Food for Thought

globalarbtrader said:
Behaviour that made sense a million years ago no longer does. System 1 - fast instinctive response -made sense when we were trying to survive on the savannah....
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But even on the Savannah our "fast instinctive response" led to us turning away from a predator, not towards it. This might actually be the answer I'm looking for. Everything attributed to "psychology" may stem from misinterpreting the visuals. We see a predator and instinctively respond by turning towards it and immediately get mauled....

I think I know what to do.
 
I think many of you have the right idea. I believe it all starts with an instinctive nature. I'm a very introspective person, so after 20 years of doing this I've come to many conclusions about my own behavior. I've been a sports fanatic my whole life and I've had to learn how not to overlap my sports instinct with my trading mindset.

What has helped me in sports? Get meaner, more aggression, revenge, seeking the thrill of the score or the crushing knockout, get as many "highs" and glory as possible, challenge the inner ego, use fight or flee to one's advantage, "WILL" the outcome, are some of the things that come to mind...many of which are devastating for a trading mentality! In sports, I have no doubt that a dopamine rush in the brain is controlling the here and now. Even though many of you never played sports or have an aggressive personality...I believe we all have this instinct to not be left behind or without some edge to make sure we eat and mate...it comes out in different ways now...getting a higher grade than others or arguing on ET or whatever!

What do I do now? I use my "sports" personality and aggressiveness to discover any edge I can get, but I become a rigid machine when it comes down to execution of any setup...I leave ego and dopamine (don't want the "high") and glory and being willful and whatever out of the equation as much as possible!

I've had this thought for quite some time. If I was a trader WITHOUT a unique edge, let's say, and my methodology was very basic/simple with a good R:R of profit3 to loss1. So I trade all year with discipline and having many losses and fewer excellent gains for profitability of $3000 gain for the year...I'm considered a profitable trader...right? But what is my mindset for the upcoming year? Am I going to be impatient because I spent a whole year losing a lot of battles to barely win a war? Does instinct/ego look for more of an edge or do we remain patient/mechanical with the current profitable method? Maybe even worse, we stick with current method, but start second guessing it and sabotage it to hell. Basically we lose patience, we want MORE...it's our instinct to have an edge over others in life, trading or whatever. I believe being profitable is not enough for most traders...we want way more...slightly above average isn't going to work, it doesn't guarantee survival enough...our innate programming is running the show! My 2 cents.:) P.S. Even though I eventually learned how my personality can get in the way of my trading results, I still believe a trading "edge" is most important...but you have to have both!
 
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BONECRUSHER said:
...So I trade all year with discipline and having many losses and fewer excellent gains for profitability of $3000k gain for the year...I'm considered a profitable trader...right? But what is my mindset for the upcoming year?...
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Sheesh, who cares. A gain of $3 mil for the year is profitable.
 
Xela said:
Yes - I don't know the answer to it, at all, but I think I get it.
Yes - I wonder, as a sort-of-statistician, whether (m)any of them are also people whose behaviour in other areas of their lives actually "matches" that phenomenon, perhaps without it having been noticed in such an obvious way simply because of the differing contexts?

I'm only throwing out a quick observation, here: it may be entirely wrong. I have absolutely no claim to expertise in this field, or even really to any experience of it (having Asperger's syndrome, myself, and being comparatively short of "psychological insights" about others' behaviour. My own perspective, if that's relevant, is that I've always instinctively felt that the "psychological factors" in trading are widely overstated in general, and specifically that the realities of the market predicate that it's far easier for people to write, publish and sell "psychology books" than "trading books". And that the commonest reasons for aspiring trader failure are all about "not having an edge" rather than being "psychological". Just my perspective.)
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People generally don't really aspire to "getting it". Don't really care all that much - just live to eat, drink, shop, fuck around and generally raise entropy for all. With not much signs of introspection that's the case, there's little amount of restraint and thought throughout the process. People are so engrossed with all of this activity - destroying their environment and themselves, they really have no time to dwell wether you've finally "got it" or not. People connect through their interests and social activities, and this is tough and tiring to emulate. Indeed, most people don't really connect with very many, just a few very extroverts do that to an admirable degree. It's possible to be friendly to everybody though, but not much point trying to be someone else or to prove something in and of itself.

This attitude is reflected in everything, also trading.
 
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