Mindful Trading - Book Club - Author Rande Howell

[Susan 111]

New Book Club Begins on Monday, July 3 at 12pm ET

Susan Rizzi has invited you to join a video meeting on Google Meet.

meet.google.com/sat-khuv-rbh

Or open Meet and enter this code: sat-khuv-rbh

Book: Mindful Trading by Rande Howell.  It is available as a hard copy, e-book or audio book at the website below.  The e-book is more updated than the hard cover so that is what is recommended.  

Traders State of Mind

 

July 3 - please have read through the opening pages and the introduction.  You may feel free to share here anything about the opening you would like!  We will discuss basic book club etiquette and how we will share on the Forum.

July 10 - chapter 1

July 17 - Chapter 2

July 24 - Chapter 3

July 31 - OFF

August 7 - Share July trades, best practices, items from the book

August 14 - Chapter 4

August 21 - Chapter 4 

August 28 - Chapter 5

September 4 - Labor Day - OFF!

September 11 - Share August Trades, best practices, items from the book

September 18 - Chapter 6

September 25 - OFF DAY!

October 2 - Chapter 7

Columbus Day - Off - October 9

October 16 -Chapter 8

October 23 - Epilogue, close out, share trades and things we have learned

 

Instructions for Sharing weekly to the Forum:

You may share 1 or multiple topics on the Forum pertaining to the chapter we read that week.  Here is how we will format for sharing:

WAS:

W: Write a quote from the author that stuck out to you in the chapter

A: Apply this quote to yourself and/or how it effects you in trading or what it meant to you.

S: Share this here and with others in the club at our next meeting.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Susan

[Susan 111]

******** BOOK CLUBBERS***************

The July - October 2023 session we will have a special High Performance Coach join us for a few sessions.

We will also have an appearance from the author, Rande Howell.

I am VERY EXCITED for all these special editions this time!

Talk soon!!!

[email protected]

Susan Rizzi

[LASiow 0]

Hi Susan!

I don't think the link for the book is working. Is there another link?

[Susan 111]

@LASiow  I just went on site...yesterday for some reason I could not get on with explorer, but was able to through chrome.  Please try again and let me know...also you can email me [email protected].  Please fell free to come Monday even if still having issues, but hopefully you can order/download book today!!

 

 

[flyingalaska 1]

Thank you!

 

[Marco 22]

There is something odd with the link.

www.mytradersstateofmind.com isn't really working..

But

www.tradersstateofmind.com works.. is there a difference?

 

Best wishes.

[Susan 111]

Hey guys! That link Marco posted worked for me and is the link to Rande Howells website. You can use that link to purchase the book! I bought the electronic version and printed it. I also bought the workbook. Talk soon!!

[Dan F 73]

On 6/30/2023 at 11:14 AM, Marco said:

There is something odd with the link.

www.mytradersstateofmind.com isn't really working..

But

www.tradersstateofmind.com works.. is there a difference?

 

Best wishes.

https://tradersstateofmind.com/products/mindful-trading-e-workbook

Yeah Marco I was able to get the book with the second link. Most of us are doing the e-book because its the latest material.  There are hard copies available at the bottom of the page I posted.

[Susan 111]

The proper link for the book - Traders State of Mind

Tradersstateofmind.com

Talk Monday or feel free to email  me if you need anything: [email protected]

[Susan 111]

Chapter 1 - Possibility, Probability, Belief & Trading

A question to ponder for Book Clubbers: What do you currently do with discomforting thoughts?  We all have a pattern we created (probably in childhood/adolescence to deal with them).  Are you aware of what you do?  Start trying to notice and the practices coming up in this book will help you identify & change them so do not feel bad if you have no clue yet! PS - I will share my old patterns and a story of zip lining from a few weeks ago...!

Can you see yourself in Tom or Steve?  Feel free to explain below or on Monday!

W - In an examined life, beliefs are questioned and reconstructed if necessary.  Beliefs are like the air we breathe.  They become so familiar, we no longer notice they are there.  It is not "you" seeing the market.  It is the beliefs encasing your awareness that open or close the possibility of what you see.  Your beliefs become conversations.  Mindfulness reveals we are not having thoughts, rather THOUGHTS HAVE US!  

