Rande Howell

All of us have psychological demons that block our potential. If you want to experience yours, and you have fear of pulling the trigger, listen to the internal conflict that occurs in your mind and freezes your capacity to act. If you have probability on your side, what is the force inside you that stops you from pulling the trigger? That is what I call a psychological demon. I know few traders who don't wrestle with theirs. Rande Howell

"There seems to be an invisible hand that is guiding my trading, and I don't seem to have much say-so in the matter," a trader laments to me. She continues, "I'm buying your book because I do not understand why I keep on doing the things that I do, when I know what I am supposed to do. But it is not what I'm supposed to do that I do. Rather it is what I'm NOT supposed to be doing that I do. I hold on to trades too long in both directions. I know what my rules say about my stops and my targets. But I'll be there one second, then my evil twin takes over my mind. And I do things that I know are not good trading. It's almost like I get possessed, and when I wake up from the trance, all I can do is kick myself for not following my plan. What's going on? Don't lecture me about discipline and putting my emotions down at the door of my trading room. I've heard all that, but this invisible hand seems to creep in and all the discipline I have in other areas of my life seems to vanish in the mist." The Elephant in the Living Room Have you ever experienced what this trader is describing? She knows how to trade. She has a deep background in finance and accounting. She doesn't experience debilitating fear in her trading. And she is a moderately successful trader. She makes money. But she recognizes that she is hitting an invisible glass ceiling that is stopping her from moving to the next level. And she can't see what she can't see. She suspects that there is an elephant in her living room, that if she only had the eyes to see, she would be able to see what is limiting her and her trading. Trading, History, Biology, and Mind Taking a step beyond quick fix, short term, solutions to self limiting patterns is the first step. Understanding emotion as far more than feelings is the head knowledge that you will need to cultivate. Fundamentally emotion is about the way the organism you are builds predictable responses to the uncertainty of adapting to the circumstances of life. The brain is what directs this process of adaptation and it is emotion driven. Feeling is merely the subjective experience of an emotion. It is like seeing an iceberg -- the vast majority of it is below the surface. Feeling is the tip of the iceberg. If you remain ignorant of the power of emotion, then you put yourself in the same situation that the Titanic found itself. It is the genesis and stability of neurally wired patterns of responding to environmental cues that is at the crux of understanding (and managing) emotion. In essence, your brain is a pattern-making machine that is mandated to avoid threat. And your brain cannot separate uncertainty, worry, and fear from one another. This is exactly what the trader quoted above is stuck in. Now, let's add one more element to our trader's dilemma of her invisible hand guiding her trading. She's right. She was born (actually her brain) into a soup of beliefs, biases, and perceptions (called her family circumstance) and her brain incorporated these "stories" into a narrative that became "her". This is the environment into which her brain adapted her. And it happened long before she could think or question the assumptions that organized the way she perceived her environment. This became her "invisible hand". In her world, she organized herself into a narrative that avoided uncertainty. It was what her family did and "what monkey see, monkey do". The assumptions became her beliefs. Until she got into trading, there was no reason to question these assumptions turned beliefs in her brain/mind. Life was pretty good. Her trading has forced her to bump up against her comfort zone (known as a perceptual map to the neuro-science minded). Now the internal guidance system that was so successful in producing adaptive survival is no longer functioning effectively in this new environment called trading where working with uncertainty is a required operational skill. Now her job is to de-construct the old money/risk narrative that she was born into and adapted to (her invisible hand). And she will need to construct a new narrative where the brain adapts to uncertainty as an element of her environment to be embraced. And mastered. Biology Meets Mind Our family histories get embedded into our belief systems in the organic substrate called your brain. Your job as a trader is to become the designer of the beliefs that drive your trading. Otherwise you will stay stuck in the self limiting beliefs that your brain adapted you to -- designed for a different environment and a different time. The Invisible Hand will remain a force that drives your trading until you develop the mindfulness and the skills to "re-develop" the narrative that you confuse with "your thoughts". Those thoughts are not yours. They own you. They are the histories of family narratives getting wired into your brain. They become your blinders. You see only what they allow you to see. Breaking out of this invisible prison opens you to see a new kind of freedom. A freedom to " become". A freedom to become the beliefs that drive peak performance trading. With this in mind, what were the stories and narratives about uncertainty, risk, worry, and fear that you were born into? How did they shape your world? And how are these long hidden narratives embedded in the neural pathways of your brain impacting your trading today? Rande Howell

