Free Rande Howell webinar: Controlling Your Emotions During Challenging Moments

Controlling Your Emotions During Challenging Moments in Trading   Hello Trader,                       How many times have you tilted just at the moment you really needed to be in control of yourself? And just like setting a timer, it keeps happening again and again. This loss of control is practically predictable. It is where the trading brain meets the uncertainty of winning. Examples of this are impulse control when you’re bored just waiting for something to happen; fear of entering trades; the trading going against you; taking a loss (or multiple losses) when you hate losing; winning leading to over trading; or taking skinny wins from a fear that the profit will be taken from you. There are many places where your trading mind is easily compromised without your being aware of the emotional hijacking that is in process – you only notice afterwards, when the damage is done. Take a moment now and write down when your most notorious self-limiting patterns occur. Notice your Achilles’ Heel is a habituated pattern that has turned into automatic reactive behavior. And it fires so fast you don’t even notice it until after it has taken ahold of your trading brain and the damage is done. When it happens, you just try harder. That way of dealing with challenging situations has probably served you well before trading. The believed assumption is this: Hard Work leads to Success. This formula for success has been around since time began. And it has worked well, but only in conditions where it appears that you are in control of whether you win or lose. In trading, this tried-and-true success formula fails you.  Spoiler Alert: We’re Not in Control But why? In truth, we believe that we are in control of our lives, that we can make things happen. That, through personal effort, we will win and not lose in the game of Life. But is that really true? There is an old saying, “Man plans. God laughs” . Clearly there are potentials that have a high probability of working out for better or worse. For example, if you smoke three packs of cigarettes a day for a number of years, it is more than likely that you will develop complications from your actions. But it’s not certain.   It’s just a high probability that feels certain.  There are some people who defy the odds and live to a ripe old age. And if you work hard at developing a successful career, you have much higher odds of creating that success than if you just went through the motions of doing your work. However, many people work hard at their jobs, but their career never takes off. This is the mystery of probability – there is no certainty.  What I want you to notice is the certainty of your beliefs. Even though we have a plan and feel certain about it, life can throw black swan moments in our path altering the course of our lives dramatically. It is really about how we respond to the challenges that come our way that define our mastery of being in relationship to life. For example, several years ago I was invited to give a speaking tour in China at a number of their huge financial firms. It was an incredible business opportunity.  I was excited!  And I took it. Everything looked great. Until it wasn’t. In the midst of this outstanding business opportunity, (though I was in great physical health), I was also exposed to a level of pollution that is hard to imagine by Western standards. When I got home, I had serious breathing problems requiring medical attention, due to inhaling the polluted air on my trip. Within a year, I had a pacemaker installed in my chest. Within another year, my heart was failing. In another year, I had a heart transplant because my immune system attacked my heart. Before my trip, it had appeared that I was in control. Yet, with an expanded sense of game theory, probabilities worked out very differently. Things worked out well for me eventually, but very differently than I first imagined. Things looked like they were going my way, and then the uncertainty of a black swan event changed my life permanently. Trading Forces the Issue In trading, it is a given that you do not control outcome and everything is uncertain. Winning and losing exist as potentials. And traders are supposed to develop an “edge” that allows them the ability to extract more capital from the markets than they put in. Yet, traders want to win – even though they are told repeatedly that have no direct control over that, only probability management. And they hate losing so much that they will crash their edge in the markets in order not to take a loss. And then they really take heavy losses. Forcing your will on the markets (like it appears you can in the everyday world), simply sets you up for failure. Your trading account is going to tell you the truth no matter how much you want to believe comforting lies. Trading crushes the illusion of control that we modern humans inherited from our Caveman ancestors. They had to believe in the illusion of control as real - their lives depended on it. It was a very dangerous world they lived in, and they had to believe they were in control in order to engage the challenges of life and make it through to populate the next generation. That bias toward the illusion of control is still with us today and must be