship to one another. At the macro level, the outcomes over a series of trades will produce consistent results. From a probabilities perspective, this means that instead of being the person playing the slot machine, as a trader, you can be the casino, if:

42499683f0ac8d81ad06ff8645efd1a0

ListItem

1. you have an edge that genuinely puts the odds of success in your favor; 2. you can think about trading in the appropriate manner (the five fundamental truths); and 3. you can do everything you need to do over a series of trades. Then, like the casinos, you will own the game and be a consistent winner.

5c5f80d50d7710f6e671f6a723bb570c

NarrativeText

SETTING UP THE EXERCISE Pick a market. Choose one actively traded stock or futures contract to trade. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it's liquid and you can afford the margin requirements for trading at least three hundred shares or three futures contracts per trade.

d42679adaf653f3046b270958cd8d28d

NarrativeText

Choose a set of market variables that define an edge. This can be any trading system you want. The trading system or methodology you choose can be mathematical, mechanical, or visual (based on patterns in price charts). It doesn't matter whether you personally design the system or purchase it from someone else, nor do you need to take a long time or be too picky trying to find or develop the best or right system. This exercise is not about system development and it is not a test of your analytical abilities. In fact, the variables you choose can even be considered mediocre by most traders' standards, because what you are going to learn from doing this exercise is not dependent upon whether you actually make money. If you consider this exercise an educational expense, it will cut down on the amount of time and effort you might otherwise expend trying to find the most profitable edges. For those of you who might be wondering, I'm not going to make any specific recommendations about what system or variables you should use, because I assume that most of the people reading this book are already well schooled in technical analysis. If you need additional assistance, there are hundreds of books available on the topic, as well as system vendors who are more than willing to sell you their ideas. However, if you've made a genuine attempt to do this on your own but are still having problems picking a system, you can contact me at markdouglas.com or tradinginthezone.com and I will make some recommendations. Whatever system you choose to use has to fit within the following specifications.

3b7c734d33877c653aa807026ed306f9

NarrativeText

Trade Entry. The variables you use to define your edge have to be absolutely precise. The system has to be designed so that it does not require you to make any subjective decisions or judgments about whether your edge is present. If the market is aligned in a way that conforms with the rigid variables of your system, then you have a trade; if not, then you don't have a trade. Period! No other extraneous or random factors can enter into the equation.

4558a77c2f86b0429866ccf36aa45d0e

NarrativeText

Stop-Loss Exit. The same conditions apply to getting out of a trade that's not working. Your methodology has to tell you exactly how much you need to risk to find out if the trade is going to work. There is always an optimum point at which the possibility of a trade not working is so diminished, especially in relationship to the profit potential, that you're better off taking your loss and getting your mind clear to act on the next edge. Let the market structure determine where this optimum point is, rather than using an arbitrary dollar amount that you are willing to risk on a trade. In any case, whatever system you choose, it has to be absolutely exact, requiring no subjective decision making.

0be74a99bc881dffa8f98308ff804046

NarrativeText

Again, no extraneous or random variables can enter into the equation.

b880659bf00c7304b5deb90b8628efc5

NarrativeText

Time Frame. Your trading methodology can be in any time frame that suits you, but all your entry and exit signals have to be DUSCCi Hi cne same time frame. For example, if you use variables that identify a particular support and resistance pattern on a 30-minute bar chart, then your risk and profit objective calculations also have to be determined in a 30-minute time frame. However, trading in one time frame does not preclude you from using other time frames as filters. For example, you could have as a filter a rule that states you're only going to take trades that are in the direction of the major trend. There's an old trading axiom that "The trend is your friend." It means that you have a higher probability of success when you trade in the direction of the major trend, if there is one. In fact, the lowest-risk trade, with the highest probability of success, occurs when you are buying dips (support) in an up-trending market or selling rallies (resistance) in a down-trending market. To illustrate how this rule works, let's say that you've chosen a precise way of identifying support and resistance patterns in a 30- minute time frame as your edge. The rule is that you are only going to take trades in the direction of the major trend. A trending market is defined as a series of higher highs and higher lows for an up-trending market and a series of lower highs and lower lows for a downtrending market. The longer the time frame, the more significant the trend, so a trending market on a daily bar chart is more significant than a trending market on a 30-minute bar chart. Therefore, the trend on the daily bar chart would take precedence over the trend on the 30-minute bar chart and would be considered the major trend. To determine the direction of the major trend, look at what is happening on a daily bar chart. If the trend is up on the daily, you are only going to look for a sell-off or retracement down to what your edge defines as support on the 30-minute chart. That's where you will become a buyer. On the other hand, if the trend is down on the daily, you are only going to look for a rally up to what your edge defines as a resistance level to be a seller on the 30-minute chart. Your objective is to determine, in a down- trending market, how far it can rally on an intraday basis and still not violate the symmetry of the longer trend. In an up-trending market, your objective is to determine how far it can sell off on an intraday basis without violating the symmetry of the longer trend. There's usually very little risk associated with these intraday support and resistance points, because you don't have to let the market go very far beyond them to tell you the trade isn't working.

8a8b6cdcb86b2b53db19c8d3bbfdd466

NarrativeText

Taking Profits. Believe it or not, of all the skills one needs to learn to be a consistently successful trader, learning to take profits is probably the most difficult to master. A multitude of personal, often very complicated psychological factors, as well as the effectiveness of one's market analysis, enter into the equation. Unfortunately, sorting out this complex matrix of issues goes way beyond the scope of this book. I point this out so that those of you who might be inclined to beat yourselves up for leaving money on the table can relax and give yourselves a break. Even after you've acquired all the other skills, it might take a very long time before you get this one down pat. Don't despair. There is a way to