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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"The single most important reason that people lose money in the financial markets is that they don't cut their losses short. It is a curiosity of human nature that, no matter how many books talk about this rule, and no matter how many experts offer this advice, people keep making the same mistake." Victor Sperandeo ( Trader Vic)
This note from subscriber, O.S., points to the importance of being in the real and in the "now" in terms of trading:........before I read your articles, I had been practicing "regrouping" or "next" mental skills and just wanted to thank you for your article explaining how the brain processes memory and training yourself to immediately forget. There are so many mental trading skills that are so useful and healthy for living in general. Sometimes just a few words or a different viewpoint can reveal the obscure."
If you take a position, and it is a losing position, cut it short and forget it. Take it off your screens and move on. If you are in a winning position, let it run. Take partial profits if the stock moves in your favor, but keep some and let your winnings accumulate.
It doesn't matter if you get in at the bottom or out at the top. It only matters that you are "with the trade" and that you follow the trade until you are out of it.
One major reason most people lose money in the markets is that they sell winners too quickly, and hold on to losers too long. The reasons behind this are complex.
Since childhood, some of you have been told that you were not " good enough." This message took many forms, but it left you with the thought that, no matter what you did, it was never enough. So, you tried and tried to succeed. Even if you did not, you kept hoping that you would succeed in order to demonstrate to those that gave the messages to you that you really were good enough and smart enough and successful enough.
So- you keep trying and trying. And failing. The harder you try, the more you fail. But you keep HOPING that you will get it right. You will succeed if you just keep doing what you are doing. That, of course, is insanity. If you keep doing and thinking the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, you will keep getting what you are getting. Failure.
At some point, you began to believe these negative messages and they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You are not good enough and you deserve to lose. The desire to fail is very powerful. You may not be aware of it consciously, but subconsciously, it is living up to the expectations that were placed upon you as a child, and which you carry with you into adulthood.
How crazy are you, Doctor Janice? Are you telling me that I am, in a sense, programmed to lose?
Yes. That is what I am telling you. That is the reason that you hold onto losing and self-defeating aspects of your life, including jobs, interpersonal relationships and stocks. That is why you do not have the courage to break away from old habits which put you in a negative framework and lead to more losing.
That is why, when you see gains, you are shocked and know that you better take them right now, because you are destined to lose them if you do not. That is why you hold onto losing positions, because you know that they are losing and that is your lifelong modus operandi, but you have HOPE that they may not actually be losing, or that something you do or say or think will change that. Or that you will be magically "rescued" from your losing ways.
Unfortunately, none of this is going to happen.
Be they stocks, commodities or human beings, the weak get weaker and the strong get stronger.
IF you have a challenge like this, look inside of you for the solution. All of the answers are within you.
Stop holding onto the past, since it is history. Do not look to the future, since it is a mystery. All you have is right now, this moment, today.
That is why we call the present a gift. The present is your opportunity to make yourself strong. Make yourself a winner.
In order to move through this and to adopt a winning mindset, it is essential that you throw off all negative messages from the past.
It is time to grow up, to put childish attitudes and concepts aside. When it comes time to do your own life, you either perpetuate your childhood or you stand on it and finally kick it out from under.
You are more powerful than you will ever know, but you must give the power to yourself. No one and nothing can give power to you.
This does not happen overnight, because time takes time. BUT, if you apply yourself, tell yourself that you do have worth, that you are a winner and that no one can bring you down, you are on the way. It's about progress, baby steps every day.
If you think you are beaten, you are. If you think you dare not, you won't If you would like to win, but think you can't...you won't
The winners in life and in the markets are not the strongest, the fastest or the brightest..They are those who believe in themselves and live and breathe an authentic winning mindset.
You need to claim the events in your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality. ..Florida Scott-Maxwell
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