Transcription
[Music] One of the toughest skills that a Trader has to really truly build from the floor up is patience. You know, we grew up in a culture, not just in the United States but all over the world, that is really anti-patience. We want to win, we want to make things happen, and for God's sake, you know something, if we're not doing something, we're not doing something. So we have to always be doing.
Not only this, but we are also simply uncomfortable with just sitting there, with being quiet. It's one of the reasons that meditation observation is such a difficult training to be able to do. Also, is that ultimately what happens? The mind wants to be active. And a lot of people, as they approach being quiet, being patient, what they do is they discover discomfort. They start noticing thoughts arising, and it, they feel so disturbed, they want to get out of it. They want to do anything. They'll start doing things like, "Oh, I'm, you know something, I'm sitting here and I want a couple. I feel pretty good, and now I'm sitting here bored because there's nothing to do. I'm waiting for a setup, and it's just like boring."
And suddenly, what they do, they'll do some emails, they'll do some other stuff, they'll make some calls, and then they say, "You know something, I'm just going to check the internet. You know, I'm gonna check my email." And then, well, you know, there's a couple things I could do while I'm just checking things out. And meanwhile, what I want you to notice is how the trading mind is drifting, drifting. It's no longer disciplined, patient, clear-minded. It's not that anymore. Suddenly, it wants to be doing something. And that doing something starts taking it in different directions. And as you're doing that, what you notice is patience starts giving up. And suddenly we start getting boring. And all of a sudden, and we're sitting there, and we understand the other part of this problem is that you've won. And that winning produces a dopamine fix that feels really good. Yeah, and you want more, right? You know, what do you want to do? I mean, why are you trading? To make money. And you've got to be trading to make money, don't you?
The point of patience is to recognize that not trading is just as much a part of trading as the act of trading itself. And in trading, what you learn is that you wait. You wait to see what the markets will give you. It's kind of like this: the perfect trading mind would be that of a cougar, the American cougar. What the cougar does is climbs a tree or scales a rock face, sits above where the white-tailed deer is, but knows the patterns, knows the, the communication and transportation hubs going through the forest. And he waits till a deer shows up in on one of those paths, then it ambushes.
If you were to see a cougar hunting, you would swear that it was being lazy. It's just sitting there, just sitting there, nothing going on. And all of a sudden, you don't see that. Finally, the forest gives it something. It's not out actively looking, say, the way an African lion would. It chases. The thing is, is that the cougar does not chase. It ambushes. It waits for the moment patiently. And you might see that as it's sleeping, it's mindfully waiting for the moment to arrive. It's waiting, it's waiting, it's waiting to see what the forest is going to give it. And then when that deer locks in, it drops 10 to 15 feet. And hopefully, what it does is it snaps the neck of the deer, and it just drops dead. That's a knockout. Okay. If that deer is not killed, it will get up and it will run. That deer runs at 40 miles an hour. The cougar is not going to chase and expend the energy. So what it does is it takes the loss, a small one, climbs back up the tree, and awaits again for the next setup to come. Sounds like a trader.
What I want you to notice is that you're waiting for something to arrive, and you're developing a practice of patience. But we, as these modern Homo sapiens, we don't like to wait. We want to make things happen, we want to win, we do not want to lose. Okay. This is the exact opposite of what's required to win in trading. In trading, you do not, you do not force the issue. You do not make something happen. The other thing is winning. It's just landing on the right side of probability, that's all. Losing is just landing on the wrong side of probability. Relative to you, the deal, though, is how did you perform? How did you perform? Right now, my wife and I are watching the Olympics. And amazingly, here comes this gymnast who has already won the world record, like he's, he's the world-class gymnast. And what happens? He's trying to do his routine, but his performance is blocked. He has three, three mistakes that basically blow him out of the Olympics because he's no longer patient. He can't have the calm mind anymore because something's creeping in.
And what you need to be doing in that patient mind, you need to say, "Okay, I know that the three emotions that are giving rise to the mind for me to be a superb trader are discipline, the ability to maintain order under pressure, patience, dealing with boredom in a positive fashion." It's not boredom like something bad, it's just the space between what the markets will give you and you taking action. And you're in, you're in sync with the market rather than trying to force the market in sync to you. And the last one is clear thinking. Is that you have to be able to think clearly. It just so happens, what happens with most people, particularly with their caveman brain, they're sitting there, they start out patient, but they don't recognize that you have to practice patience. Is before you know it, that curious mind of yours, that has all sorts of activity going on, doesn't want to be in patience. It wants to start looking around, it wants to start doing things, it wants to explore because it's bored. There's nothing to do.
What we have to recognize is that nothing to do is in fact doing something. And if you're going to be a successful trader, you're going to develop this patience. And when boredom starts arising, you're going to notice it. You're not going to sit there and just boom, find out one day that, "Oh my God, when the smoke clears, I just fell out of patience and I fell into boredom, and then I fell into just activ, random activity that just seemed to be doing something." So what you're doing is, as you're practicing patience, you're noticing when the boredom shows up. That boredom, maybe just, yeah, okay. Most likely, what it is, is is your discomfort in the silence. And what you're going to have to learn to do is become comfortable in that silence. Because in that silence, the trade is coming toward you or away from you, and you're in waiting. You await what the, what the markets are going to give you. That's trading, friends.
And what you're doing is you're finding out what is stopping you from staying in patience and moving into boredom. Because boredom is really about an internal dialogue, discomfort. You know, you want to be doing something, you want to feel good, you want to do this, you want to do that, you want to win, and you're not winning fast enough. And what you learn in trading is it's slow. It's fast. Everybody that goes in to make a, a lot of money fast and just grab this, it turns against them. The mind gets into aggression, okay? And that is not going to happen well in the trading mind. It takes the trading mind to a point where it starts taking anything that comes. What you're having to do is retrain that mind to live in patience and to be on guard, vigilant, okay, of boredom coming in and suddenly changing the mindset required to deal with effective trading.
It's that way you're going to have to train a caveman brain that's built for one different thing. It doesn't like that just boredom sitting there. You know, it wants activity, it wants to be doing, doing, doing. And at the same time, a trading mind has to be comfortable, comfortable with being silent and waiting. Okay? Just like the cougar, you know, it awaits its meal. And for you, you're awaiting the opportunity that the markets are going to give you. And if you rush it, it's not in your favor anymore. Maintain the mind rooted in patience, rooted in discipline, rooted in clarity. That's what you're looking for. You get out of that and you start getting agitated, you want to do something, you're no longer in trading mind. Train yourself to be able to see that happening before it grabs you and takes your body and starts doing really dumb, stupid things. That's what, you know, if you want to learn how to do this, it's not easy. You have to learn to be patient. Come to our website, www.traderstatemind.com. Watch more of the videos on YouTube under Randy Howell. Learn, read my book. Start looking at this and going, "You know something, I can do this." Now, you're Homo sapiens, you can do stuff that other social mammals can't. You need to kick it up a notch, okay? And recognize that you are captain of your own destiny, for good or for bad. You're the captain of that. You're the one who builds the mind that engages the uncertainty. You're the one that builds that mind and engages life. Okay? You want to make sure that mind that engages the challenges of living, the challenges of trading, you're wanting it to be disciplined, impartial, and patient. Take care.
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