The Second Level of Transformation: Reprogramming Yourself to Think like a Super Trader

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1547975017532{margin-right: 20px !important;margin-left: 20px !important;}”][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”Transformation at Level 2: Reprogramming Yourself” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]The conceptual premise for the movie The Matrix may be much more applicable than most people realize. When you name something and assign adjectives and phrases to that name, you give meaning to the world around you (e.g., dog, small dog, hyperactive dog, dog that would be a good pet, dog that needs discipline-training classes). We shape our entire world through our words, thoughts, and beliefs. This is the Matrix you live in. And to change it, you have to take the red pill–in other words, you have to change your perceptions about how you perceive everything.

When you take the metaphorical red pill, you learn that your whole world is shaped by your beliefs. Though it may be unsettling at first, the realization opens up an amazing world of possibilities. Because now you are free to transform yourself by releasing non-useful beliefs and adopting useful ones.

To make a Level 2 transformation, you must first examine your beliefs. You don’t trade the markets, you trade your beliefs about the markets; and if your beliefs are not useful, you’re in big trouble as a trader. The average trader will struggle to accept the notion that you trade your beliefs about the markets, but it is a critical change of perception. This change is what allows you to begin reprogramming yourself.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”50″][vc_custom_heading text=”Examine Your Beliefs About the Market” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Everyone has beliefs about the market, including non-traders and non-investors, and if you really examine them, you’ll find that most are not that useful.

To examine your beliefs about the market, chose one belief, anything about the market such as “it is hard to outperform the indexes,” or “the markets are random,” or “company fundamentals matter” or “bullish trading below the 200-day moving average is a bad idea.” Any belief at all. Now ask yourself the following questions:

(1) What does this belief get me into?

(2) What does it get me out of?

When you consider the answers to these questions, you begin to evaluate the effectiveness of each belief. What happens, for example, when you believe that the secret to market success is to be a good stock picker? What activities do you choose to spend time on because you have that belief? As you further contemplate this line of reasoning, you should then ask yourself:

(3) What kind of trader would I be if I didn’t have this belief?

(4) Is this belief useful to me–does it serve me?[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”50″][vc_custom_heading text=”Practice Examining Your Beliefs” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]You can experience a hint of this transformation by completing the following exercise.

Step 1: Articulate the first trading belief that comes to your mind.

Don’t bother evaluating the belief or trying to select a better one. Just use the first belief that occurs to you.

Step 2: Ask yourself what this belief lets you do (“What does this belief get me in to?”)

Step 3: Capture your answer.

Step 4: Observe your answer and see what insights occur to you. Note at least one single insight.

Chances are this exercise will turn up a belief, or portion of a belief, you didn’t realize you had. There are many beliefs we take for granted, and that means we don’t really know how many beliefs are helpful, harmful, or merely bog down our trading process.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”50″][vc_custom_heading text=”Adopting More Useful Beliefs” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]If you repeat the procedure above a few times, you are sure to find that one of your beliefs is not useful to you. This might be surprising to you. Fortunately, this is not a hard problem to remedy. Once you are aware of a belief that is not useful, you can simply adopt a better one. This is an easy thing to do—unless the old belief is charged, or tightly associated with, an emotion. Such an emotional charge will generate at least a mild emotional response when you merely consider that belief and attempt to evaluate it. This response helps you hold a belief in place. It keeps you from changing the belief so that you don’t lose the value that you get from it. Emotional charges usually accompany beliefs that we consider important, and almost everyone thinks their beliefs about money, investing and trading are very important indeed.

Examining emotionally charged beliefs and the parts of you that hold them in place.

Another part of the journey down the rabbit hole is examining the emotional charge that holds many of your non-useful beliefs in place and releasing it. As you begin to examine your emotionally charged beliefs you may meet a lot of parts of yourself, or different aspects of who you think you are, that are associated with those beliefs. These could also be roles that you believe you need to perform in your life. For example, you might have the following parts:

• A perfectionist part that won ’t let you do anything until you’re sure things are perfect. This part’s definition of perfect might be making money on every trade. It is not a very useful part to have, and yet many people do have a part like this.
• The risk manager who cannot stand to lose money and who is always afraid to do anything that might cause him to lose money.
• The researcher who is always trying something new. This can be useful to a trader, but it can also be distracting.
• The excitement-seeking part that wants to do things in the market that provide you with big thrills. Good trading is usually boring, so a part like this is probably not helpful at all.
• You could have a part like your dad that criticizes you whenever you do anything wrong. If that sort of dad is in there, you probably feel put down and often criticize yourself in order to protect yourself from your dad ’s criticism.
• Perhaps your mom is in there, and she ’s always saying, “Please get a real job.”

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator el_width=”50″][vc_custom_heading text=”Aligning the Parts Connected to Your Beliefs” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]You probably have thousands of parts like these. Each part has its own set of beliefs. Each part has a positive intention for you. But you can probably see that parts could become very conflicted and lead you to the point where you cannot do anything. Thus, one of your jobs as a potential Super Trader is to clear out the crowd and bring your mind toward oneness and serenity. Much of our education for traders involves this sort of work.

Imagine looking at all of your trading beliefs and eliminating those that don’t help you win. On top of that, imagine eliminating all the beliefs that limit you. Now imagine eliminating all the beliefs about your life and the universe you live in that seem to indicate that you can’t win because life, the universe or anything, is against you. Lastly, imagine getting all of your parts unified so there is no conflict inside. This is how powerful personal transformation can be.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”flash_right_sidebar”][/vc_column][/vc_row]