I teach mindfulness (another way of saying meditation) as part of my peak performance training. Essential. The form is a derivitive of Zen meditation, where the practioner learns to be witness to the going and coming of thought without becoming attached to them. The developing Observer then makes a startling discovery -- You and your thoughts are not the same. This is of enormous value to the trader. I do use guided meditations as a catalyst to jump start the process. I myself have been practicing meditation for about 35 years. Rande Howell

A Time for Self Reflection: Why do so many traders stay stuck in painful self limiting patterns rooted in fear and self doubt? It's not like your trading account will allow you to live in comfortable denial for long. Hold this question in your mind. The trader can see that what they are currently doing is not working. They acknowledge they need to do something about their fear-based trading - "they talk the talk" - but they, for some reason, can not push themselves into "walking the walk" of actually doing something about the power fear has over their trading. What's at work here? I asked a very successful trader and teacher this question, and his reply was: "Because the trader has not suffered enough pain." What!? I asked him to go on. "It takes tremendous pain for a trader to seek help and decide to change his ways. It was the same way for me. I'd been trading for 7 years before I finally cried out "UNCLE "- I've had enough and sought help for the psychology I was bringing to the trading room - I had blown out several large trading accounts, had declared personal bankruptcy, and was staring at my family starting to fall apart. That is what did it for me." "Until then, I had way too much pride to admit that I was the problem - not something outside of me. It just wasn't me I was destroying - it was my family. That was rock bottom for me. I couldn't allow that - the pain was just too great. Finally, I knew I had to do something. Avoiding my pain wasn't worth it anymore. It was just a short term fix anyway. The fear kept coming back. In getting beneath the hood of my mind, I found the courage, plus the skills and tools, to face what I had spent my entire life avoiding. I know now that my fear of not measuring up created a bigger than life personna that tried to protect me from feeling my wrong-headed sense of unworthiness. " "What's crazy is why it took me so long. I was really invested in "looking good". I much prefer who I am now than the trader I used to be. Losing is not longer a statement about me anymore. Anyone who trades professionally trains themselves to emotionally think in terms of having an edge in probabilies as they approach the uncertainty of a trade. Over time they are going to have more winners than losers and the winners will be much bigger than the losers. Calm, detached, confident, and humble. Losing or winning is no longer emotionaly charged. Confronting my fears allowed me to separate fear from uncertainty. This psychological freedom is what has allowed me to develop the trader I am today. But I had to experience pain beyond my threshold before I was willing to push through my denial and face the demons roaring like a hungry lion in my mind. Once did that, I wondered why it took me so long to do something so simple." What can you learn from this trader's journey into financial success and personal growth? What I want you to notice about this trader's story is how long he stayed in the denial that continued his march into pain. I also want you to notice the enormous pain he shouldered. What was the cost of his not acting to master his fear? Hundreds of thousands of dollars for sure. But you, as a trader, know the cost of not confronting and mastering your fear is much greater that dollars alone. It is the loss of your potential as a human being that is really robbed. The tragic part is that it is not the market that robs you. It is nothing outside of you. It is your fear that robs you of the potential that trading offers. This is what keeps the unsuccessful trader locked in the comfort zone of his self limiting beliefs. How do you or how have you broken out of this biologically-wired spell fear has entranced you? Where are you at in the evolution of the trader in you? Rande Howell

Here is an article that examines this exact problem and the resulting creation of a conditioned fear reactiveness to risk that spread beyond his trading to other parts of the trader's life. Rande Howell

