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Strategies & Market Trends : Trade What You See, Not What You Think -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Threei who wrote (416)	2/13/2001 9:29:05 AM
From: Moving Sphere	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 867

FC and Threei, you are welcome. :-) >>"I had to go through basic beliefs correction by listing them and writing down "mantras" that worded beliefs I wanted to ingrain. I was repeating them during meditation, physical exercises etc. I still return to it when I feel that some of those 'settings' need to be reinforced."<< Threei, what you suggested above is an excellent way of reprogramming yourself to get out of our unproductive belief system. IMHO, since I'm not a psychologist, by immersing ourselves into some kind of positive thought "mantras" thru repetition, we are in fact exercising self-hypnosis. Couple with positive visualization, change may occur faster. This is what I am doing constantly to keep myself from falling back to old habits (or beliefs). Thought I would clarify some more on my experience.... >>"My deep conviction on that one stock (I did loaded up quite a bit on it) gave me my opening break and my deep conviction of another stock gave me the second break for selling."<< The second stock that I went in after I sold the first one with a profit was another great learning experience altogether. Remember, it was for the wrong reason that I sold the first profitable stock. I sold in order to buy another one, not because I had a profit objective. I rode the second stock way up as well; but this time I wasn't lucky enough to sell for another nice profit due to my lack of profit objective. You could say this second stock was my important lesson in learning about paralyzed greed. Although, at the time, I didn't even realized I was paralyzed by greed! Yes, initially, I had a lot of rationale for justifying my hanging on to my losing position. I suffered several months of paper losses before the stock finally made it back up to a profitable position. During these several months, I did a lot of thinking and realized that this was no way to sit thru a stock position. I began to start questioning my own discipline. I also started paying attention to my thought process in regard to my stock position. I began to have these productive self-review because I knew my mental barrier was broken. I knew then that I needed to have a more disciplinary approach to keep my original profit. Going thru the ups and downs of my second stock position gave me a chance to really observe myself in a better light. And it was then that I made a vow to myself- that when my second stock went back up to a profitable position, I would sell it immediately when the trend reversed again. I vowed not to be in the same situation again EVER! This was when I learned the importance of NOT making the same mistake TWICE. After getting out of that second position with my original profit intact, I began to practice cutting my losses as quickly as I could. One of the "hook" in the paralyzed greed emotion is the fear of missing the run-up when you're out of the stock position. The thought "If I take my loss now, I'm sure it will take off without me!" was a major impediment for me to cut my losses in the past. So, I decided to change my thought process and said to myself, "OK, better to take my losses now, I sure don't want to be in the same situation with my second stock. If this takes off without me, well... so be it. It's not the end of the world. I'm sure it will retrace back enough for me to jump back in." After awhile, taking losses became easier. Sure I did miss quite a few run; but overall, I also saw how I saved myself from major losses. And it was then that I began to stop reviewing my completed trade. Hindsight had a way in messing up my head. My regular ego would go nut over some missed runs. So, in a slow and painful way, I learned to just ignore the hindsight after the completed trade and started looking for the next setup. Thus for me, in a way, moving on after a trade also facilitate my ability to take losses quickly. Once you stop worrying about missing a run in your favor, taking losses become very easy. And it is from this foundation that I started to train my disciplined ego. OK, time for me to get off the soap box... <g> Have a good trading day! Cheers! :-)