A- My 1st thought is "game face" no longer works and man I was really good at game face.  I used it for 15 years and was able to read my customers very well; responding in the tone & becoming the person they needed me to be....this was somewhat of a game to me.  My beliefs were of course present, but during this "performance" since sales & dealing with people is always a performance; I could push the beliefs aside and be who I needed to be in the moment - we had a name for this called "situational management".... Of course none of this works here where every belief I have is totally exposed - all of my fears, my deep seeded thoughts, good & poor beliefs - BAM they come right out.  I may be able to shake them off for a while, but have come to realize that if I want to become the person (and trader) in my mind that I can see - I have to dig in and do the work to change some of these beliefs.  I realize they were set at a very early age to survive & thrive in the environment that I was placed (IE - family, school, neighborhood, etc).

S- look forward to digging in more with you Monday!

W - Your "comfort zone" is your beliefs organized in your brain that you have come to believe represents "who you are".  Trading will force you to confront this historical conditioning.  The AHA moment - we can learn to reorganize ourselves very differently than the world we were born into and adapted to... Our beliefs do our trading.  Our beliefs & self has been organized around fear and the motivation to survive.  We are working to evolve past the "fear of losing, missing out, failing, etc" into someone that focuses upon managing risk.  Our unexamined beliefs (doing our trading) that we are blind to on a conscious level create the danger in our trading.  

A - To master trading in the way we desire; we must uncover and observe our beliefs and then be able to build new beliefs.  (IMO) This is deep psych work.

I have come across 2 schools of thoughts in psych for trading in the past 2 years.  1 is we can build new patterns/habits that will be strong enough to create the traders we need to become while the 2nd is the school of thought stating we need to dig deeply to examine & build new beliefs.  Both sides can be argued from people much smarter than me.  It is my humble opinion that most of the time 1 size or "medication" doesn't fit all nor do the same thing for all..... For me (for now); I have decided to take the journey of digging deeper and examining some of the old beliefs that may no longer serve me.  We will see if changing some of these beliefs; I can move forward with some better beliefs and build stronger habits to live a stronger, more sound existence and also become a stronger, calmer, clear headed trader that can manage risk & not be bothered by fear, excitement or other emotions that try to arise while trading.  

S - Talk soon!

 

PS - please list here or be ready to share if inclined next week - biggest struggles as traders:)!

Edited July 10, 2023 by Susan

[Dan F 73]

Chapter 1

W- When it comes to what stuck out in this chapter there were two things that I saw; (1) “sat with this frightened, child-like part of himself” (instinct of feeling), and (2) the inevitable way that somebody deals with that emotion by pushing it aside.

A- I have a state of being puzzled in that I find myself with no clear exits when I am in that child like state of mind. It is hard figuring out what seems to be the next move even though you have the fundamentals of what needs to be fixed in your head already. Went improvising and moving on has been a part of your life it’s hard not to instinctively move on and fix the fear/problem later.

S- I’m excited to talk again with everybody!

[Susan 111]

Chapter 2 - Managing Emotions while Trading: Integrating the Left Brain & Right Brain for Balanced Trading

Since it is summer and I believe people are in out more frequently; I will be making chapter notes from what I have underlined while reading for us to review (when time permits me to do so).  We will 1st review at our meetings all notes from you guys, but we can talk though all my notes or some of them too.  

Susan's Book Notes:

 p.43 - It's not a matter of ignoring emotions; rather disciplined & consistent trading depends on acknowledging your emotional nature, managing your emotions effectively (not ignoring them), & learning from them.

p. 44 - We get stuck in a way of viewing the world that believes, that if we really know the casual rules that logically govern the market then we will succeed,

*The kind of thinking that a trader's mind produces (for better or worse) comes out of the emotional state of a trader.  The world the traders sees is colored by the mindset of how he sees the world. 

P.45 - Cognitive Dissonance - we are habituated to "see" the world & market from a particular perspective & we are locked into seeing it this way.  Dangerous in trading. To grow we have to have a sense of openness to new ways of seeing things.

