Free Rande Howell webinar: Winning Can Be Dangerous to Your Trading Success

Winning Can be Dangerous  to Your Trading Success   Hello Trader,                      Come win or lose, you will have emotions that can turn destructive to your performance as a trader. Huh? Read that sentence again. Yes, come WIN or LOSE emotions can emerge from either outcome that throttle your potential as a trader. You say, how can winning and feeling good be a problem?  You think, “That’s a problem I’d like to have – winning consistently.”  That is the point here: When you Win (particularly a good-sized haul), you activate your brain’s reward system and dopamine floods through your system. It’s a highly pleasurable experience – it’s a thrill. That is how dopamine rewards behavior to become pattern. And that cements expectations of the future – that is very dangerous in trading. Suddenly, you believe winning is going to go on forever. This is your primitive Caveman Brain hijacking your Thinking Brain. The problem with winning for an evolving trader is that, because of the “feeling good and confident” neurotransmitter Dopamine, you get euphoric and overconfident in your outlook and believe that you are going to continue to win. You’re confident that you’ve figured out how to win (and not lose) in trading. That, right there, is how easy it is to fall into the Illusion of Control. Under the influence of the seductive over-confidence that Dopamine provides, you lose control of the one thing that you can control in trading – the mind you bring into the moment. What Is an Emotion? Notice in the above discussion, emotions were discussed from a position of chemistry – an action (winning) triggered the release of the reward neurotransmitter Dopamine into your blood stream and brain that caused you to become over-confident in your evaluation of your charts following the win. Emotions are not psychological. They are biological in nature and they skew thinking based on the motivations of the emotions. Emotions are biological action potentials. They take action outside of thinking. What you feel when you experience an emotion is the chemistry of that emotion flooding into the body and altering perception. In the case stated above, creating over-confidence in a world where over-confidence can be dangerous can bring disaster. There is no escape from your emotional nature, but in self-mastery there is freedom of emotion. You can become master of the emotions that arise from encountering Critical Moments. But I Like Feeling Good…  A number of years ago, I was lecturing in Shanghai, China about achieving an Intentional Mind for trading. In the workshop I made the statement – you are not allowed to feel good while trading; you can feel good afterwards before you trade again. One particular trader raised his hand and stood up to speak. He retorted in very good English, “But I like feeling good when I win”. My response was that he could feel good all he wanted, just not while trading. Indignant, he got up and stormed out of the auditorium. I might add that several other Chinese traders also got up and left. Up until this moment, China had been on a multi-year bull market with no slowing down foreseen in the near future. The bull run was a cover-up from the over confidence. This particular trader thought he had a mastery over the markets – rather than a mastery over himself. Two days later the Shanghai market had a first ever 2% correction. That over-confident trader got crushed. To his credit, he sought me out and apologized for his behavior. What he said is what I want you to now hear: In hindsight I saw the conditions for the correction and should have been prepared for it. But I was feeling good. And my over-confidence led me to slaughter.  The point here is that you do not control outcome. You can control the mind that performs though. In hindsight this trader saw how dangerous the over-confidence that results from winning can be. You Trade Your Beliefs People want to win, believing that winning proves their worth. It is compelling.  They confuse their self-worth with their net worth. And, if you win (proving your worth), you get a shot of dopamine that makes you chemically feel good. With that chemistry pulsing through the body, you feel (the chemistry) certain that what you are experiencing is true. It is here that the reward chemistry creates the addiction to winning. The problem is that you, the trader, do not control the outcome (winning and losing). The feel-good chemistry locks in and you fall into the pattern of chasing wins, falling under the spell of the Illusion of Control. This is why traders keep losing until they let go of the notion that winning and losing defines who they are as a human being.  It is breaking though this perceptual map that sets traders free to build more effective beliefs about their self-worth and their competency as traders. Your self-worth is not related to your performance in trading. Self-worth is about your being. And in the work of self-mastery, you learn you exist as potential. That potential can be examined and reorganized into a higher functioning human being.  