Why do I put more weight on the negative than on the positive aspects of my trading? Rande - I want to believe that ... you are calm, detached, and confident ... but this has not been my experience. So what is the next step? Because quite frankly I want to be trading a good setup with an equally good state of mind. Success is not enough. Peace ... ease ... of mind MUST also be the bedfellows of success. Footnote - I am still getting through much of the material you have written on this site, and on your website - thank you for making the material available. I am sure there is a profitable journey here somewhere! I am now one of your students. First, the reason you have a bias to focus on the negative rather than the positive is biological in nature, compounded by your adapted psychology. That is how we survived so well -- by negatively assessing the environment because it was a dangerous place. It's why the news is only newsworthy when it is negative. Our attention is drawn to be aware of the negative. This is a very interesting question about the management of emotional state and performance. I will be posting to my blog on TL on Monday actual correspondence with a client of mine who has moved from trading NOT TO LOSE to trading from a calm, detached, confident state of mind (what I call a trader's state of mind). This is something he developed with emotional labor. Part of his discussion may seem a foreign to some of you because the dialog will be using some of my jardon that I use in my higher level training. It will address exactly the inquery you have here. Fundamentally, trading is life on steriods. The difference between the life you have in trading and the life you lead in your ordinary world is that the very psychological demons that you can successfully avoided dealing with in your ordinary world come staulking you in your trading world -- hence trading is life on steriods. Rande Howell

This is not the intent of my response. I used scalping as an example as I use an intra-day trader in the next line to demonstrate a different set of parameters. I make no assumption that "everyone starts out as a scalper". Traders come to the game from different histories, different termperments, and different motivations. The common denominator is that the brain/mind is biologically built around survival. And survival is organized around fear. Human beings have the option to transend biologically driven fear. We are the ones that can actually tease apart the hardwired association between fear and uncertainty. And trading is the perfect environment for this development to occur. If you are going to develop as a successful trader, you will have to separate these two building blocks of cognition apart. And a probabilies mindset accepts risk as part of the game. When this mindset has been achieved that allows you to recognize that (with your methodology) you have probability on your side and you can let go of fear (there's no saber tooth tiger staulking you), then you can trade from a mindset that lets go of outcome. This is a transendit moment. You are not gambling. Probability is on your side. You are calm, detached, and confident. What a great way to develop a belief system that brings hope into the world. Rande Howell

MM -- This is an interesting query. When state of mind is being influenced by fear, it's not that they do not want the desired outcome -- it is more like that fear, and its nature, hijacks the brain/mind of the trader to be able to act from a state of mind that allows him to risk uncertainty of the outcome -- which is essential in trading. Either through the glitch of evolutionary programming or through the development of meaning during the brain's formative stages, fear and uncertainty become a fused interpretation of risk. Fear will allows stop potential in its tracks. This association has to be de-constructed for the trader to begin to think from a probabilities state of mind rather than a survival state of mind. Until this happens, fear overwhelms all the preparation of the trader in the trade. It's not so much that the fear is greater than the desire for outcome -- it is more like the limbic brain's response to threat as fear simply renders the trader's higher order thinking inoperable. The trader must have desire. But he has to be able to act on that desire from a higher functioning state of mind. The Army trains its soldiers in simulated battle conditions because they want to train the brain to think clearly in the midst of the chaos of war (uncertainty to a trader). They mold the brain/mind to be able to do this very intentionally. It is at this moment that a soldier's desire to perform well in the uncertainty of battle becomes a possibility. Desire, by itself, is never enough. I've never met a trader who didn't have the desire to trade well. But I've met many who are not equipped emotionally or psychologically to perform in this arena. Rande Howell

Siuya I am saying that fear needs to be managed before you start experimenting with trading style. A much better informed decision happens this way. I know traders who scalp before they can't manage fear, impulse, or hyperactivity in their current organization of the self. They are not scalping before it fits their temperment -- rather it is the only way they know to manage their fear. When taught regulation, they can be much better observer of the self and can decide whether this fast paced trading style fits with their temperment and capacity to maintain focus for longer periods of time (hyperactivity). So it's both/and. I also work with a trader that, after he no longer needed to prove himself trading, found that he was more of a guerilla or swing trader than the intra day trader he had tested as a year before. As they get to know themselves better, and dispelled the fear that limited them, they were able to alaign themselves to a trading stype that suited them. Emotion and the meaning of self that becomes attached to the emotion is engine of transformation. It is not to be avoided. It is our call to develop the skills and tools that give us the capacity to work wtih our emotions that is critical. I break fear into 9 subcategories. It is important to understand the meaning that becomes attached to the fear -- that is what I call owning your fear. Until you can name the fear, it will own you. It's a little to much to write about here. In one of the articles on my website, I go over these subcategories. I also offer a free webnar once a month that outlines these fears labeled as roadblocks and how to overcome them. Does this answer your question well enough? Rande Howell

Could you help me understand this more? For you, how does fear transform itself into excitement? And how does the excitement interact with the trade? Rande Howell

