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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"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms? To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." Viktor Frankl
Perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting and organizing sensory information. It is the way you see the world, and the way you see yourself in the world.
Emotion is the greatest road-block to perception because a thought moves first through the emotional ( primitive, rat) area of the brain before it moves on to higher (new, cortical) brain centers for processing.
I continue to say that emotion is the greatest enemy of the trader, particularly the emotions of greed and fear. This is not to say that emotions are not important. They are. They are what makes us human. However, in order to trade or invest effectively, it is necessary to remove as many emotions ( both positive and negative) as possible since they will affect your perception adversely.
How do you do this?
First, become aware. Monitor yourself and your emotions through the trading day. See how you move from greed to fear, from satisfaction to frustration, from feeling good about yourself to beating up on yourself. Monitor yourself and what you are feeling. Take note of your posture, your hands, the set of your mouth, your surrounding. Are you relaxed and centered, or are you in whipsaw and chaos. You are your trade.
"A verse from the Veda says, 'What you see, you become.' In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement." Deepak Chopra
If you are watching every tick of your position, you are joining in and receiving the emotions of every other person who is watching. Their emotions may not be the same as yours, but every tick represents mass emotion. There is almost nothing that wears down psychological capital as much as watching every tick. Some of the best and most relaxed and successful traders do not use real time charts. They plan the trade, get in, set stops and do something else.
For these individuals, trading is a business. They take risks at the appropriate time, and they also take measures to reduce their risk. They spend their most valuable commodity ( time) looking for ways to improve their business ( trading system), to capitalize on market inefficiencies or to strengthen their psychological and physical capital. They conserve energy by removing themselves from the noise and focusing on results. If the trade does not work, they are out and waiting for the next opportunity. They do not have to be doing something all the time. They wait, plan, strategize and the execute. If it works, they do more of the same. If it does not work, they review, regroup, re-strategize and try again when the opportunity presents itself.
In order to minimize the emotional charge of the markets and the drain that is places on your psychological and physical capital, it really helps to remove yourself from yourself. Get out of your ego and observe yourself from a distance. Take this opportunity to make yourself strong and stronger every day. You are stronger than you really know. You have more courage than you really know you have, and you are more powerful than you really know. It is all about how your emotions trick you, deplete you and drain you.
Trade like a robot. Trade like a wolverine (Trading Wisdom) See yourself as strong. See that you can endure by cutting losses ( emotional, financial and physical) and perceiving yourself as a winner.
"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." Marcus Aurelius
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