I managed to finish the book last night/this morning. Me and my crazy sleep/lack of sleep patterns.
The book has a lot of practical information and guidance, but as I mentioned yesterday, the idea that has had the most impact on my thinking was the shift of responsibility away from the markets and onto myself. I am not sure that I can explain it very well, but this idea has allowed me to transfer expectations away from the market and focus them on myself as a trader. How can I expect anything from the market?
If this doesn't ring true for you, I am sure something else will; as Mr. Douglas does an excellent job of explaining, everyone's 'ah-hah' moments are different based on the unique set of beliefs we bring to the discussion. If I had to summarize the book (which would do it no justice whatsoever): consistent traders have no expectations as to what will happen next, and don't need expectations in order to make money. Mr Douglas's book is full of simple and excellent examples.
This brings me to the expectation I have placed on myself: I expect to consistently place no expectations on the market; e.g., I expect to take full responsibility for profit or loss.
Which leads into another fascinating concept discussed in the book, and for lack of a better term, I will call it the power of positive thinking. I am sure that a lot of traders are familiar with the idea, I was. But I didn't understand the real power behind it. As a step in taking ownership (and subsequent application) of this idea, I would like to try and explain what I understand Mr. Douglas to be teaching.
The idea starts with our senses and their ability to collect information (energy) from our environment. Our senses relay this information to our brain which in turn forms memories (structured energy). These memories in turn become concepts as we give the memories descriptions (language structure), and subsequently, beliefs, as we begin to apply concepts to our environment. And that is key - beliefs are internal, self-generated, and unique prescriptions of the environment - and - constrained by the extent of each person's experience. The problem is that we use our beliefs as filters for any subsequent sensory input. I will use Mr. Douglas's young child and dog example. Let's say that a young boy is seeing a dog for the first time. Driven by his natural curiosity, he will want to know more (collect sensory info) about the dog. For the sake of the discussion, say that the dog bites the boy and in fact has to be pulled off of the boy. This generates an overload of sensory information for the boy (primarily pain) which in turn becomes a memory. The next time the boy comes into contact with a dog, his memories will materialize as a belief about dogs (internal prescription) - 'Dogs cause pain' and his built in self-protection mechanism will tell the boy that dogs should be feared. In all respects, this is the absolute truth about dogs as far as the boy is concerned. Even if the next dog that the boy encounters happens to be a friendly dog, the boy will, and can only, respond out of his 'truth' about dogs. The belief, and it is only the belief (an internal prescription of the external environment), is what causes the boy to respond with fear. It is only by overcoming/replacing this belief with another belief (one closer to reality in this case) that the boy will be rid of his fear of dogs.
Amazing huh? As applied to trading, this means that the only thing keeping me from being a consistent and fearless trader are my beliefs surrounding trading. And, as Mr. Douglas points out so very well, the biggest problem for traders is the expectation they bring and place on the market.
Where does this leave me for the foreseeable future? Changing my belief system. I feel I probably have a long ways to go, but I the goal is to identify and channel energy away from my 'market responsibility' thought patterns and into 'my responsibility' thought patterns. I am sure there are several logistical problems to work out, but I think I have taken the first step. Let's see how the today goes.
Trade well.
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