The only time a person does not experience emotion is when they are dead. So I'm hoping no one tries to set up the situation that they trade without emotion. Emotions and our perception can not be separated. The trick is to trade (and think) from particular emotional states when trading. When we say we are logical, rational, or impartial, we are trading from this emotion. Rational or logical is not independent of emotion -- it is simply an emotion among other emotions. Rational is a great emotional state to solve problems from. But it would be a terrible emotion to romance from. Each emotions sets forth a kind of thinking and memory that is associated with it. Managing this relationship while trading is key. The problem is that impartiality cannot co-exist with fear. Fear, unless regulated, will block your ability to maintain impartiality in the face of uncertainty. This is why you see so many traders who will assert that they know HOW to trade, but that their emotions get in the way of their trading. Actually it is the kind of emotion that seizes thinking that is the problem -- not that they have emotions. Once they know how to regulate themselves emotionally, some traders do exhibit particular kinds of trading they gravitate towards. Others practices several different kinds. The problem I have with deterministic forms of personality tests that determine the best kind of trading for a trader is that they are measuring a snap shot of where a trader's psychology is at a particular moment and applying it to a style of trading. They do not measure the potential that is possible. So they tend to pigeon hole people that simutaneously cuts off potential. Once fear is regulated, a whole new world can show up that a deterministic test would have missed. Focusing on the development of potential beyond fear opens a different range of possibilities for people. It's the fear that has to be regulated. Patience, disciple, courage, and impartiality then can be developed. Rande Howell

zdo Interesting reflection. I don't use typing because I find it tends to pigeon holes people rather than develop their potential. After emotional regulation, I teach Jungian archetypes as dominant or under utilized aspects of the self that can be brought into awareness. This has the affect of harnessing the gifts and talents that lie within us. Intially my interest is whether the trader is fear based or impulse based in his trading. Your desensitization comment is really on target. I actually use a process called stress inoculation as a way of shaping healthier perception while in the process of trading. It's kinda like sytematic desensitization on steriods. Probably the most I learned in working with traders is the need for compassion and courage to harness the power of shame to reshape the psychological organization of the self that trades. To change core beliefs about the self (which you are trading), this is essential. Trading is a journey into knowing the self and changing the self. Fear is locked door that must be opened. Rande Howell

It is the mindset that enters the uncertainty that creates either opportunity or negative fortune. It is in the eye of the beholder. I believe that what you refer to as "respect the fear" is called vigilance or reverence -- both essential emotions to deal with uncertainty. Rande

What does this discussion open or close for you as a trader? Trading does not come natural to the human brain. For the vast majority of traders, it has to be learned. From an evolutionary perspective, just a few short years ago we were all cavemen. In your ancestor’s world there was no reason to separate uncertainty from fear. The world was a dangerous place and if you experienced uncertainty in your dealings with your environment, there was a good chance you were facing a mortal threat. Uncertainty became glued to fear and anxiety as a survival trait. And that trait got transmitted to future generations -- long after the usefulness of glueing uncertainty and fear together. Your inner caveman still lives within you as you trade. Your limbic brain (caveman’s inheritance to you) still is still watching his environment (your trading screens now) and interpreting from an evolutionary bias that locks uncertainty and fear together – rather than distinguishing them from one another. This deeply embedded trait has also been uploaded into your psychology. This is the psychology of self that trades and experiences worry and fear when you are supposed to be impartially managing risk with your trading plan. Separating uncertainty from worry and fear (more primitive parts of your survival brain) – caveman – is what is required for a trader to evolve from fear based interpretations of uncertainty to risk management interpretations of uncertainty. So if you're having difficulty moving one set of psychological skills that proved okay successful in one domain of your life to success in trading, welcome -- this is typical. There is nothing "wrong" with you. But it does indicate that the "you" that your brain has organized you as needs to be changed. And that new psychological skills will need to be developed to replace your inheritance from caveman. Otherwise caveman will continue to participate in your trading. That's all. The mindset for the vast majority of traders has to be developed. Particularly the management of uncertainty and the meaning that becomes embedded tin he meaning making pathways of your brain (that's your perception). This is where you will find your self limiting beliefs about yourself. If you experience hesitation as you evaluate set ups for risking capital, if you are seized with fear as you try to pull the trigger, or if your heart pounds as you enters a trade (particularly when it goes against you), you are experiencing a biological predisposition that has shaped your personal psychology to avoid uncertainty -- that's your caveman trading along side of you, perhaps even taking over. It is the mindset that you take into uncertainty (that's trading) determines the probability of success. Evolutionary and psychological bias, in the vast majority of traders, will have to be examined and changed for this to occur. It takes emotional labor, and that's the price for re-development of the self designed for trading. It's a great personal development adventure. Traders often invest years in learning to know the self and developing a psyhology that trades effectively. This process is unavoidable. Where are you in the evolution of this process? Rande Howell