Then you are no longer chasing winning and not losing to prove your worth. Winning is only landing on the right side of probability relative to you. And losing is only landing on the wrong side of probability relative to you. Winning and losing only shows your competency in trading. That competency can be improved by learning from failure, rather than avoiding it. The brain (you, the trader) learns from failure. It can teach you to adapt and improve your competency. Failure can open the possibility of learning how to win in the world of trading. Winning only consolidates the new emerging pattern. It is not to be worshiped. It is only a reward from actually learning from your failures.  Would you like to learn more about creating an Intentional Mind built for trading? [Click here]( to be taken to this month’s video to learn more about separating your net worth from your self-worth. And [click here]( to register for this month’s webinar that takes a deep dive into learning how to build your Intentional Mind so that you use your emotions to create the Traders State of Mind. It is here that you extract more capital from the markets than you give back. And I’m sure that you are good with that. Rande [Facebook](  [Linkedin](   Rande Howell Traders State of Mind www.tradersstateofmind.com   Free Rande Howell webinar in July 2024 Title - Winning Can Be Dangerous to Your Trading Success Speaker: Rande Howell Date/Time: [Thursday, July 18, 4:30-5:30pm EDT]( IMPORTANT! The time shown is in U.S. Eastern Daylight Saving Time! Description:  Have you ever noticed how common it is for you to start winning (yeah!), and then you start feeling great about your prospects for success in trading? And you believe that you’re getting pretty good at this and must have turned the corner to a successful trading career. Then, boom, you take some losses. And lose back all your gains – and then some. Until you learn how to master the emotions of trading success, this is a common pattern for traders. What’s behind it? And how do you work past it so that you can become a consistently profitable trader? Come learn how. Sign up for this free webinar so you can learn how to handle success in trading.   Please [click here]( to register for this free webinar. IMPORTANT! The time shown is in U.S. Eastern Daylight Saving Time. This Month's Free Video  Winning Can Be Dangerous to Your Trading Success How can that be? Everybody wants to win, what could be so wrong with winning? After losing, winning feels really good. Right?  Think about it. How many times have you traded, won, and then given it all back – and then some. If you’re like most traders – all too many times. What makes that happen? Unfortunately, winning also has a dark side. One that can set you up for failure. Winning triggers the brain’s reward system, which leads your survival instincts into feeling good and confidence. The key is learning how to control this process. Watch this video and find out more. It’s not just fear that stands in your way.  Your understanding of success does as well. Come learn more. Watch now. Please [click here]( (and scroll down a bit) to view the video. Developing Traders State of Mind Group Course - Fall, 2024 The emotional brain is built to seek safety in a dangerous world. The world that it was created for has long since disappeared. It developed a hair-trigger to the fight/flight response because that is what was needed for survival. Now, it has been taken out of the jungle (where risk meant danger) and is being asked to act civilized in a world of probability - where risk is not lethal. Without re-training and re-programming the emotional limbic system, this is not going to happen. It is built to react to danger quickly. It was never built to ponder your rules when it is experiencing vulnerability, discomfort, and fear. It was programmed to act from your survival instinct.  Until this is done, your emotional brain will continue to hijack your thinking brain when you feel the discomfort of uncertainty and risk. This is your silent partner. The question is: Are you going to try to continue to pretend it's not part of your trading mind? Or, are you ready to re-program it for the modern world of trading and probability. Fortunately, this can be done. The Developing Traders State of Mind Group Course Teaches You How to Master Reactive Emotions The Group Course has been called a wake-up call by many traders. Most simply have no idea how the brain and mind work to produce performance in the clutch with risk on. You learn here. It's more than a wake-up call - it a door that opens you to a whole new world. You learn how the emotional brain (so focused on survival) needs to be handled to become an effective working partner with the thinking brain. This course is eye-opening. I had no idea how to fix the problems I had with my trading until this course. Learning how to manage emotions is only the start. You learn how to create a mind built to manage uncertainty. Bottom line is that I know longer sabotage myself and have become profitable. I wish I had taken the group course a long time ago. It's a difference maker. SD From the start you learn how to calm survival emotions down before they become big and hijack your trading mind. That's just the first step. The major benefit is that you learn how to create a mind built for trading, rather than survival in the past. This is what has to happen for success in trading. You have been using a brain/mind created for circumstances that no longer exist. What is needed is a brain/mind built for probability management. Where you learn to become comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty rather than triggering to your survival instinct. This is what every trader, to be successful, has to learn. All those who register now will be enrolled in the Fall 2024 Group Course, which has its 1st Group Meeting on September 12. The survival Instinct is not going to just go away. It is your partner. Do you want to learn to work with it so that it helps you to become the trader you can be? [Please Click here to register ]( the Group Course. [Please Click here to view a video about the Group Course or for more information.]