W- "Fear (high degree of negatively charged energy) has a profoundly limiting effect on the range of information that we pay attention to." A - Mark is talking about how fear can actively blind and artificially focus - to the point of delusion - our attention. He also goes on to talk about how fear can focus our attention on what we fear (we feel we must act) - or create blind spots because we are avoiding what we fear (we withdraw into inaction). A - This is very interesting. The two faces of fear - the focused fear of losing/being wrong that compels action "get out of the trade." Vs the blind spot fear of being wrong that locks me into a losing trade because all I'm seeing is the candles that confirm my relief. I am working on trading "peacefully" - by talking myself through and acknowledging the difference between what the market is actually doing vs my fear/projections/interpretation/internal experience. The benign up and down of colored candles on a screen - that inform my process VS the emotional roller coaster of "Phew, I'm right... / Shit, I'm wrong...." It's a work in progress - and I'm making inroads towards recognizing the difference. The next steps are to take myself out of my internal experience and into just seeing the market. I am getting better at knowing when I'm feeling intense and then being able to come out of that so that I can see what is happening. My primary goal is to trade peacefully - with optimism and self-trust. I agree with Susan's assessment of seeing how people (including myself) can talk themselves into versions of "reality" that are not real because they are triggered into the fight/flight mode. (arguably this perfectly describes life since 2019 - LOL, not LOL). I would suggest that everyone should learn to trade and have to trade live for a certain period of time - to learn this about themselves. In life, you can really get away with living your illusions and never recognize reality and that it's not the world - but you who are creating that reality. Trading is immediate and happens multiple times a day - so the learning curve is intense and rapid - it's a bit like therapy on steroids. In life there isn't that immediate and direct feedback. But then again - I'm jumping ahead in the book.

Chapter 10 - How Memories, Associations & Beliefs Manage Environmental Info As a side note - if you are finding some of these chapters tougher to read; hang in there. He is giving a lot of context on how things work in our head. I read through some of chapter 13 and did a few exercises yesterday on the Techniques to Effect Change. It was good....a bit exhausting to my mind like a deep gym work out would be to my body, but that is what I want & need. I am going to go through all those notes today and have a plan to start implementing the tools and things I discovered on Monday. I look forward to discussing what you learned this week and digging in deeper in the next few weeks:). Be proud of yourself for doing this work! W - (I have a few things that jumped out so I am writing a few W's we can review together & talk through) * Perception - What we learn creates an energy loop between the inner & outer environment. We can call this energy loop perception. Learning how to read the market is an example of the energy loop between the inside & outside = perception. Once we learn something, mental energy will then act as a force on our senses to recognize in the environment what we have learned about. The event is different for each individual b/c we all experienced it differently. A - Mark is explaining how perception exists in our lives and in trading. A - I have always found it interesting how people perceive the same event quite differently (in life & in the market). We see this everyday. To one trader; they feel it was a tough day in the market and to another the market was on fire. lol. We all participated in the same market and sometimes traded the same stock so why such a variance? It comes down to how we perceived the market & how we traded it....it could be our set ups or simply our execution. To me execution is all about psychology. We have the strategy and yes sometimes it will fail as is the reality of playing a game of probability. How often is it the strategy failing vs our execution failing? This is the key and something we should all be analyzing.... while we are not in control of the market; there is so much in our control that can enhance our trading. W - Beliefs - If we believe that things exist in only 1 particular way, then our beliefs will act as a natural mechanism to block the acceptance of any conflicting information. Beliefs allow us to tune into 1 channel of the environmental info at a time. A - Mark explaining how our beliefs effect what we can "tune into" - "perceive." A - I see this all the time in the world; people believe something and therefore cannot "see" anything else. It is limiting for most people. If you have ever scrolled through twitter the political posts really get to me. People attack each other b/c they believe all republicans/democrats are XYZ; they cannot fathom the thought that there are so many people in the middle on both sides and only seem to focus on the extremes. Without getting too much into politics; if you believe that all Dems/Reps or any other group of people are good/bad/smart/stupid/etc - you may only be able to see & perceive them from this point of view (which in my opinion is small & limiting). It is not always our fault either. If someone who looked a certain way hurt you or someone that identified with a certain group; you may have inadvertently formed this belief. As an example; my last boss was military and he was a real piece of work. As I transitioned into BBT; I was a little afraid of Mike/John. I came to realize this was silly as they are both wonderful men to know & work with, but I let this last person cloud my mind and I formed this belief that "all military are XYZ". I am glad I realized the error of my way and was able to learn from and form a nice relationship with 2 of my mentors. I notice anytime I see a middle aged woman that is tall and blonde; I immediately feel warmth. My mom has passed and she was tall with short blonde hair. I like being reminded of her so I do not mind this feeling, but it is important to be aware when these things are happening to us and to judge people/stocks/situations in the moment and not on some past belief or preconceived notion:)....Take note of anytime your mind is telling you "ALL or ALWAYS" - question that thought...rarely is anything or any group "ALL or ALWAYS XYZ". W - Fear - I am not going to write notes out, but can go through this in book club if no one else writes their thoughts on Fear related to this chapter. Have a wonderful week and talk Thursday!