The effects of simply “doing something” in the frustrating period where we have to wait for the set ups… can bring with it a very strong desire to just get in. Think about it… once you enter the trade and satisfy the uncontrollable urge to just enter… this is more relaxing and “comfortable” than the underlying risk associated with the actual market conditions. Does this sound familiar?
The shear release of finally giving in to the impulse to trade and not be outside the market is a familiar state Traders find themselves falling into… repeatedly. I taught a seminar in the 90’s dealing with this in Day Trading the S&P 500 Index Futures and I spent more time on this topic than I did on the actual Technical Applications with entering and exiting the market.
This is that chemical reaction that takes place I spoke of in the video of mine titled… “I Know What You Are Looking For… What Every New & Or Aspiring Forex Trader… Still Wants To Know”. It is powerful and we as humans grow comfortable to the “normal” and even if the “normal” is actually destructive in nature. For some, they are in abusive relationships and it’s easy to leave and never give themselves over to the opportunity to be abused again… yet they remain and suffer.
Some hate their jobs, and while they are trained and perhaps qualified for a higher paying job… they never take the opportunity to change their jobs and they stay in misery. The discomfort of being in the routine is acceptable and our brains perceive this as normal and thus where we arrive as a end result. After the pain is too sharp or an outside influence removes us from these conditions we reflect back with loss and regret… only to repeat the process over and over and over again.
This is a form of self-defeating thinking. You must be able to envision the process of change and patience as necessary and the new “normal”. This comes from repeated processes and exercises to first overcome the poor thought processes and harmful thinking… then eventually replacing them with empowering thought processes.
Here is an exercise you might want to try…
Every day for one week, have a record of the number of times you find yourself thinking a negative thought. As soon as you wake from sleep, the exercise begins. I think you will discover how negative thinking overwhelms us on a daily basis. Think about this… if you wake from sleep and turn on the TV before work, chances are you might watch some News… and what kind of news is it? Bad News… and when you ride to your job you are thinking how it stinks you have to go to that place and deal with those people again… and what might you listen to on your commute? The radio… playing some more… Bad News.
You spend your day thinking how it sucks to be right where you are and for as long as you have been… by this point you will likely have made 50-100 negative thoughts. We are flooding our minds and thus bodies with chemicals that are intended to be used for Flight or Fight conditions. These chemicals produce body symptoms that can result in “feeling stress or pain” on the physical level… this form of depression is only relieved by another chemical response.
This counter chemical response is experienced when we “take action” and return to our comfort zone. What is that comfort zone? The place where we have control… the one where we do something about the feelings we are experiencing. For some this is a Friday night at the bar with drinks… some drugs… others women and men in the physical sense. All of these vices are comfort zones… and while they might not appear to be “harmful” outwardly or inwardly while experiencing them… consider this…
The Married Man feeling depressed finds pleasure in another woman. What’s wrong with this? It feels good at the time but the after effects bring shame and further depression… the Married Man returns to the point of feel good and the cycle repeats.
The Woman In Need spends her days in a home with no job but uses drugs to escape the routine and feeling of being alone. She feels good when she experiences the drugs but the after effects bring with it shame and further depression… the Woman returns to the point she found nirvana to escape it again… and the cycle repeats.
The Gambler spins the wheel and places his bet… on money he actually needs to pay his bills. He is in debt and income to debt is under water… but the experience of Spinning The Big Wheel and the “chance” to win big removes the pain of living in the reality… and the pain of reality compels him to place his bet and spin the wheel. When the Wheel stops and the money is gone… the feeling of “normal” comes crashing in again like a wave taking him under once more… how does he soothe his pain?
Ante up once again…
