Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

CHOOSING HOW YOU LIVE: YOUR ENVIRONMENT

Trading problems are often reflected in the environment in which you choose to live. If your physical environment is a mess, chances are that your trading is a mess, too. And so it was with John, one of my clients.

John’s parents learned to be clever out of necessity. They were poor immigrants from Yugoslavia who escaped Communism with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and the determination to create a safe life for themselves in America. They educated themselves, grew their own business, and established a foundation of wealth. John remembers growing up in a home that was full of things that other people would have discarded. And so it became John’s habit as well never to throw away anything, because it could be useful some day. He was living with his parents’ mindset even though his inheritance left him with more than a million dollars in the bank, a mortgage-free home, and a monthly trust fund stipend that provided enough for an average lifestyle for the rest of his life.

John became a trader after becoming bored with his chosen field of engineering. He set out to do whatever it took to be profitable without taking risk. Anyone who knew trading would be impressed with his mathematical equations and indicators, but he was stuck at the gate. Every time he would try paper trading to prove his system, he would find it necessary to tweak it. What John was doing was trying to create a situation where he would not have to take any risk. ...