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Archives of “taking responsibility” tag
rssTrading Decision-Making Process
There is a huge difference between a wish and a decision. A wish is a negative and puts the trader in a frozen state waiting for something to happen (generally associated with trying to get even on losing trades). That is negatively charged energy. Decisions, on the other hand, are positively charged energy. It makes the trader take action. Taking action is taking responsibility. You alone are responsible for your current mental state or condition. Decisions can be both good and bad of course. The sooner the trader realized the bad decision, the sooner they can act to correct it.
The first step in the decision-making process is to realize that what you are doing is not working. Remember that falling down is a positive motions is you bounce right back. Make a list of the positive and negative things that will happen when you take action on the decision.
Don’t expect instant gratification if you make the decision. Decision-making is a process that begins with the first step but these steps are the foundation for a stronger behavioral structure. This structure will give you the confidence in your trading. Confidence plays a key role in successful trading. Having the confidence necessary for successful trading can help the trader in difficult trading environments. Whereas one trader lacking confidence and good decision-making skills may be frozen and unable to act, the trader who has taken the time to build this foundation will be prepared to take the appropriate actions.
Many times specific decisions a trader makes will not yield profits, they will result in a loss, but more importantly, it will position the trader to be able to recognize and act on the next opportunity. Practicing and applying this process will pay dividends throughout your lifetime.
Secret to trading success: You
“You are the weakest part of your system”. That is a defeatist statement and completely untrue. It makes your expectation to fail easier to accomplish and more importantly it makes failure easier to handle. It shifts the pressure away from you and unto fate.
Would you fly on an airline if their motto was “Our pilots are the weakest part.” I do not think so. You are your system. Even if your system is automated you added the inputs, parameters.
Taking responsibility for your action is not easy. Taking control of the outcomes of trading or life is a huge responsibility. You will have moments of weakness, but you are not weak. The market does not go straight up and either does the road to success.
12 Quotes From ‘Trading In The Zone'
1. Attitude produces better overall results than analysis or technique.
2. Positive winning attitude = expecting a positive result from your efforts, with an acceptance that whatever results you get are a perfect reflection of your level of development and what you need to learn to get better.
3. Winning in any endeavour is mostly a function of attitude.
4. Losing and being wrong are inevitable realities of trading.
5. The market has no responsibility towards the individual trader. Taking responsibility means acknowledging and accepting, at the deepest part of your identity, that you – not the market – are completely responsible for your success or failure as a trader.
6. If you perceive the endless stream of opportunities to enter and exit trades without self-criticism and regret, then you will be in the best frame of mind to act in your own best interest and learn from your experiences.
7. You will need to learn how to adjust your attitudes and beliefs about trading in such a way that you can trade without the slightest bit of fear, but at the same time keep a framework in place that does not allow you to become reckless.
8. Trading is an activity that offers the individual unlimited freedom of creative expression.
9. The unlimited characteristics of the trading environment require that we act with some degree of restraint and self-control, at least if we want to create some measure of consistent success.
10. The hard reality of trading is that, if you want to create consistency, you have to start from the premise that no matter what the outcome, you are completely responsible.
11. One of the principal reasons so many successful people have failed miserably at trading is that their success is partly attributable to their superior ability to manipulate and control the social environment, to respond to what they want. (Unfortunately) the market doesn’t respond to control and manipulation (unless you’re a very large trader).
12. The tools you will use to create this new version of yourself are your willingness and desire to learn, fuelled by your passion to be successful. Successful traders have virtually eliminated the effects of fear and recklessness from their trading.
Trading Decision
There is a huge difference between a wish and a decision. A wish is a negative and puts the trader in a frozen state waiting for something to happen (generally associated with trying to get even on losing trades). That is negatively charged energy. Decisions, on the other hand, are positively charged energy. It makes the trader take action. Taking action is taking responsibility. You alone are responsible for your current mental state or condition. Decisions can be both good and bad of course. The sooner the trader realized the bad decision, the sooner they can act to correct it.
The first step in the decision-making process is to realize that what you are doing is not working. Remember that falling down is a positive motions is you bounce right back. Make a list of the positive and negative things that will happen when you take action on the decision.
Don’t expect instant gratification if you make the decision. Decision-making is a process that begins with the first step but these steps are the foundation for a stronger behavioral structure. This structure will give you the confidence in your trading. Confidence plays a key role in successful trading. Having the confidence necessary for successful trading can help the trader in difficult trading environments. Whereas one trader lacking confidence and good decision-making skills may be frozen and unable to act, the trader who has taken the time to build this foundation will be prepared to take the appropriate actions.
