johnw

Since this thread is rolling on, I have a question for the Readers. 'how close to your potential do you think you trade ... or, to put it another way 'how close to your potential do you think you live'

Thanks Neg ..but if you feel that it is unsuited to me then it probably will be ... I am a simple man

gm, what do you consider is the best program for monitoring a computers vital signs.

Good point about battery management, I have switched off 'battery stretch' and run in 'high performance mode' The Router has been changed and my Guru suggests I do what he does and take my Router with me on my travels.

What do you guys see as a problem in connecting via WiFi ... apart from security issues I was dead against WiFi for a long time, but I travel alot and so far I have had no problems, but that is not to say that this will continue in the future

Many thanks for the Links. I went from XP to 7 and skipped Vista on the way through .... I have a tech guru who looks after me so I am not that knowledgeable on fine detailed specs myself, I am afraid. I figure that if I do my job well and he does his job well, things will work out OK

I can't recall, the machine is disconnected awaiting pickup. I do recall that I had the ram upgraded about 6 months into it's life as the techo improved

as i wrote .... Lenovo i5 is 4 months and I roll my gear every 12 months ...so PC was 12 months old, 4 months ago.... so it was a well speced machine 16 months ago ... I run Windows 7 now and am looking into Linux

as i wrote .... Lenovo i5 is 4 months and I roll my gear every 12 months ...so PC was 12 months, 4 months ago.... so it was a well speced machine 16 months ago

PC is 12 months and a virgin ... I roll my gear every 12 months ... so in 8 months time my trading Lenovo downgrades into general work.

I have a WiFi 'trade only' Lenovo i5 highly speced coupled to a Toshiba mobile monitor The bar counter rolls seamlessly and the Lenovo [4 months old] easily keeps pace with my 'trade only' PC [quite highly speced] Lenovo does not require extra cooling and after 4 months trial, I am selling the PC. My entire Home and Office now runs on Lenovos. good luck

You have lost me Rande. I thought we were all trying to improve our perception of reality through trading. Are you saying that Curiosity plays no part in this process. Curiosity lead me to buying your book, which is excellent in my opinion.

OK, assessment it is then ...'gonna have to call bs on that one' is an assessment '

Granted, his work may not be easy to grasp ... but at least you have read the piece addressing fear. Further on into his work, Krishnamurti addresses the subject of 'judgements'

Possibly some of you may find these extracts of interest. Krishnamurti on Fear If letting go of fear of the unknown creates a perpetual state of curiosity, then everything from Trading to Rande's work and beyond has a natural tendency to fall into place.

[quote=SIUYA;130855 (unless of course you subscribe to the idea that fear and love is the base to EVERYTHING ) . exactly ... this is one of those big decisions that form the cornerstones of our lives ...and it is the basis of my view and my Wife's view on life... and yes it has been greatly tested and has grown stronger as a result.

Hi gosu, In my homegrown mind, these People are completely disabled by fear ...yes they may meet their margin call but it is because they cannot face the reality of closing the position.... the pain is too great..... and I am not referring to money. I do not see fearlessness in this action ....your choice of 'ignorance' in the sense that they have no idea how they truly function would be a more apt description.

Hi Rande, I think the difference lies in the words [terminology] You are a Professional and Trading Psychology is is your chosen field....I am home schooled and home grown but never the less The Art of Trading is my chosen field ... so we are connected and have an understanding of each others profession, but I am very much in your backyard in terms of expression and terminology. I suspect that your 'Self'' is my 'You' and your 'Fluid' is my 'Journey' and it is more than possible that there are others here who are in the same boat as me when it comes to the selective terminology that so aptly expresses and describes your Profession. My belief is that we need to step outside ourselves and line up our feelings so that ALL the ducks are traveling together on our journey ....apart of which in this case is to become professional and therefore successful in The Art of The Trade. Yes, I believe that at the outset of this journey there is pain from confrontation and the further off course we have sailed, then the greater the pain ... when we let go of old beliefs and embrace the knowledge that we are traveling in the unknown and have always been in this situation, then the pain ceases ... when the pain stops the unknown unfolds in the sense that we relax into the security of consciousness ... all sorts of good things open up and become available to us when this happens.

My take on this is that people fail because their best shot is quite simply not good enough. If they are of average intelligence or more and they are not succeeding then they must decide 'to do what ever it takes' or quit. And here lies the guts of the problem, because very few People have ever taken themselves anyway near their potential and so they are simply unaware of what they are capable of. Then they become frustrated and the harder they push the more they push themselves away from their objective, rather than drawing their objective towards them. This is the YING YANG of life .... notice I did not say Ying AND Yang because YY exist simultaneously and create 'balance' Words are one way of communicating with each other, but they also have the power to awaken feelings within ourselves. For example ..... the word 'challenge' to me conjures up thoughts of climbing Mountains and being cold and uncomfortable in the process... many decades ago this did not concern me although I never climbed mountains and never will .... it is funny how our minds work. 'Adventure' however gives me a warm fuzzy ..... thoughts of sailing through the Caribbean or South Pacific come into play along with hot lazy summers in Tuscany ... these are things I have done, but this is not important... it is the association between the word and the feeling that matters. What is important is to atune our minds to pleasant thoughts and construct our journey to be pleasurable to ourselves and all those around us. In no way does it lessen the workload ... in fact it increases, but the word 'work' fades out to be replaced by a different linked feeling and so the process goes on.... it is a never ending journey. If you are a struggling hard working Person trying to learn The Art of The Trade, then I would suggest that you let go and relax back into the journey. Turn the PC off ... it is a tool that should work for you and yet most People allow it to lead them around by the nose. Figure out what you are striving for, before you log into the Markets each day otherwise you will be lead into dancing in circles. Forget 10,000 hours of screentime ... that is a stupid number and so is 95% failure rate. You are 100% of you ... that is all that matters.

