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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Blunder Number 7: FAILURE TO LEARN AND PRACTICE PATIENCE
One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life...Chinese Proverb
Our society is driven increasingly by the need for speed and incessant movement. As such, we are becoming increasingly dopamine-driven and psychophysiologically destabilized. What does this mean to you as a trader, investor and human being?
Everything is faster today than it was a few hours ago. Technology is advancing at a logarithmic rate and we are becoming more and more addicted to and unable to separate from technology. Every person reading this has a computer and is wondering what to do about the increasing number of e-mail and instant communications which require response now. Almost every person reading this has access to some kind of trading platform, trading tools or systems which afford instant access to the financial markets. Almost every person reading this knows that the Pavlovian bell will ring to open the casino on Monday, and he or she will be waiting for an opportunity to pounce on this or that trade based on this or that hot tip based on this or that piece of information which he or she received at almost the same time that millions of other people received it.
It means that we want it all and we want it yesterday. Today's news has its fifteen or fewer minutes of fame and then flames out as we continue to be bombarded with the next piece of information and then the next and then the next. It is fashionable to be totally busy all the time. We are hypertexting, hypercommunicating, hypercomputing and hyperliving. As a logical corollary, many are hypertrading.
Do you see yourself in any of following mindsets? Have you ever done or thought anything like this? If you have not, then please stop reading since you have attained trading mastery and don't need any words from me:
No time to wait for setups. It looks like it might work, so I am going to get in now.
No time to wait for this to play out, I have a small profit and it might turn around and go against me, so I am going to get out now.
My position went against me, and it looks bad so even though it did not break support and the downage was on light volume, I better get out now.
The markets are running away without me. I have to find something so I can get in now. Just about anything should work and the most important issue that I don't miss out on this great move, so I am going to just buy something now.
This setup looks good and I just made some cash on the last two trades and am feeling pretty good, so it's OK for me to deviate from my system. and get in now.
I lost a lot on the last two trades, and am feeling pretty lousy about the losses so I need to get into something and maybe double up now to try to get it back now.
I don't have time to wait for setups since I can only trade a couple of hours in the morning before I go to work, so I have to do something now.
I am leaving this frigging service because I want to be trading all day. The markets are here now and I want and need to be in and out of stuff all day so that I can make bank now.
I am feeling so bored right now and just need to put on a trade in order to do something.
The litany is endless, and, at it's very core represents the inability to contemplate, to move at a considered pace, to wait for opportunity and to just plain have patience. At it's foundation, impatience is a subset of fear and greed and is among the most common reasons for trader and investor failure.
More insidiously, the inability to be patient and wait for trades to come to you or to work out for you, coupled with the continual need to be always doing something in the markets is a form of compulsive gambling. Not speculation, not rigorous systematic trading, but gambling. Not good.
In future editions of my monthly Trading Wisdom Newsletter, I will address in detail the corrolaries between obsessive compulsive trading and pathological gambling. I will also offer specific antidotes to this dis-ease and show you specifically what you can do right now ( how's that for instant gratification?) to cultivate an attitude of mindful contemplation which will enable you to attain higher levels of awareness, patience and trading success.
The journey to trading mastery is a marathon, not a sprint. It is time to slow down, breathe deeply,become a distant observer of yourself, and take a good look at what you are doing to dopamine your life.
Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water clears. They remain unmoving until the right time, so the right action arises by itself. They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all things...Dan Millman
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