WHAT WALL STREET CAN LEARN FROM COWBOYS
James P. Owen, a 40 year veteran on Wall Street, has written a interesting book entitled Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From the Code of the West. In it he lists the 10 codes of the working cowboy, explaining how each code can be a source of inspiration for all those involved in Wall Street, from traders to institutions. Along with the message are beautiful photographs throughout by David Stoecklein. You could actually classify this as a trader’s coffee table book. Here are the codes:
1. Live Each Day With Courage. Real courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway, setting aside the fear of the unknown knowing there is work to be done.
2. Take Pride in Your Work. Cowboying doesn’t build character, it reveals it. Stock trading brings out what is already there: pride in the preparation.
3. Always Finish What You Start. When you’re riding through hell…keep riding. Good stock traders, like cowboys, never quit in the face of uncertainty.
4. Do What Has to be Done. The true test of a man’s honor was how much he would risk to keep it intact. Stock trading is about taking responsibility for decisions and results, just like the cowboys.
5. Be Tough, But Fair. The Golden Rule was nothing less than a key to survival. Cowboys always treated others with respect, especially those who differed. Should we not do the same, whether bull or bear?
6. When You Make a Promise Keep It. A man is only as good as his word. You have no one to trust but yourself and when you have rules they are there for you to follow. If you do not, then you have broken a promise to yourself. Same with traders as with cowboys.
7. Ride For The Brand. The cowboy’s greatest devotion was to his calling and his way of life. If you have clients, the clients come first; if you have family depending on your discipline, then they come first. Period.
8. Talk Less and Say More. When there’s nothing more to say, don’t be saying it. No room for bragging or boasting out on the range or in the market. Your work, devotion, and steadfastness speaks for itself. Enough said.
9. Remember That Some Things Are Not For Sale. To the cowboy, the best things in life aren’t “things.” What matters most on the range and in the trading room is not what money can buy but what can’t be bought. Reputation is all that really matters.
10. Know Where to Draw the Line. There is right and there is wrong, and nothing in between. Insider trading, whispers, rumors, secret deals behind close doors, and all manner of questionable activities may be all around us but we do not have to embrace them as our own.
Of all the places to learn a few lessons about investing and ourselves, is it not refreshing to find a few on the open range from a time not so long ago?
The secret to trading success: You.
You are the weakest part of your system. It is a defeatist statement. It makes your expectation to fail easier to accomplish and more importantly it makes failure easier to handle. It shifts the pressure away from you and unto fate. Would you fly on an airline if their motto was “Our pilots are the weakest part.” I do not think so. You are your system. Even if your system is automated you added the inputs, parameters. Taking responsibility for your action is not easy. Taking control of the outcomes of trading or life is a huge responsibility. You will have moments of weakness, but you are not weak. The market does not go straight up and either does the road to success. |
5 Qualities of the Top Super Traders
1. A belief that you create your results in life.
Most people don’t understand this concept. They repeat the same mistakes over and over again because they blame their mistakes on external factors. For example, if you blame your bankruptcy in one of my marble games on the person who pulled the 5R marble against you, you are not taking responsibility for your position sizing error of risking 20% (or more!) of your equity on a single trade. Consequently, you’ll repeat this mistake over and over again and there will always be someone to blame for pulling the 5R marble against you.
Conversely, top traders are constantly determining how they produced their results and working to correct their mistakes. They create their reality.
2. The interest and desire to really understand yourself.
You cannot understand how you create your own results if you don’t know yourself intimately. I believe that most people live their lives like the automatons in the movie, The Matrix. They just do their thing, not realizing how much they have been programmed by their culture, and their family and friends rather than understanding that they always have a choice in everything.
The great traders I know continually study and challenge themselves, their thinking, their actions, and their reactions.
3. Discipline to continually work to improve yourself.
Top traders often have a passion to work on themselves. A good trader will probably complete the Peak Performance Course once or twice and internalize many aspects of it. A top trader, or a potential top trader, will go through the course many times and develop a discipline that involves spending 1-4 hours each day working on improving himself or herself. (more…)
The secret to trading success: You.
The secret to trading success: You.
You are the weakest part of your system. It is a defeatist statement. It makes your expectation to fail easier to accomplish and more importantly it makes failure easier to handle. It shifts the pressure away from you and unto fate.
Would you fly on an airline if their motto was “Our pilots are the weakest part.” I do not think so. You are your system. Even if your system is automated you added the inputs, parameters.
Taking responsibility for your action is not easy. Taking control of the outcomes of trading or life is a huge responsibility. You will have moments of weakness, but you are not weak. The market does not go straight up and either does the road to success.