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

THE EXTERNALLY MOTIVATED TRADER

I have seen a number of traders who have been working from the wrong kind of motivation. Several years back, Tom reached his trading peak when he earned enough money in a few highly successful trades to move his family into their dream home. He was also able to put money in the bank and pay off the loans needed to set up his trading business. Since then, he has struggled to maintain his momentum while responding to one crises or financial demand after another.

“I want to do better,” he told me. “Why?” I asked. Tom did not have a good answer to that question and that is where the problem is. I am not saying that he did not have reasons to want to succeed. He explained that his wife was not well enough to hold down a full-time job after a bout with cancer and that their medical bills were a constant problem to resolve. He was also eager to prove to his family that they were wrong in not supporting him in his trading. He wanted to show them that he was not only financially secure, but that he was wealthy by their standards.

In his mid-thirties, Tom is an intelligent, educated, and attractive man. However, when he was growing up, he was not a socially successful teenager. In school, his penchant for mathematics and science made him the butt of ridicule and bullying. Now, standing over six feet tall and having worked out with weights for years, Tom no longer has the look of someone who would attract a bully. However, he still bears the scars of feeling ...