You're welcome. Trading is a serious undertaking. I like being in the trenches with people who are taking trading seriously.

Brian Mark Douglas is a must read. He describes well what a peak performance state of mind looks like for trading. The problem is that you are not shown HOW to develop the mindset. It is somewhat self serving, but I encourage you to check out my book, Mindful Trading: Mastering Your Emotions and the Inner Game. Traders tell me that it really gets into the head of a trader and shows the tools and skills needed to evolve as trader. An excerpt from the book can be read for free by clicking here. Trading is an exciting path to self development. Avoiding your psychological demons is impossible because they staulk you. I wish you well. Rande Howell MEd, LPC www.tradersstateofmind.com

Trading does not come natural to the human brain. It has to be learned. A chuck of this is the psychology of self. Separating uncertainty from worry and fear is something that your brain (or the socialization of your brain) was never designed for. So if you're having difficulty moving one set of psychological skills that proved okay successful in one domain of your life to trading, welcome -- this is typical. There is nothing "wrong" with you. But it does indicate that the "you" that your brain has organized you as needs to be changed. That's all. The mindset for the vast majority of traders has to be developed. Particularly the management of uncertainty and the meaning that become embedded the meaning making pathways of your brain. This is where you will find your self limiting beliefs about yourself. It is the mindset that you take into uncertainty (that's trading) determines the probability of success. Evolutionary and psychological bias, in the vast majority of traders, will have to be examined and changed for this to occur. It takes emotional labor, and that's the price for re-development of the self designed for trading. It's a great personal development adventure. Rande Howell www.tradersstateofmind.com

Mindful Trading: Mastering Your Emotions and the Inner Game by Rande Howell. Available at www.tradersstateofmind.com He's an educational contributor to the Money Show's trader education trade shows and understands emotion and peak performance in a game changing way.

EminiTradingCoach Learning how to distinguish global fear into a specific domain allows the trader to name their fear or put a face on it. Learning how to manage the biological arousal of fear is another essential skill that needs to be developed. I encourage you to come to my free webinar where I teach stress inoculation skills that disrupt fear from sweeping the trader's mind away into a self limiting state of mind. If you are interested in exploring this possibility as a say of helping your clients, here is the link to registration for the Worry Management Workshop. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/993410712 Thank you for your interest. Rande Howell Index of /Index of /

You are invited to a free webinar where you will learn to name the fear that keeps you from peak performance trading. More than that, though, is that you will learn how you can conquer your fears that lock you into self limiting beliefs that manifest in your trading. If you know HOW to trade, but your emotions keep hijacking your discipline and impartiality needed to trade consistently, this one hour webinar will open your eyes to what stops you from achieving your potential. This webinar from Traders State of Mind is Monday, Dec. 7th at 8 PM EST. Click here for details and registration.

Dear Trader.jeff Ask yourself this question. Does the fear of success show up in other domains of your life other than trading? Because we trade our beliefs, trading opens a door to observe ourselves on a deeper level. The interesting thing about trading is that the very psychological demons that we have avoided acknowledging before trading begin to hunt us down when we begin trading. If this phenomenon does not exist out side of your trading, then it probably is not about your psychology of trading. If it does exist in other domains beyond trading and is exacerbated in your trading, then welcome to a rarified moment that you can be mindful of the power of the brain to create self liimiting beliefs called the comfort zone. Fear of success is a common self limiting belief that keeps people stuck in the prison of their comfort zone. Good luck, Rande Howell www.tradersstateofmind.com

