200 is plenty in the operating room
The large room gives the impression that it’s part of an abandoned hospital. In the middle there is an operating table, obviously very old, it has a steel frame with brown leather restraining straps and oversized wheels. There is nothing else in the room. There are no windows, the only light is provided by the glow of a projection of a giant 5min EUR/USD chart on the ceiling above. As the current candle moves there is a flicker. There is no sign of a projector or any other technology in the room.
There are no staff in the room, no voices in the distance, banging doors or any of the noises you would expect to hear in a hospital, in fact there is no sound at all. If you you put you hands over your ears and press as hard as you can and then remove the “worrring”, thats whats lack of sound feels like.
You didn’t even see that there was a figure on the operating table did you?
Slight pause
You: It’s me isn’t it?
How can it be you? You’re reading this on baby pips.
You: I don’t know how. i just know.
The lone figure seems to be oblivious to the restraints and the 5 min chart on the ceiling above him. He’s staring at it but it’s doubtful that he sees the 5th candle forming a range above the 00 big figure, or the 97% margin used warning.
You: That’s my account isn’t it, it’s my money?
Equity £202.16
You: I’m feeling really uncomfortable, i’m actually really starting to feel ill. Lets stop this.
That’s not how this works i’m afraid. You see those 2 doors to the left? Sometime between now and the end of today that operating table will wheel itself through one of them. Look at the floor, see how most of the marks lead to the door on the left? It’s a direct access point to the Account graveyard. That’s game over you wont see a penny.
You: But it’s my money! What about the door on the right… wait a minute who are you, are you even human? Stop this, i feel sick!
The door on the right is convalescence.
You: Why isn’t someone helping me, where are the doctors? If my account is on the ceiling then someone obviously has access. Shut the trades down, that’s £200, the accounts still alive, CUT THE LOSS!!!
There are no doctors, The Algorithm is projecting your account. The Algo decides which door you go through. It’s decision is always 100% final and 100% correct.
You: What kind of a sadistic being are you? Look! The range is going to break, my money!
The range doesn’t matter, the EUR/USD doesn’t matter, the trading and study don’t matter, more importantly what you want means nothing, not in this room. This room is way beyond all of that.
Pause
Before you entered this room there was a pause, in that lobby you were already beyond your limits but you had just enough consciousness and strength to execute one decision, one single decision, shut it down or let it run. Your decision was let it run. After that you were so far beyond your limit and your capacity that your brain shut down to protect you from the pain that you are not feeling right now.
You: This isn’t real i’m just reading a thread on babypips but i feel like i’m going to vomit. This is mad.
So now you are going to act tough or are you going to go the i’m too intelligent or too disciplined for any of this nonsense route?
In every industry there are rooms just like this one and there are men and women strapped to operating tables in all of them. No? OK, i’ll prove it.
How many retail store chains can you name that were around for decades but no longer exist? How many airlines which flew thousands of passengers around the world and employed thousands no longer exist? Politicians…Ok, ever heard of a guy who became president of the most powerful country in the world and then got himself impeached over a “cigar”? Athletes, doping, stripped of their titles, . What about manufactures that employed whole towns that went bust ???
At one point there was a pause, men and women like you were in the lobby, over the limit of what they could personally bear but with just enough left in them to make just one more decision. They all let it run, hoped they would get back to where they were…and tehn stepped into an operating room just like this one. From then on the Algo took over and the Algo is never wrong.
Authors comments: To get to the operating room an individual will have gone through many rooms, all with various options and challenges.I hope we will discuss those in this thread (The lobby is next)
I introduced personal limits in this room but we will discuss that more in other rooms. For now i will just say that in my opinion we all have different limits when it comes to the ability to handle pressure and stress. Once those limits are exceeded by enough you are no longer in control. I believe those limits can be increased through deliberate practice, increased knowledge and understanding but like most things we all have a genetic limit as to how far we can improve in that regard.
The operating room is beyond all of that anyway. Whatever your individual limits are once they are surpassed by enough, that’s it. This is not a room that you practice for or an environment that you try to conquer. If you think that is what profitable traders are doing day after day you are wrong.
Most of us have been there at least once on our journey but suppress the memory. I try to keep the memory fresh enough so that if i should find myself in the Lobby at any time in the future and there is a pause, it may influence my actions.
For those of you who made it to the end and hoped for a happy ending, the operating table went through the left door…this is not Hollywood!
) but they can just as easily (sometimes) even result in a profit!
