Psychology is nothing
Knowing is the entire game.
Do you feel fear, greed, worry, or any other emotions when you, for example, fill up your car?
I know a rather “blond-between-the-ears” PhD who was a spoon-fed brat from birth, she was the youngest child, everything was handed to her, pretty much.
Well, the first time she went to fill up the car daddy bought her at a self-service gas station, she experienced a range of emotions from frustration to terror. She didn’t know where to put gas in, didn’t know how to work the pump, didn’t know how much to put in, etc. It was a nightmare.
Was the problem all in her head? Did she need psychological counseling to deal with these feelings? Did she need motivational books and tapes? No.
She needed to know how to put gas in the car. Once she knew this, the emotion was gone from the experience, past and future.
(She may have had to figure out for herself how to do it, in which case positive attitude would have played a role, and kept her from giving up and sitting in her car in despair. But that's as far as that goes.)
What's it mean to us?
Of course the market will always have unknowns. On any trade, you could have made more or lost less, and therefore you are wrong on every trade to that extent. You can't know everything, but you can know what to do.
If you have seen a particular market pattern enough times to know it, or if you have been correctly taught how to handle that particular situation and have confidence in that teaching, there will be no emotion involved. You simply do what you know you need to do. It may be right in this particular instance, and it may be wrong, but you are confident that, statistically, this is the thing you must do, so you just do it.
Only when you know, can you have “ice in your veins”.
Now to go one farther, there’s nothing we see in the market that hasn’t happened before.
A newbie looks at charts and is confused. A pro looks at charts and see trade setups. He knows his favorites, can easily spot them, he knows how to stay focused and watch for the confirmation. He knows exactly when his system says to enter this setup, how to manage the trade, and when to exit. This is based on his being taught, his research, &/or experience. He is the system. He is confident. He is profitable.
What he does is no more complicated or difficult to him than putting gas in a car. There is a sequence of steps to go through, and a few things to be careful of and that's it.
We’re told day after day, by literally hundreds of people that trading is mostly psychological. If you’re not profitable, it’s just in your head.
That reminds me of a grade school teacher I had a conversation with once. She said, “If he can’t read we give him an easier book. If he can’t read that we give him an easier one. If he can’t read that we send him upstairs to have him evaluated, he must be ADD or something.”
In other words, it wasn’t her job to teach him to read. If he can’t read, he must be mentally ill!
I guess that comes full circle. A person would have to be crazy to want to be a professional trader!
Knowing is the entire game.
Do you feel fear, greed, worry, or any other emotions when you, for example, fill up your car?
I know a rather “blond-between-the-ears” PhD who was a spoon-fed brat from birth, she was the youngest child, everything was handed to her, pretty much.
Well, the first time she went to fill up the car daddy bought her at a self-service gas station, she experienced a range of emotions from frustration to terror. She didn’t know where to put gas in, didn’t know how to work the pump, didn’t know how much to put in, etc. It was a nightmare.
Was the problem all in her head? Did she need psychological counseling to deal with these feelings? Did she need motivational books and tapes? No.
She needed to know how to put gas in the car. Once she knew this, the emotion was gone from the experience, past and future.
(She may have had to figure out for herself how to do it, in which case positive attitude would have played a role, and kept her from giving up and sitting in her car in despair. But that's as far as that goes.)
What's it mean to us?
Of course the market will always have unknowns. On any trade, you could have made more or lost less, and therefore you are wrong on every trade to that extent. You can't know everything, but you can know what to do.
If you have seen a particular market pattern enough times to know it, or if you have been correctly taught how to handle that particular situation and have confidence in that teaching, there will be no emotion involved. You simply do what you know you need to do. It may be right in this particular instance, and it may be wrong, but you are confident that, statistically, this is the thing you must do, so you just do it.
Only when you know, can you have “ice in your veins”.
Now to go one farther, there’s nothing we see in the market that hasn’t happened before.
A newbie looks at charts and is confused. A pro looks at charts and see trade setups. He knows his favorites, can easily spot them, he knows how to stay focused and watch for the confirmation. He knows exactly when his system says to enter this setup, how to manage the trade, and when to exit. This is based on his being taught, his research, &/or experience. He is the system. He is confident. He is profitable.
What he does is no more complicated or difficult to him than putting gas in a car. There is a sequence of steps to go through, and a few things to be careful of and that's it.
We’re told day after day, by literally hundreds of people that trading is mostly psychological. If you’re not profitable, it’s just in your head.
That reminds me of a grade school teacher I had a conversation with once. She said, “If he can’t read we give him an easier book. If he can’t read that we give him an easier one. If he can’t read that we send him upstairs to have him evaluated, he must be ADD or something.”
In other words, it wasn’t her job to teach him to read. If he can’t read, he must be mentally ill!
I guess that comes full circle. A person would have to be crazy to want to be a professional trader!
.... bro
My bad 
Surely I have to know what to do... if not... I am already out of this business years ago 
Enough with this PSYCHOLOGY thinggy. You got me there!
People... enlightened me... please... where you guys actually got that figure 95% from? 
Any hard prove? Seriously... I need to KNOW this... is it really true?
