I find the concept of people having different parts in conflict with each other a little difficult to conceptualize. Could you provide an example? I worked with a floor trader whose father was fairly successful. His father was not a good model for him,
however, in that he was an alcoholic. As a result, he developed a part to protect himself from being like his father. He
could make about $75,000 per year trading, but if he made any more than that, this part kicked in to make sure that
he would not become too successful. He was the one who made $650,000 in about two months after we had
completed the parts negotiation.
Are you implying that some people actually want to lose on a subconscious level because it fulfills some other positive intention? How common is that? Half the traders I work with have problems of this nature. I think it's very common.
So far, you've cited poor risk attitudes, stress, and conflict as impediments to trading success. Are there any other major problems people have with the markets? A fourth major problem is that many people allow their emotions to control their trading. In fact, most trading
problems appear to involve emotional control in some manner. I know of at least ten methods of helping people
control their mental states. An easy method that people can adopt right away is simply to control posture, breathing,
and muscle tension. If you change those factors, you will probably find that you change your emotional state.
Finally, the last major problem is making decisions. Although there are many facets to decision-making
problems, what most people do is bring their normal method of making decisions to trading the markets. For
example, think about what you go through in order to buy a new car. You have to think about the model, make, deal,
service, cost, accessories, etc. And it probably takes you a week or more to evaluate those factors and make a
decision. Most people bring that same method of making decisions to trading and it just doesn't work. It takes too
much time. So, the solution is to adopt a trading system that gives you signals to act. But most people with a trading
system continue to apply their normal method of making decisions to the signals given to them by their trading
system. And, of course, that doesn't work. The best method that I've found of dealing with long, ineffective decision-
making problems is to short circuit them through a process called anchoring. That process is a little too involved to
explain here.