Why don't you share your thoughts with us.

good morning A good starting point in any new venture is WHY ... why do I think that I want to do this ... what part of me is leading the attraction If you know yourself well enough, you can separate the temptation of Self Indulgence from the desire to to carefully nurture your abilities and beliefs into action that makes it possible for you to advance your life plan. If you are struggling to understand this, then take a look at the global chaos around you. This is all the outcome of Self Indulgence ..... that moment in life where our 'Wants' totally blind us to the 'Bill' that follows later. Well, guess what .... 'Later' has now arrived at a global level and it is no different than what happens to each of us on an individual level when we allow Self Indulgence to lead the way. IMHO, Trading is more or less 80% physiological [internal rebuilding], 18% Understanding of How The Markets REALLY work and 2% maths. We Buy when the market is about to rise and Sell when the market is about to fall. If any of us have committed 110% to achievement in Music, The Arts, Sport in our younger years, then the first real awareness we encounter is 'Do I really want this' If the answer is 'Yes, at all costs' then we push on ... If the answer is only 'Yes' then we bail out a bit further down the line. 'Yes, at all costs' means we are ready to commit to completely aligning ourselves to the task at hand. If your chosen path is Sport, Music, The Arts [to a lesser extent] or the Navy Seals, then Teachers, Coaches and Instructors will help reshape you otherwise you are history. If you think you want to Trade the Markets then you only have little old YOU .. and if you contain one gram of self Indulgence that you are completely unaware of, then you are toast before you even begin ... and the sad thing is you will most probably never ever be aware of it. Personally, I would like to see everyone succeed at Retail trading ...

Very thoughtful post Siuya. But can a Trader manage a sufficient quantity of his fears to turn in a consistently good performance or will the sum of all his fears eventually drown him. Should a Trader analyze his fears and deal to them as such, or should a Trader accept that pretty much all fear will reveal itself eventually and he knows that he has the strength to overcome them on a "first come first served" basis. One might say that the underling issues should be dealt with first and that is more than likely the professionally correct approach. But what if our Trader, knowing that the fear is his and his alone, decides that the honest course of action is best, and that he will never unwittingly present himself with a challenge that he is not ready to overcome. In other words he is quietly confident that he can cope. He just doesn't know what previously untapped reverses he will need to call upon. When we look at the journey through this set of eyes, the actual task of trading consistently profitably seems relatively straight forward.

"Managing Fear" an interesting thread as always Rande. But what if the the Title "Managing Fear" brings fear to the already fearful ... a bit like "managing" pain or "managing" cancer or some other life threatening or debilitating situation. It is almost as though a person has constricted themselves to the challenge and thereby forms a strong acceptance to a limited outcome. And how does this play out when attempting trading ... Well, I read a post here at TL where someone wrote that they had assembled a good trading plan but now they needed to improve their physiological approach in order to trade it. How can this be ... Are they two different people existing within one shell. Surely when they remove themselves from the confines of their fearful shackles, their new plan and their ability to trade it will become one and the same. They cannot split themselves across a set of invisible tracks Why is it that I am left with the feeling that people want to change JUST enough about themselves to be successful at trading but to remain who they are. What are they afraid of becoming. It is as though not only "fear" is a negative word, but the state that exists beyond fear holds even greater negative consequences for many people. Perhaps the inclination for people to ferret into the detail of everything before they grasp the big picture, is over playing it's hand. Perhaps an improved appreciation of the enormity of fear as an energy both individually and collectively, will better assist people to "move beyond" fear rather than just "manage" it. Imagine this for a moment ....there are two sincere opportunities on offer. The first is to be Mentored so that we can trade to a level of living comfortably. The second is to be Mentored to a target of USD100K each and every day What is the difference in mentoring in each case. And what are People's first REACTION to the two offers.

Thanks Rande, Adding more depth and words to the conversation adds clarity.

Hi Rande, For the most part you and I see the emotional component in a similar vein ... I say "similar" because you are coming from the Professional Observers corner [ which offers you impartiality ] and I am in the deep end as a Player. That we agree, offers a greater depth to the content imho. However, I struggle with this statement from you, and perhaps I am not reading it as you intended. "is that the trader really has to develop an awareness of the emotions and meaning attached to the emotion pulled out of awareness that are present during decision making while trading" In my experience, there is a place of detachment that a Player can reach. As corny as it may sound, the Player is in balance and aware of nothing other than what he/she is doing ... in this case it is placing and managing an intraday trade... there is no situational awareness of feelings, muscular aches and pains, temperatures etc .... there is only the task in hand and in this case the Player and the Price are seamless. How does a Player reach this place. It takes a serious commitment from the mind in order to begin the journey that reaches all the feelings. But somewhere along the way the struggle of the commitment turns into a desire or an interest to see just how far the Player can take them self ... eventually the struggle evolves into habit as the conscious mind is melted into the same pot. Does the Player give up anything along the way ... well obviously TV, the News, Religion, Politics and "expert opinion" family and friends will never be the same again as their long lost third eye rebuilds itself from the battering it took in early life. What the Player picks up along the way is to the power of ten compared to what is surrendered.