Daniel Amen, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, said: “Change your brain, change your life!”
Robert Kiyosaki: “You can’t solve a problem with the same brain that caused the problem. First you must change your mindset.”
You are what you think. If you change your mind, you will change your life!
In forex trading or in life, losers and winners don’t share the same perspectives and mindset. Losers lose because they own the loser’s perspectives/mindset while Winners win because they own the winner’s perspectives/mindset.
Many of the loser traders continue to lose money in trading irrespective of how many seminars, workshops attended or trading systems learned because they NEVER change their mindset. Thus they repeatedly do what they had been doing as a loser trader, the end result is still the same: A Loser Trader!
Dear Traders, if after several years of trading, you still end up as a loser trader, what you can do is not to search for the solutions elsewhere, search inside yourself: It takes only ONE THING to change your trading life forever, do you have it? Do you know what it is? Yes, you’re right, the ONE THING is “YOUR BRAIN”!
So for all the loser traders out there, to change their trading destiny, they have to start with changing their trading perspectives/mindset first!
you right the forums full of different individuals though, wannabees ect. Or people who just have a vast sum of savings and only interested in beating the banks and building societies interest rates, so they can go off and play golf ect lol
There are thousands of quotes about “Thinking”, just to share a few ones here, I hope everyone enjoy them, cheers!
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”
― Henry Ford
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
― Albert Einstein
“We are addicted to our thoughts. We cannot change anything if we cannot change our thinking.”
― Santosh Kalwar, Quote Me Everyday
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
“Five percent of the people think;
ten percent of the people think they think;
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”
― Thomas A. Edison
“Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel.”
― Jean Racine
“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
― Steve Jobs
“Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)”
― René Descartes
“Doubt as sin. — Christianity has done its utmost to close the circle and declared even doubt to be sin. One is supposed to be cast into belief without reason, by a miracle, and from then on to swim in it as in the brightest and least ambiguous of elements: even a glance towards land, even the thought that one perhaps exists for something else as well as swimming, even the slightest impulse of our amphibious nature — is sin! And notice that all this means that the foundation of belief and all reflection on its origin is likewise excluded as sinful. What is wanted are blindness and intoxication and an eternal song over the waves in which reason has drowned.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Daybreak: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality
Quite instructive in these days of “Belief”
So many people are inflicted with Belief which they never actually think about - That word “Christianity” can be replaced by so many many others from;
“Manmade CO2 = Global Warming”
to
“If the big bearded man with a penis believes he is a woman - He (Sorry SHE ) IS a woman”
Note:- That does NOT mean we should be horrible or mean to the “Transgender” few, it simply means that “Belief” cannot change objective truth !
Every "Belief we have should be rigorously thought through periodically to examine whether it is still valid - a sort of “Annual Belief MOT Test”
Learner traders often develop an approach (in TA a ‘system’), they gain confidence in this approach - it’s not that they think they have beaten the market nor that they have discovered the grail, it’s just this feeling that maybe, just maybe they have a chance.
Perhaps a couple of trades go wrong, they hear that little voice whispering ’ you are one of the 90%’ and then in comes the beast - doubt.
The opposite of that beast - belief is cast aside (put ‘self’ before the word) and the beast wins - they become one of the 90%.
Maybe as a separate post on religion, I know we are in Trading Psychology, but maybe there is a link, I know that a few BP members are aware of the correlation.
Nietzsche was a philosopher and it is good to think but Paul recognized the difference in philosophy and belief - See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.
Nietzsche was wrong to say that to doubt is to sin according to Christianity - the evidence contradicts (Latin: says the opposite).
Christ was led into the wilderness (of self doubt) to confront the beast - ‘throw yourself down and you will not be harmed’ or ’ command the stones to become bread’ .
Again as Paul wrote: tempted “in every way that we are, except without sin.”[4]
Self belief is the absence of self doubt, it comes from learning, not conceit, from knowledge, not arrogance - it is to be treasured.
Thanks to @Falstaff - we don’t always see eye to eye but that is what makes a good discussion.
The brain is NOT “only one thing” ! in essence it is the ONLY Thing !
Without a brain, you are an inert lump of meat.
You would not even breathe and your heart would not beat. Your body would be cold and you would start to decay.
The brain has been tampered with in the past by “Neuroscientists” trying to “Cure” various “Dysfunctions” - look up pre-frontal lobotomy" and we have all seen a pretty accurate representation of "Electro Convulsive Therapy " and Largactyl (the chemical cosh) in that magnificent film “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”.
It has been tampered with chemically with tranquillisers and other substances - whether they be “medicines” or drugs like Nicotine, Alcohol, and Cannabis, LSD and Heroine. some of which enhance mental experience and others have different effects “In vino veritas…” Correctly points out that there is a tendency to “Tell the truth” through inhibition when alcohol is consumed.