Example (Jack from book) - He could not "objectively" view that market (devoid of emotion & interpretation).  He viewed the market through eyes of fear.  His thinking was swept away by fear when he needed to be able to look through impartial, disciplined eyes.  This continued a failure cycle and was his cognitive dissonance.  He could not see he was trapped in his deeply held beliefs.

p.46 - You trigger to emotion anytime a familiar pattern is disrupted. IE - pulling the trigger on a trade represents a change to the current state.  This disruption produces an emotion.  In most traders minds this change creates uncertainty which is associated with fear of loss.  We try to "predict what the market will do" as opposed to be open to what the market will give us.

p.48 By trying to force our understanding of the world onto the market; we project our will unto the market (an uncertain world) in order to create the illusion that the world is predictable but this mindset limits our potential as a trader.

p.49 - driving a car example and mindfulness vs mindlessness....p.50 Traders do this exact thing with our fears - they become mindless to them.  This is TROUBLE!  As Jack got to know himself better he realized his decision making was governed by a fear of uncertainty that he had learned in his family of origin.

p.51 - Fear can corrupt our trading even before we begin trading.  If we feel like we need to make up for prior losses or a sense of dread we are about to trade - we are beginning at a very large disadvantage. In a rationally trained mind (which is an emotional state just like fear) trades can be executed with confidence & consistency.  Regulating emotions is an important step 1 that is covered soon in the book.  Soliders train to resemble the chaos of battle and we need to mentally train the same way for trading.  This is peak performance training.

p.52 - Real $ entering the game changes everything in trading.  The old brain will always win until the trader knows how to regulate the impulses.  Traders have to learn to manage emotional triggers & impulses before learning to re-organize their psycholog for peak performance.  Emotional regulation is the 1t step.

p.53 Mindsets we embody become our mindsets not because they are the right mindsets, but because this circumstance was the familiar pattern to which the brain adapted.  Overcoming our evolutionary biology's mandate to trigger to fear and avoidance when the risk of opportunity appears will need to be rewired to become a successful trader.  A new observer of risk not fear will need to be developed.  Risk management vs fear & avoidance.

p.54 Fear is the most primitive of emotions.  Its motivation is to avoid threat - great for survival.  Fear trumps rationalism every time.  Emotions trump rational every time if left to mindlessly do their thing.

p.55 The emotional state of fear hijacks your ability to think logically and pushes you into avoidance.  The primitive brain is associating trading as dangerous.  Oxygen & glucose (needed for thinking) are cut off from neo-cortex (thinking part of brain we need for trading) & rerouted to the body to prep for fight or flight.  We experience this physically as tense muscles, knots in tummy, shallow breathing or holding breath & fearful thinking.  Traders may feel impulsive or immobilized at this point.  This is the "untrained" emotional brain in action! The good news is that we can train our brains to respond differently!!

p.56 The emotional brain doesn't perceive risk; only threat.  The emotional (survival brain) is incapable of distinguishing between biological fear (threat to life) and psychological discomfort (much less risk management). The brain must be trained to regulate impulse to make the distinction between biological fear & psychological discomfort!

p.57 Freedom from fears power enables us to change our nature which allows us to change how we trade!  Until you have fully developed the skills to approach fears; they will control you. Acknowledging fears and creating the courage to push through them is essential to growth; your biology will fight every step of the way.  So we will be learning to manage & calm biology.

*** Start the guided meditation on breathing now**** Rogue training is the key.  Try to do it twice per day everyday.  More suggestions will be coming and are available through Rande's site, but this is step 1.  You have to get this step and be able to do it well for step 2 which is getting into the mind & your beliefs.  Some lucky people may only need this step, but the vast majority need the mindset/belief work too.

 

Traderstateofmind.com

 

[Dan F 73]

Chapter 2

W- “We get locked into seeing it that way.  In social psychology this phenomenon is called cognitive dissonance”. “Thought and state of mind follow emotion (which is biological). Emotion does not follow thought. That is always a factor in trading.” Ironically with all that rattling around in our head, “The emotional brain, that evolved to help humans avoid mortal threat, can be the trader’s enemy if not properly managed.”