Well, if I am going to be quoted as "Rande's relatively more structured process for working with these issues.....", I feel that I need to weigh in. At my recent workshop at the Trader's Expo in Las Vegas, I was stunned to find out that the most powerful fear appears (not while attempting to pull the trigger, which most folks report in my webinars) but while traders are in the trade. By a 5:1 margin in my Worry Management Workshop. It is at moments of uncertainty like "in the trade" that many traders are overwhelmed by their lack of emotional regulation skills and the dark side of our trading emerges and uncertainty becomes adrenaline soaked fear. There is no escaping uncertainty in trading (or in life). We build carefully crafted comfort zones to exclude working with uncertainty and probabilty BEDAUSE THE BRAIN CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY. And it seeks to create certainty - no matter what. The first step to building a mind that trades well in the uncertainty of life is to learn to manage fear biologically. Once you can do this, getting at the mind and working with it becomes much more possible. In my Stage ONE work, I have adapted Herbert Benson' and Steven Stosney's work on emotional regulation to the trading world. It's not magic. It is re-training the brain to distinguish between worth, uncertainty, and fear. Getting the biologic part of emotional regulation down is essential if you did not happen to be born in the right circumstance for your brain to wire itself for management of uncertainty. And certainly most of us were not born with the gift of a trader's mind. It has to be developed by the vast majority of people entering trading. Fortunately, you can learn how to train the brain (and the mind) to do this. But there is emotional labor involved. No pain, no gain. First get the fear regulated so that it does not overwhelm the circuitry that creates the mind. The mind can be trained much easier if you do this. I lay out this process in my book "Mindful Training: Mastering Your Emotions and the Inner Game". You can read, free, an excerpt on my website. Good luck Rande Howell www.tradersstateofmind.com

To rxs0005 This is a most common fear in trading and can be conquered with work. Our brain is organized around fear -- this is its nature. The problem is that your brain can't tell the difference between fear and uncertainty. Until you can emotionally regulate the fear impulse, you will not be able to seperate fear from uncertainty (and become a successful trader). This uncertainty will show up as thoughts in your mind that I call the historical internal dialog. This is how you can learn to be mindful of your self limiting beliefs -- they appear as an internal struggle in your thought life. There is always an Inner Critic that criticizes and judges your performances as if they were a reflection of your worth. Then you will find a fearful, child like, part of the self reacting to the internal criticism. You will experience this as the inability of pulling the trigger. With regulation of the fear, you can go beyond this fear and find much more empowered inner resources than the fear. You will find discipline, patience, courage, and confidence. These are just as real as the fear you experience. But the fear blocks the potential to access these parts of the mind. They are there, but you have to know how to emotionally regulate the fear first, distinguish it from uncertainty, and then re-organize the internal dialog so that it expresses the empowerded parts of the self within the mind, rather than the self limiting beliefs. Trading becomes a way to develop the self. It's a journey into your potential. You have to manisfest the courage to confront the psychological demons that blocks your way. Otherwise you stay stuck. Good luck with this. It's a powerful moment of discovery. Rande Howell www.tradersstateofmind.com

Most of the traders I work with don't think in terms of a % return. Instead they see it as revenue. They are seeking a livihood rather than an investment. They often are in their late 40's, 50's, or 60's and realize they will never have another job -- they are not going to be hired. Trading becomes a viable option as a business or new career. Rande Howell www.tradersstateofmind.com

Good luck with this experiment. And I would love to hear progress reports. Neurons, for sure, can be wired together so they fire together. Anybody who has trained brain and body to produce an automatic behavior has experienced this. The pesky part is that the mind is not a machine -- no matter how many reps you expose it to. It, as it emerges from brain, is still organized around fear as survival strategy and it can not tell the difference between fear and uncertainty. Humans persue excellence -- perfection is not possible in the world of uncertainty that defines market. We are emotionally driven biological creatures. It is in learning how to manage emotions that we learn to trade more effectively. Re-organization of the self for trading actually requires confronting self limiting belief system that are already hardwired into the archetecture of the brain. Putting new pattern on top of that does not deconstruct or eliminate these old beliefs, and they have a way of resurfacing. The skillful use of compassion, courage, and shame are the elements of changes to the core self. Compassion is the antedote to fear and the self limiting beliefs that come from fear. Courage is necessary to face things we really don't want to see about the self. And shame is needed to disorganize the old belief system so that compassion can do its work. I personally would love to hear about your experience as you move through this process. It's interesting. Rande Howell www.tradersstateofmind.com