Evolution has tricked All animals, ourselves included by putting into our brains “emotions” like “Love”, “Fear”, “Greed”, “Anger” - which naturally provoke reactions in our bodies - the ones which cause us as traders to “Lose” are mainly Fear, and Anger, with Greed also being implicated sometimes.
Fear causes the Urge to “Fight or flight” when we are in a trade and Fear also causes us to hide behnd our desk when wondering whether to enter a trade . the dagers of which I alluded to here
I have to say that the reference to excercise in the write up to that book is valid but little known as it satisfies the Fight or flight response.
The deficiency (In my opinion) of “Neuroscience” is that it looks at the electronic activity of specific parts of the brain under certain stimuli.It is notable that Psychopaths show a lack of brain activity when show the suffering of others and seem to lack “Fear” - so they should make great traders in theory ! In fact the “Populist” belief is that only 5% of those who try trading succeed and we are told that 5% of the population show psychopathic tendencies - I sometimes wonder !
Now let’s take a look at “Changing your mind” - in the way the post implies you can ;
Freud divided the brain into three functions - which roughly correspond to three which Eric Berne also identified in the 60’s (Bernes term in brackets)
those are the - ID (Child) EGO (Adult) SUPEREGO (Parent) I know more about Berne’s stuff so I will use his terms
Parent
Part of the subconscious - contains ;Beliefs, Prejudices, Rules for life, - This I think is what @peterma refers to in his post and in many ways that is true. BUT those ingrained beliefs can be true or false - Many of those we are taught are inapprpriate for trading and in many ways for life in general in the 21st century - such as “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” - “Nobody ever went broke taking a small profit” - These prejudice us subconsciously to fear loss Much more than we value a profit and you will see this principle repeated ad nausiem in many of our threads - it is unhelpful.
These Beliefs are ingrained at an early age and are VERY resistant to change. This is why the Jesuits used to say “Give me a child until he is seven - I will give you the man” This is also why we must be Very careful to talk to our children and dispel the “Facts” they are being taught at school about “Masculinity is toxic” and “Climate Change will end the world in twelve years”
Most people are unaware that they even have these ingrained prejudices and the “Beliefs” they hold can be right or wrong - it doesn’t matter which.
Berne contends that as in all things the Parent can either be Benevolent or Abusive and I cmmend his best seller for your serious perusal as a starting point in these matters.
A work of originality and yes Genius imho and I quote two of the reviews - one Positive
“…Brilliant book for anyone on a self help journey…”
And one from someone who appears to be very “Woke”
“… It has outdated and insulting opinions on a number of groups of people. Certainly would be considered inflammatory and discriminatory now. Amazon wouldn’t let me submit my original review. …”
If you do make the effort to read and understand - you will never look at the world or those around you in the same way again !
Adult
The “Thinking” part of the brain - what most of us think of as “our brain” - a rather poor machine which I have seen referred to as “A serial processor” in comparion with the other parts which act as “Parallel processors” so the aim is to do things in a “thinking way” - like learning to drive - which we find quite hard - but then after a while, the process becomes absorbed into the Parent and we can just do it - without thinking and even hold a conversation on a completely unrelated subject in perfect safety.
That is what we strive to do in the “Re-education” of our brain towards trading.
Child
Another part of the subconscious which is responsible for impusiveness and illogical risk taking - likely to get you into trouble and also to “Have fun”
Continuing on then - I’m sure we all have times when something seems too hard for us and we just either go to “sleep on the problem” and in the morning we have the solution and wonder why we didin’t see it before ? That part I don’t know how or which part of our subconscious “solves it” for us - maybe there are parts we just don’t know about yet ? But it works !
Now back to Nietzsche ! - Peterson (someone I have great respect for) says that he was a remarkable man -“A full professor at the age of 24 - before he even finished his doctoral thesis - Something unheard of then ! - It’s difficult to assess his intelligence but I estimate him to be one in a BILLION !”
Here is Peterson speaking of Nietzsche’s “God is dead” misquote ;
(Peterson has done a great many video lectures examining the Judeo-Christian Belief system and the messages to be inferred from the biblical texts. Whether he himself believes in “Formal God” is unsure but he may well do and is certainly supportive of the Biblical texts - As is Ben SHapiro who is highly intelligent and a strongly practicing Jew)
I was at one time intending to become a Methodist Lay-Preacher myself - but life moved on ! And whether we are “Believers” or not - God is certainly dead to many people and the rush to “Fill the vacuum” by so many is producing the “Smell of decay” - by way of SJW ideologies, Identity Politics, and “Climate change”
This all seems to be in line with Nietzsche’s predictions nearly a century and a half ago and indeed the processes of achieving Chaos are very well scripted in George Orwell’s “1984” - a breathtakingly accurate forecast of the path of today’s western world !
So - I hope this helps a few and I hope the bases of " Neuro-Linguistic Prgramming" and “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy” can be seen in some of these “Wanderings”
OP was right of course - to trade well you need to take control of your mind - but this is very far from easy !