mastered in order for us to be successful. The problem is that trading busts the myth you live in, and your trading account is constantly showing you that you are not in control. And your trading brain freaks out (you might call that “going tilt”). All of our evolutionary psychology is built around the illusion of control. It got wired into us as traits and is not going away. But if you are going to become a consistently profitable trader, you are going to have to bridge that gap between the brain that you brought to trading and the mind that you need for success in trading. Through your failures in trading, you are constantly being given the opportunity to address and change this flawed bias. However, the problem is that we are so scared of failure (of losing) that we cannot learn from our mistakes. Instead, we cover them up so no one will see them – especially us. Until we learn to turn toward our fears and master them as part of mastering the trading mind, we remain slave to our fears.  Remember, the brain does not learn from success, it learns (adapts) from engaging failure. Or as Ray Kroc (the founder of McDonald’s) once said, “I have failed my way to success”. He intuitively knew how the brain learns and actually used failure to his advantage. If you desire to become a consistently profitable trader, you are going to need to redefine your personal meaning of both winning and losing. Coming from the Hard Work leads to Success model of success, you are going to have to embrace not hard work, but failure, as the path to success in trading. The Probability factor forces this. As long as you hate losing, you will not be a winning trader – because you refuse to learn from your failures and losses. Those losses teach you what kind of mind you need to build for success. It will not be the one you brought to trading. Those losses are part of your path to success in trading. Your job is to become an expert at losing so your losses remain small. This is the first step. Come learn, friends. Trading can become a journey of self-mastery and development that leads to the mind that is comfortable with Uncertainty. More than anything, though, learn that winning and losing does not define you as a human being. Winning and losing are about your trading competence, or sometimes simply about chance, which can be improved. What you do control in trading is the mind that you bring to the moment of the challenge. This is the psychological edge needed to drive your method edge, and it can be developed.  This is exactly what this month’s [video]( and [webinar]( address. Come and learn.  Rande [Facebook](  [Linkedin](   Rande Howell Traders State of Mind www.tradersstateofmind.com   Free Rande Howell webinar in Sept. 2024 Title - Controlling Your Emotions During Challenging Moments Speaker: Rande Howell Date/Time: [Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024]( IMPORTANT! The time shown is in U.S. Eastern Daylight Saving Time! Description:  Nobody told you that the rules of success in trading are different than regular life. Every trader has to learn this lesson. The tried-and-true Success Formula of: Hard Work Leads to Success – fails. Yet people keep the hard work up, expecting different results. If you have been a student of trading for at least several years, you have seen this dynamic play out hundreds of times in your trading.  Then, what does work? What is required is a huge shift in your thinking. There is a clash between the instincts of your old Caveman Brain (seeking short term survival) and the Probability-Based Mind that must be built for trading - where you are not in control of outcome. You only control the mind that you bring to performance. This is a huge shift that few traders will learn because they are working hard trying to be successful. Because of their determination, they never see a different possibility of what does work with managing uncertainty. I invite you to come and learn. Come and learn how to reshape your brain and mind for the rigors of managing the uncertainty of trading. Register below for our free webinar. 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  Controlling Your Emotions During Challenging Moments in Trading “Why do I keep tilting in the heat of a trade when I know how to trade? All I have to do is do it – follow my plan – and I’m home free. But I can’t do that. I keep losing control at the very moment that I need to be in control of myself. This is what I can’t do on a regular basis. It is killing the potential of my trading.” Many people know how to trade when they don’t have skin in the game. Then they fall apart when the money is real. They try hard – they work hard and believe in the Success Formula: HARD WORK LEADS TO SUCCESS. And though they work hard to learn the craft of trading, they do not create the conditions of Success. Why? Though it brought success to other areas of their life, the SUCCESS FORMULA OF HARD WORK keeps failing people who apply the concept to trading. Why? Because Trading is a different world where the success rules are different. People keep applying the Hard Work Leads to Success Formula because that is all they know. And they stay stuck. How do you build a mindset for success in trading? Watch this video and start learning. 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](