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Discouragement Reveals Our Courage

Discouragement is between you and your dreams. Imagine the ways you deal with it in life, business, sports, board games and romance, and then take a tip from deep in the desert. I’ve discovered after living here for two decades that desert rats, as they fondly call themselves, deal with the hardships or heat, privation, and loneliness in eight ways.

1. Books: This is a lifelong plunge.
2. Booze: So is this, so try the other seven first.
3. Exercise: This was my adaptation many years ago; the washes are my sidewalks.
4. Refrigerator People: Live with one hand on the door.
5. Hobby: For most, it’s fixin’ cars.
6. Estivation: Not found in some dictionaries, this is the desert form of hibernation.
7. TV: Hours of it.
8. Sex: Beats watching the cactus grow, or does it?

One of the first questions to ask a person to know them better is: “What do you do in your spare time?” The answer in the desert is always one of the above. And from that you will be discouraged or encouraged. Think of encouragement as a cheerleader that says, “Do it!, Don’t give up!” until you reach your dreams.

12 Signs of Stress for Traders

Markets have been particularly volatile recently, at least for intraday traders and daytrading can create a significant amount of stress. Because our bodies are designed to adapt to stress, we may fail to realize that we are stressed out.
Here’s an inventory of common trader behaviors that may signify excessive stress.
12 Signs of Stress
1. A vivid fantasy of making lots of money today.
2. Feelings of invulnerability.
3. Eating breakfast or lunch at your trading desk.
4. Hyperfocus on price bars as they form.
5. Talking out loud to the market.
6. Bargaining with the market about an open position.
7. Cursing at the market.
8. Expressing irritation at partner, kids, pets, plants, inanimate objects.
9. Sudden urge to increase position size or frequency.
10. Canceling or moving stops for no good reason
11. Adding to a losing position.
12. Trading in your underwear !
TIP: Stress degrades decision-making. If you are stressed out, shift your focus