Janice Dorn, MD, PhD
Neuropsychological Trading Coach
Janice Dorn, M.D., Ph.D., has been a full-time futures trader since 1994. Doctor Janice holds an M.D. in psychiatry and is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in general psychiatry and addiction psychiatry. She holds a Ph.D. in brain anatomy. A graduate of Coach University, she is a pioneer market psychiatrist and financial neurobehaviorist. Doctor Janice has written over 500 articles on the financial markets and coached over 600 traders worldwide. She is the Global Risk Strategist for Ingenieux Wealth Management Group, Sydney, Australia.
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FAILURE TO KEEP STUDYING, LEARNING AND GROWING
The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn...Alvin Toffler ( Future Shock)
This blunder is one of my favorites because it embodies the idea of continual enrichment of self as critical to success as a trader or investor. It is a recurring and powerful theme in my monthly Trading Wisdom Newsletter, and this is just a snippet.
As a Medical Doctor, I went through this training post high school: four years of college, four years of medical school, one year of internship, two years of residency in anesthesiology, one year of fellowship in cancer pain management, three years of residency in psychiatry. That is a total of 15 years, and about right for most medical specialists and subspecialists ( some do less and some do more). At the end of this period, I started to practice medicine. Practice is the key word here. Several year later, I sat for two separate National Board Examinations and- -you guessed it--I was still practicing. Additionally, medical regulatory agencies require that doctors take a certain number of continuing education courses every year in order to maintain their licenses. So, doctors, no matter how many years away from medical graduation are still practicing ( which means practical clinical learning) and taking seminars and classes (book learning). Physicians and other licensed professionals must make a commitment to life long learning in order to simply keep practicing. When do you stop practicing? When you leave the profession and not one minute sooner.
This is the plan and mindset that a successful trader and investor must adopt. The process is different from that of becoming a doctor or lawyer because, although there are certain rules of trading and several different certifications required for brokers or broker dealers , there are no regulatory agencies which license the majority of traders. In fact, many reading this may not have even thought about getting licensed or certified. Anyone, anywhere, any age or background can put money into a brokerage account, enter the markets and trade. It is this democratization which gives a kind of "wild west" atmosphere to certain activities in the markets. However, in order to be successful and maintain longevity as a trader, it is necessary to read, study, learn and keep reading, studying and learning until the day you stop trading. Being a self-directed trader or investor affords one great freedom, but comes with a price. That price is the commitment to never ever stop learning and practicing.
Read everything and anything. Buy books and read them. Buy books and don't read them, but use them for reference. Attend seminars, talk with other traders and investors, attend book chat, form small groups to discuss technique, approaches, methodologies, philosophies and psychologies, join an online trading room where you have a genius like John Lansing, founder of www.trending123.com guide you and teach you all day every day and share with you his experiences, challenges, victories and frustrations in real market time. Learn from the winners and the losers, ask questions, remain continually curious and fascinated with childlike wonder at the mystery and majesty of the markets.
Above all, learn from your own mistakes and your own victories. Learn what works for you and what doesn't work for you and come to see how your biggest mistakes are your greatest teachers. Keep studying, day after day, and set aside at least two hours a day just for research and study. Learn the language of the markets you trade, how they work and what actually happens when you place orders. Become increasingly sophisticated with your knowledge of markets from a structural point of view, then begin to explore indicators, instruments, platforms, systems, macro, micro and self psychology, fundamentals, cycles, sectors, and anything and everything that you can find. The more you learn, the more you will learn how little you know and the more you will be inspired to keep studying. The more you learn, the more your brain will begin to filter out what is signal and what is noise for you. This is a highly personal activity that is unique to your particular brain structure. Use it, capitalize on it, get comfortable with it until you feel and know what works for you, and you get into a kind of effortless flow. That is what passion, commitment and drive are all about and you need all three to succeed and thrive as a trader
Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient...Eugene S. Wilson
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