( The DTSM Group Course teaches the same basic skills that are taught in my individual course, but is only $1195. This can be spread out as five payments of $239/each over a 10-week time period. It's a whole lot of training for a reasonable cost. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING PAYMENT - PayPal CANNOT be used as a payment method for this Group Course since PayPal does not allow for rebilling. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact Delores at delores@mytradersstateofmind.com     Mindful Trading: Mastering Your Emotions and the Inner Game Author: J. Rande Howell, MEd., LPC If you know how to trade when not in the pressure of trading, but you have not been able to trade live from a calm, detached, and disciplined state of mind, this book will open your eyes. Mindful Trading actually shows you HOW to develop a peak performance state of mind specifically for trading. This book gets in the head of a trader. You will meet a number of real life traders who have overcome self doubt, fear, and impulsiveness. You will see how they overcame self-limiting beliefs and began trading from an empowered state of mind. You will discover your core beliefs that actually trade your system and methodology. And without change at this fundamental level, old self-limiting patterns of thought and belief re-assert themselves shortly after your brain pushes off any "tricks and tips" you learned from self-help seminars. It is this change at the organization of meaning and biology that makes this book so different. A number of disciplines are folded into a unified process that really gets at long term change. Those disciplines include neuro-biology, emotional intelligence, ontological reconstruction of the self, attachment theory and the meaning of the self, and Jungian archetypes. In Mindful Trading, imbedded in self-limiting beliefs, you are carried through a change process that transforms traders mired in mediocrity to a re-organization of the mind for peak performance trading. Mindful Trading is available both as an [Audio book]( a [paper book]( and a [downloadable e-book](. [Read an excerpt from Mindful Trading]( free and you get to look inside a trader's mind) And consider the companion study tool: the  [Mindful Trading Companion]( [e-Workbook!](   Explore a Trader's State of Mind Coaching Relationship with Rande Howell This is a personalized course for the trader who is ready to move beyond being stuck in self limiting beliefs. If you have recognized that it is you that stands in the way of your becoming a more successful trader, then this challenge can become an opportunity for re-invention of yourself as a trader, rather than something to avoid. It's like a door opening to an entirely new world. Great athletes recognize that the mental aspect of their game requires a performance coach for them to reach their potential. Trading is the same. Self-limiting beliefs have to be rooted out and changed - and a peak performance mindset has to be developed. It's all part of the training. Having a methodology that gives you an edge is not enough. You have to develop your mind so that it gives you the psychological edge to use your methodology and platform so that the uncertainty found in trading favors you. This is trading beyond fear. It is trading from a disciplined, impartial, patient, and courageous state of mind. Without emotional regulation training, this can take years (if ever) to achieve on your own. Teasing apart uncertainty from fear is simply something that the brain will not do on its own. The psychology to this has to be developed...or you stay stuck in the same old self-fulfilling prophesies of mediocrity. Do you want to move beyond fear and trade from a calm, detached, and disciplined state of mind?  If you are seriously considering registering for the Individual Course, then [click here to check out a free, no obligation consult with Rande Howell.]( get to see how this powerful technology of the mind can move your trading to the next level. To make this free consult productive for you, I recommend that you first attend one of my free webinars. This will lay down a lot of groundwork so that when you speak with me -- you'll be hitting on all cylinders. Also, reading my book - Mindful Trading - is advised.     [Website]( Book]( & Interviews]( Videos]( rande@mytradersstateofmind.com | [www.tradersstateofmind.com]( [By joining you get to keep connected to this powerful training process for the development of the potential you have as a trader. And if you decide differently, you can always un-subscribe. If you're a student of trading, this newsletter is a powerful tool for your development.]( Empowered Horizons | 1824 Prescott Ct. | Iron Station, NC 28080 US [Unsubscribe]( | [Update Profile]( | [Constant Contact Data Notice]( [Constant Contact](