Archives of “mental processes” tag

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Think Less & Keep It Simple

  
  Education
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Every once in awhile I read something from another trader who I respect that I really wish I wrote myself. Here’s one such example:

 “One of the most difficult things to get investors and traders to understand is that no matter how much they investigate an investment, they will probably do better if they did less. This is certainly counter-intuitive, but the way that our brains function almost guarantees that this will happen. This kind of failure also happens to those investors frequently regarded as the smartest. In essence, the more information that investors have, the more opportunity that they have to choose the misinformation that suits their emotional purposes.

 

Speculation is observation, pure and experiential. Thinking isn’t necessary and often just gets in the way. Yet everywhere we turn, we read and hear opinion after opinion and explanation on top of explanation which claim to connect the dots between economic cause and market effect. Most of the marketplace is long on rationale and explanation and short on methods. (more…)

Toward Understanding Left-Handedness-VIDEO

  
Analysis, Education, Video
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Are you left-handed?  You must know someone who is southpaw.  There are all sorts of superstitions around left-handedness.  Is it a curse?  Is it dirty?  Is it a faulty wiring of the brain ?  Are lefties more creative?  More accident prone?  It seems like we know very little about it. This Cool Video from It’s Okay to Be Smart explains some of the latest thinking on why 10% of the population is left-handed and what it means about the brain’s organization.  The video runs about 5.5 minutes, but it is both entertaining and informative. 

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)-Book Review

  
  Education
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MISTAKES-WERE MADEOne of the best things I came across this  past week was this terrific review by  Morgan Housel where he shared insights  from the book “Mistakes Were Made (But  Bot By Me)” by Elliot Aronson and Carol  Tavris. Several members have  recommended this book to me so I was  very interested to read his review.
According to Mr. Housel, this are the six  most important things all of us should  learn from this book, many of which are  very important to investors and traders alike:

1. Everyone wants to be right and hates admitting the  possibility of being wrong.As fallible human beings, all of us share the impulse to justify  ourselves and avoid taking responsibility for any actions that turn
out to be harmful, immoral, or stupid. Most of us will never be in a  position to make decisions affecting the lives and deaths of  millions of people, but whether the consequences of our mistakes  are trivial or tragic, on a small scale or a national canvas, most of  us find it difficult, if not impossible, to say, “I was wrong; I made a  terrible mistake.”
The higher the stakes — emotional, financial, moral — the greater the difficulty. It goes further than that: Most people, when directly  confronted by evidence that they are wrong, do not change their  point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously. Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce  the mental armor of self-justification.

2. You brain is designed to shut out conflicting information.In a study of people who were being monitored by magnetic  resonance imaging (MRI) while they were trying to process  dissonant or consonant information about George Bush or John Kerry, Drew Westen and his colleagues found that the reasoning  areas of the brain virtually shut down when participants were  confronted with dissonant information, and the emotion circuits of
the brain lit up happily when consonance was restored. These mechanisms provide a neurological basis for the observation that  once our minds are made up, it is hard to change them. (more…)

Think Less & Keep It Simple

  
  Education
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“One of the most difficult things to get investors and traders to understand is that no matter how much they investigate an investment, they will probably do better if they did less. This is certainly counter-intuitive, but the way that our brains function almost guarantees that this will happen. This kind of failure also happens to those investors frequently regarded as the smartest. In essence, the more information that investors have, the more opportunity that they have to choose the misinformation that suits their emotional purposes.

 Speculation is observation, pure and experiential. Thinking isn’t necessary and often just gets in the way. Yet everywhere we turn, we read and hear opinion after opinion and explanation on top of explanation which claim to connect the dots between economic cause and market effect. Most of the marketplace is long on rationale and explanation and short on methods.

A series of experiments to examine the mental processes of doctors who were diagnosing illnesses found little relationship between the thoroughness of data collection and accuracy of the resulting diagnosis. Another study was done with psychologists and patient information and diagnosis. Again, increasing knowledge yielded no better results but did significantly increase confidence, something which the smartest among us are most prone to have in abundance. Unfortunately, in the markets, only the humble survive.

The inference is clear and important. Experienced analysts have an imperfect understanding of what information they actually use in making judgments. They are unaware of the extent to which their judgments are determined by just a few dominant factors, rather than by the systematic integration of all of their available information. Analysts use much less available information than they think they do.

Think Less & Keep It Simple

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

“One of the most difficult things to get investors and traders to understand is that no matter how much they investigate an investment, they will probably do better if they did less. This is certainly counter-intuitive, but the way that our brains function almost guarantees that this will happen. This kind of failure also happens to those investors frequently regarded as the smartest. In essence, the more information that investors have, the more opportunity that they have to choose the misinformation that suits their emotional purposes.

 Speculation is observation, pure and experiential. Thinking isn’t necessary and often just gets in the way. Yet everywhere we turn, we read and hear opinion after opinion and explanation on top of explanation which claim to connect the dots between economic cause and market effect. Most of the marketplace is long on rationale and explanation and short on methods.

A series of experiments to examine the mental processes of doctors who were diagnosing illnesses found little relationship between the thoroughness of data collection and accuracy of the resulting diagnosis. Another study was done with psychologists and patient information and diagnosis. Again, increasing knowledge yielded no better results but did significantly increase confidence, something which the smartest among us are most prone to have in abundance. Unfortunately, in the markets, only the humble survive.

The inference is clear and important. Experienced analysts have an imperfect understanding of what information they actually use in making judgments. They are unaware of the extent to which their judgments are determined by just a few dominant factors, rather than by the systematic integration of all of their available information. Analysts use much less available information than they think they do.

Think Less & Keep It Simple

  
  Education
#  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #  #

Every once in awhile I read something from another trader who I respect that I really wish I wrote myself. Today’s post from Jeff Cooper is a must-read:

“One of the most difficult things to get investors and traders to understand is that no matter how much they investigate an investment, they will probably do better if they did less. This is certainly counter-intuitive, but the way that our brains function almost guarantees that this will happen. This kind of failure also happens to those investors frequently regarded as the smartest. In essence, the more information that investors have, the more opportunity that they have to choose the misinformation that suits their emotional purposes.

 

Speculation is observation, pure and experiential. Thinking isn’t necessary and often just gets in the way. Yet everywhere we turn, we read and hear opinion after opinion and explanation on top of explanation which claim to connect the dots between economic cause and market effect. Most of the marketplace is long on rationale and explanation and short on methods. (more…)

3 Steps For Traders

  
  Education
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So – are you ready?

Are you ready to unlock the greatness that you have within you to succeed as a trader?

Are you doubting that you have what it takes to succeed in the world of trading?

Well, we all have the same ability to succeed, you just have to know how to tap into it. Firstly, you need to understand a little about how you have ended up in the situation you are in now.

….. and let’s assume you are not where you really want to be, right?

Let’s get right to the point and identify what 3 things are influencing EVERYTHING in your life and giving you the results you currently have. (more…)

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