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.
|
TRADING WISDOM
HUMAN BE-INGS
"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish"...John Quincy Adams
There is an old Zen Koan that says: Don't just do something...sit there.
How appropriate for these markets.
The most difficult thing for traders to do is to sit there and wait. Why? Because we are in a society that is on a total dopamine binge, and this is never more clearly manifested than by those who absolutely HAVE to be in the markets at all times, absolutely NEED to be trading, and absolutely CANNOT WAIT. They are human do-ings.
There is a wonderful advantage to waiting. It allows you to be neutral, it frees you from always looking for bearish or bullish views to justify your positions. Granted, you are not making money, but you are also ( and much more importantly) not losing it. You can take time to reflect, to study, to adopt some healthy exercise and dietary habits, to learn more about the many tools available to you on www.trending123.com, and to be a better person. Just waiting without stress for the right opportunity allows you, in a way to be like an invisible observer of the scene around you. It frees you from active involvement in the chaotic and often reckless behavior of others in the markets, and it puts you and your trading plan into clear perspective. It allows you to see yourself as a human-being, rather than a human do-ing.
When you first started trading, what did you hear constantly? Preserve your capital. Preserve your capital. You heard it, but maybe you did not listen, or did not understand. If you have no financial capital to use, you are out of the game. If you are chasing or getting in just to get in and are getting whipsawed daily and you are losing, drip by drip or in larger chunks, you are out of the game. If you wait, take time, assess the situation and then pounce like a jaguar at the right opportunity, your chances for trader longevity increase significantly. You have preserved your financial capital, and deployed it appropriately with a good risk/reward ratio.
BUT, there is something that many do not recognize about capital. It is both financial and psychological.
Your financial capital is critical, of course. Money is money and money buys stuff and makes people happy. However, money is a byproduct of the great game of trading.
You psychological capital is at the essence of the person you are....both as a trader or an investor AND as a human being. The number one rule of trading is: Preserve your psychological capital. This means making yourself strong and healthy...emotionally, spiritually, physically and intellectually.
This means standing apart from yourself and looking at yourself with a critical eye, almost as if you were advising someone else what to do, how to trade or how to live.
This is the most difficult journey you have as a trader. Your psychological capital is all you really have. You can go out and earn more money, you can turn your money over to someone else to manage it for you, you can stop trading and invest in some new activity. You have infinite choices about what to do with your money. But- you have only one body, one mind and one spirit. When they are distressed, sleep-deprived, contaminated with continual worrisome thoughts or in a toxic state because of bad food, bad environment or bad relationships, then you have nothing but despair, self-loathing, anger, depression and lots of things around you seem to be falling apart.
I was thrilled the other day to hear that there are several people in the trading room who feel "the best I ever have!" They were exercising, eating more clean, healthy foods, taking longer trading breaks and in a wonderful state of preserving psychological capital.
In the end, if you lose your health, you lose everything. Money might be able to assuage this misery, somewhat like putting a bandage on a great gaping wound. But, the wound breaks open, becomes infected and just gets systemically worse unless you deal with the source of it. As always, you have the power to be the best you can be...in every aspect of life. It's really quite awesome when you think about it. You are the problem and you are the solution. Go for it! It just doesn't get any better than that. Find the freedom and serenity that accrues to you when you refurbish and restore your psychological capital. If you want to hear about Mad Money infotainment insanity, you know where to find that...time, channel, and big shout-outs.
If you want to get a true picture of who you really are, what you are capable of doing and becoming as a trader and a human being, then stop looking outside of yourself. Go within, as the answers are all there. I promise you that it will be the most amazing journey of your life.
"Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win"...Bernadette Devlin
|
