TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

• You will no longer be susceptible to the multitude of fear-based errors that come from rationalizing


  subconsciously distorting information hesitating jumping the gun or hoping.
• Instead of learning to think like traders


  they think about how they can make more money by learning about the markets. It’s almost impossible not to fall into this trap.
• The consistency you seek is in your mind


  not in the markets. It’s attitudes and beliefs about being wrong losing money and the tendency to become reckless when you’re feeling good that cause most losses—not technique or market knowledge.
• Attitude produces better overall results than analysis or technique. Of course


  the ideal situation is to have both but you really don’t need both because if you have the right attitude—the right mind-set—then everything else about trading will be relatively easy even simple and certainly a lot more fun.
• Even though you cannot force or will yourself into a zone


  you can set up the kind of mental conditions that are most conducive to experiencing “the zone” by developing a positive winning attitude.
• When two opponents are evenly matched


  what’s the factor that tips the balance one way or the other? In both cases the answer is attitude.
• Completely accepted the risk


  meaning that he has considered and accounted for all of what would otherwise be the unacceptable possibilities in the market’s behavior both financially and emotionally. With these beliefs and expectations it is unlikely that he would experience a deterioration of his attitude and would simply go on to the next trade. By the way this is an example of an ideal set of trading beliefs and attitudes.
• Expectations are our mental representations of how some future moment in the environment is going to looksound feel smell or taste. Depending upon how much energy is behind the expectation it can hurt a lot when it isn’t fulfilled.
• It’s a fundamental shift in attitude that accounts for their success

  not some brilliant realization about the market as most people erroneously assume.
• Notice how our trader is blaming the markets for losing or what he didn’t get. Notice


  too how natural it is to feel the way he does.
• Felt betrayed because many of these situations were completely unexpected or unanticipated


  meaning we were unprepared for how some people in our lives had the potential to behave.
• If we haven’t learned to accept the inherent risks of trading and don’t know how to guard against making these natural connections between our past and the present

  we will end up blaming the market for our results instead of taking responsibility for them.
• If the market is a group of people interacting to extract money from one another

  then what is the market’s responsibility to the individual trader? It has no responsibility other than to follow the rules it has established to facilitate this activity.
• Taking responsibility means acknowledging and accepting


  at the deepest part of your identity that you—not the market—are completely responsible for your success or failure as a trader.
• If you ever find yourself blaming the market and feeling betrayed

  that is essentially what you are doing. You are expecting the collective actions of everyone participating in the market to make the market act in a way that gives you what you want.
• Taking anything less than complete responsibility sets up two major psychological obstacles that will block your success. First

  you will establish an adversarial relationship with the market that takes you out of the constant flow of opportunities. Second you will mislead yourself into believing that your trading problems and lack of success can be rectified through market analysis.
• It feels natural to assign the market the power of an outside force that either gives or takes away. But consider the fact that the market presents its information from a neutral perspective. That means the market doesn’t know what you want or expect


  nor does it care.
• From the market’s perspective


  each moment is neutral; to you the observer every moment and price change can have meaning.
• If you perceive the endless stream of opportunities to enter and exit trades without self-criticism and regret


  then you will be in the best frame of mind to act in your own best interest and learn from your experiences.
• The reality is you are simply fighting the negative consequences of not fully accepting that the market owes you nothing and that you need to take advantage of the opportunities it presents by yourself


  100 percent and not one degree less.
• The sudden shift from joy to pain usually creates quite a psychological shock. Very few people ever learn how to reconcile these kinds of experiences in a healthy way. Techniques are available


  but they aren’t widely known. The typical response in most people especially in the type of person attracted to trading is revenge.
• Knowing something about the market can prevent him from experiencing pain or can help satisfy his desire for revenge or to prove something; he sealed his fate to become a loser.
• You will view as painful any information the market generates that is in opposition to what will make you happy.
• Learning about the markets will not compensate for the negative effects our pain-avoidance mechanisms have on our trading.
• We don’t know at a conscious level that our pain-avoidance mechanisms are either excluding or altering the information being offered by the market.
• The first reaction that traders universally have when looking back at such a trade is


  “Why didn’t I just take my loss and reverse?” The opportunity to put on a trade in the opposite direction was easily recognized once there was nothing at stake. But we were blinded to this opportunity while we were in the trade because at that time the information indicating it was an opportunity was defined as painful so we blocked it from our awareness.
• The problem is that preventing pain by avoiding losses can’t be done. The market generates behavior patterns and the patterns repeat themselves


  but not every time. So again there is no possible way to avoid losing or being wrong.
• Went from a carefree state of mind to a prevent-and-avoid mode of thinking; he shifted from a positive to a negative attitude.
• The more he has to win and not lose


  the less tolerance he will have for any information that might indicate he is not getting what he wants.
• Euphoria and self-sabotage are two powerful psychological forces that will have an extremely negative effect on your bottom line. But


  they are not forces you have to concern yourself with until you start winning or start winning on a consistent basis and that’s a big problem.
• The more you learn


  the more confident you will naturally become in your ability to win. As your confidence grows the more likely that at some point you will cross the threshold into euphoria and start the cycle all over again.
• Mysteries of being successful


  is that if you win you may still be terminal; that is if you win and you haven’t learned how to create a healthy balance between confidence and restraint or you haven’t learned how to recognize and compensate for any potential you have to self-destruct you will sooner or later lose.
• Probably one of the hardest concepts for traders to effectively assimilate is that the market doesn’t create your attitude or state of mind; it simply acts as a mirror reflecting what’s inside back to you.
• Take responsibility for the outcome


  and extract the insight that’s been made available. You maintain your confident state of mind simply because you are constantly learning.
• Definition of a winning attitude: a positive expectation of your efforts with an acceptance that whatever results you get are a perfect reflection of your level of development and what you need to learn to do better.
• You are not responsible for what the market does or doesn’t do

  but you are responsible for everything else that results from your trading activities.
• Not only does a winning attitude open you up to what you need to learn; it also produces the kind of mind-set that is most conducive to discovering something no one else has experienced.
• Understanding the markets will give you the edge you need to create some winning trades


  but your edge won’t make you a consistent winner if you don’t have a winning attitude.
• Resolve from this point forward to do it all yourself; the market can no longer be your opponent.
• Taking responsibility is the cornerstone of a winning attitude.