A- I feel that cognitive dissonance is the denial of our “biological” emotions. All this shows up when we hide the bigger issue by prolonging our major problems. “Until we understand how emotions work, we will never manage them.” This seems like it will be an on going issue all throughout my trading career.

Edited July 17, 2023 by Dan F

[Susan 111]

Chapter 3 - The 1st Step to Emotional State Management: Naming Your Fear

Example of Harry begins the chapter (Read together)

- Harry surprised caught in a revenge trading vortex - rational mind seemed to disappear

- ***Just b/c a trader doesnt feel the emotion; it doesnt mean the emotion is not shaping his mind (it is outside of his awareness)***

- Traders must understand emotions.  Emotions can be explosive. We have to learn to be mindful as opposed to mindless so we can manage our emotions/mental state in trading

- A lot of the time our sense of identity is under attack while we trade:  the need to prove ourselves to someone, have to be better than others, losing is inconsistent with who we are "the man" and challenges our identity (see Harry example), fear of being inadequate

*---Harry solution - push himself to be the best in all he did - sales, sports, etc.  If he won, he didn't have to deal with sense of inadequacy. Trading exposed all of this in ways he wasn't prepared. 

- Emotions = biological in nature & take over our psychology.  They are deeply primitive. Fear will push you to avoid discomfort & uncertainty (important to survival).

--- Our sense of worth & adequacy becomes grafted into the emotion. Hary (like us) avoids all of this until TRADING brings it all to the surface.

- ** Remember emotions are biological, not psychological.  If you are trying to "push them aside" they're simply going to blindside you in your trading.  They cannot be pushed around.

- Traders have to learn to manage fear or it will overwhelm them and they will not be able to get to the traders mindset led by courage, discipline, impartiality & patience

---Fear cannot be eliminated, but it can certainly be managed so it's intensity doesn't sweep you away (into what Dr Reid calls Monkey Mind or Traders Trance).  Avoiding Fear in the long term will not lead to CPT.  Traders have to learn to honor their internal struggle with fear.  In order to do this fear must be approached, not avoided or attacked.  Avoidance = hesitation in trading; Attack = impulse trading.

-- Harry - beginning of story feels large & in charge - gets sucked into impulse trading - feels a huge rush/sense of control/large & in charge.... This state of mind also blinds him to staying with his trading plan & he losses money.  After losing - feels frustrated.  He could not cover it up or blame anything/anyone.  This was a feeling all his life he avoided, but was unavoidable now in trading.  Next he feels shame/like cannot measure up....the story he had always told himself & others was not true.

----Trading requires self honesty - Harry was going to have to take a long & hard look in the mirror.

---All people get locked into their "comfort zone"  the book describes in more detail why/how, but we all see the world in a particular way and we are locked into this "way"

***Fear constricts possibility.  It locks you into predictive pattern of thought & behavior that are effective for the short-term avoidance of threat,

---Basic emotional state management principles must be learned and applied - the body, brain & mind need to be calmed.  The 1st meditation last week teaches you how to volitionally breath diaphragmatically. This is the way to "interrupt" the process & that is what we need to do when we are trading.  Without the interruption the fear based emotion will explode and take over.  This is not the cure, but as discussed last week - this is Step 1

Step 2 is becoming a "Mindful Observer" - we need awareness of thought as opposed to mindlessly drifting through...

---Becoming mindful takes away thoughts power to hijack you. 

-- You & your thoughts are not the same.

***Thoughts are manifestations of our deepest beliefs & biases about ourselves, our worth, our adequacy & our power to influence the world.  This core material needs to be reorganized to achieve Peak Performance.

- Examining this causes short term discomfort so traders avoid it.

- Until we develop the EQ to face our fears & learn from them; the trader will not produce the trading results they desire.

- By calming fear to a tolerable level; fear can be approached - we can uncover what is holding us back from trading excellence.

- Mindfulness - we separate our identity from historical beliefs we were born into... Freed from the power of our fears; we discover more powerful meaning & purpose in our lives.  This aspect of development can be called - reinvention or reorganization of the self.  

[Susan 111]