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The world of trading is full of well meant advice. Unfortunately most of it is either downright useless, hype, or simply not true.
We know the statistics: 95% of all traders fail, most investors do not make money in the long run, when inflation is taken into account, debunking the myth that investing is easier than trading.
There is one truth that permutes all trading and investment challenges though:
NOTHING IS AS CONSTANT AS COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Cognitive dissonance is the root cause of all your trading and investment challenges. This may surprise you, particularly if you have bought into the myth that your trading strategy is the panacea that will lead you to amass riches in not time flat.
Granted, nobody wants to wait for the fulfilment of their (trading) desires:
Impatience, attachment to the outcome, focus on the goal instead of focusing on the path, are typical signs of cognitive dissonance.
We live in a world where the emphasis is on instant results. That is one of the reasons why intra day trading is popular: You can participate with very little money and the promise of big gains.
What is often overlooked is that the overwhelming majority of people are simply unable to deal with the quick succession of change in the markets on a short time frame, causing their (trading) minds to go into total overwhelm. They are unprepared for the emotional roller coaster that is unleashed by the seemingly never changing emotional shifts in response to the charts.
The trading mind goes into fight or flight, the old leftovers from the Neanderthal brain that make one either run away or fight.
Of course, in our modern world you can’t fight, or run away. Faced with this modern day life style the mind is often in total disarray as it lacks appropriate reference points from which it can make calm decisions, born from an inner confidence of certainty only a deeper understanding of how one creates reality can bring.
This total lack of understanding creates huge strain on the mind which is still having to play catch up with modern times, let alone learning to play in the fast moved arena of intra day trading. Having the pressures of short term trading heaped upon the challenges of every day modern living it is not surprising that traders react by chasing trends, exciting too early, or not observing stops instead of being pro-active, calmly following a well defined strategy.
Do you still believe that learning yet another trading strategy is going to solve your trading problems?
Going from trading system to trading system, seeking out even more trading forecasts to help you with your next trading and investment decisions is the plaster that covers up a festering wound.
The best trading system, the best forecasts are of little, or no use while you are still thinking the same way you always thought.
Most traders believe that they can change their trading results while still remaining in the same old holding patterns. They keep thinking the same thoughts, they continue to hang on to the same emotions.
Going the path of least resistance is not in your favour, if you want better trading results.
There is a Buddhist saying that says:“Be like water, my friend….” Being like water refers to one’s ability to go with the flow. However, here is the catch:
You can only go with the flow if you have leant to let got of resistance, fear of change and know how to connect to your inner peace, your inner wisdom, independent from what the collective traders and investors are doing.
In order to trade with consistency you need to let go of the patterns to cause cognitive dissonance.
In other words: Learn to see and think DIFFERENTLY.
Tuning into your inner self is alien to most of you. I should know. I have walked the path too: Trading wasn’t the hardest thing for me to learn. The hardest thing to learn by far was how to let go of the old patterns that had stopped serving me.
Step out of the illusions that pander sto the logical mind that likes to live on hope.
Hope is no strategy, and neither is thinking with your logical mind alone.
When you operate purely from the logical mind, you are operating with half a brain.
You cannot see the complete picture. Just imagine walking with one leg alone. While,yes, it can be done, but it is pretty hard, requiring much effort. Yet, this is what most people do all the time without realising it.
This dissonance makes you fall for the many false promises out there, promising you the holy grail of trading success overnight, You are constantly placing your success outside of you instead of learning strategies to go within and connect with your whole brain and you whole body.
Learning to function from a whole brain and whole body perspective dispels cognitive dissonance. The great news is that you can learn how to do this.
I can’t promise you success over night, but I can promise you from experience that just learning a few simple techniques, like the ones I share in “The Buddhist Trader” will begin to transform the way you think and the way you live your life.
When you do this, you will get so much more from the forecasts you subscribe to. You will be able to digest all the valuable trading information you read on sites like this with a much more discerning mental eye, empowering your ability to trade well and invest well with inner integrity instead of fighting inner value conflicts,
Should this be your number one goal for 2015? I should like to think that your answer is a strong “yes”.
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Mercedes Oestermann van Essen is an active trader, trading psychology coach and the author of “The Buddhist Trader” and other books on trading psychology.
She holds webinars and bespoke trading psychology seminars for high net worth investors, and professional traders. For more information visit: www.TheBuddhistTrader.com
