Page 40 - Psychology Course Study Manual
P. 40
that to be successful in America, one had to work a structured 9 to 5 job at a major corporation
being an executive, accountant, lawyer, or doctor.
When my client traded he was not fitting this pre programmed profile of what he “should” be
to be successful. Therefore, when he traded, he would feel the negative emotions created by
his belief system about being a failure if he was a trader. And since he felt Mom and Dad were
always right and had to be respected, he could not question Mom and Dad’s incorrect
beliefs. Therefore trading created anxiety and tension because it was in direct conflict with
what his Mom and Dad taught him. He did not feel he was doing something worthwhile, so he
felt he did not deserve to be successful and make profits. And don’t ever think our links to our
parents in some form or fashion don’t stay with us for a lifetime, because they do!
The key to helping him was to slowly show him that his parent’s beliefs really were not realistic,
especially in our society today. I would use examples of all sorts of people in our society who
did not work “regular” jobs but made tons of money and by all our societal means where
successful. After he acknowledged this, then the next step for him was to actually believe
it. We can acknowledge anything; change comes when we actually believe it. Meaning we had
to replace his unrealistic beliefs about success with realistic beliefs. This took some additional
time, but it did happen and when it did his trading turned around. This is a great example of
illustrating how our beliefs about trading, money, and success can influence our trading. At
times the trader may be unaware of their negative beliefs that are sabotaging their trading.
If you’re feeling angry, uptight, frustrated, hopeless, depressed while trading, stop trading and
try to get to the bottom of your problems. There are no short cuts in this area either. You will
not develop “The Trader’s Mindset” which is the Holy Grail to trading unless you master your
mind and learn to notice and resolve your emotion issues.
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