W - "When you've achieved a state of mind where you truly accept the risk, you won't have the potential to define and interpret market information in painful ways." -Mark Douglas
A - Mark wants us to understand that regardless of our education, skill level, experience, or account size, as long as we do not fully accept the risk inherent in trading, we will always see the market as a force that is working against us and means to harm us in psychologically and financially painful ways.
A - I struggled with fully accepting risk when I first started trading in 2017. I was arrogant, prideful, and reckless because I thought that trading was an endeavor that required me to have a risky mindset as opposed to having a risk management mindset. My attitude lead to a huge losing negative equity curve, anger, anxiety and massive frustration which was a reflection of my state of life at that time. I left trading and reflected on my trading journey at that point and went back to work coordinating real estate transactions with Redfin. But the desire to become a consistently profitable trader was in my blood and after much reflection, mediating, and letting go of delusion, I returned to trading with a much more humble attitude and an open mind to let go of what I thought I knew about trading and to learn from other experienced traders mainly during the PCT bootcamp which has helped me enormously. The first correct idea that I fully embraced is that the market is not trying to intentionally hurt me. I only hurt myself when I don't accept the risk before I enter a trade. I now trade with a $12.50 risk with a hard stop in place that I never move. This has helped me to build confidence, spend more time focusing on what the market is trying to tell me and whether the market information is applicable to the trading plan that I spent months developing and perfecting through PCT. It's not a perfect process, it's very hard work and everyday my goal is to turn poison into medicine in every facet of my life including trading. 🙏