Trader’s Narrative

Most people would claim that they are the masters of their domain, that they are the ones who make choices, rationally, consciously and pehaps even scientifically. To argue this point with them would be futile. So instead of arguing, why not show you a simple exercise which may illustrate by way of an example that our decisions are made by and large by our subconscious mind - and then only after the fact, rationalized and justified by the conscious mind.

Watch:

For those who are dying to know exactly how Derren Brown did it, he does explain very superficially at the end of the video. But he does leave out important points. For example, how he anchored the positive feeling to the left shoulder, or the dominant colour of the room or the myriad circles and double circles in the decoration of the room.

As a trader, I hope this makes you think deeply about why you do certain things. From the way you think about the markets to how you arrive at decisions to buy, sell, cut losses and pare profits. These decisions may seem to you to be systematic and well thought out. But I would argue that they are by and large a product of your subconscious mind which is anything but rational.

Even traders who employ a totally systematic trading methodology (that is programmed rules for buys and sells which the computer fires off) are not free from this. For, what else, but their own mind did they use to come up with the algorithms?

I’m not trying to be alarmist or claim that what you are doing is necessarily wrong. What I do hope this will do for you is to seriously reexamine your assumptions and make you think twice about why you arrive at certain decisions and to what you attribute them to.

The subconscious is an immensely powerful master but for the most part it is hidden from its partner, the conscious mind and unfortunately, it can at times wield its power against its owner.

And the next time you find yourself trying to effect any sort of change, either within yourself or another person, stop and ask yourself. Am I trying to influence their conscious mind or their subconscious mind?

Earlier I wrote about the flaws in the idea of the law of attraction as promoted by the book “The Secret” (Rhonda Byrne). I argued that people are totally missing the real law of attraction by focusing on making conscious effort (through will power) to effect positive change in their lives. Since your subconscious mind is the real power and decision maker in your life, such efforts are either totally fruitless or worse, they tangle you up.

If you still doubt the power of the subconscious mind, watch this video. It is from a UK show starring Derren Brown. If you notice, he is speaking to the man on two levels. On one level to his conscious mind, and more importantly to his subconscious mind. Observe the results:

What you saw wasn’t magic and it wasn’t staged. There is a science behind it. Everything that the Derren Brown did was calculated and meticulously timed. And as you can guess, he got what he wanted because he spoke to the person’s subconscious - not his conscious mind. Some may retort by saying that they’ed never fall for this “trick”. I’m sure that had anyone asked the guy who falls for this (twice) he would have protested as strongly.

Its laughable to consider how much energy and effort we put towards our conscious lives and totally ignore our subconscious motivations when they are the real ‘master’. Consider for a moment how easy and effective it would be to create positive change in your own life if you spoke to your subconscious mind and asked it to give you what you wanted.

Personally, I don’t appreciate people like Derren Brown using powerful therapeutic techniques to put on a carnival side-show. But I wanted to show you this as an example of how little we realize, as we go through our day, that our subconscious is the real power shaping our lives.

To learn more about these techniques, there’s only one person’s work you need to research: Dr. Milton H. Erickson.

Since late last year, we’ve been bombarded with news about The Secret, a quasi-new age book and video about the ‘law of attraction’. It outlines that the circumstances and situations that you find yourself in, are brought about by you and your thoughts.

Simple. And at first glance, quiet believable.

Yet, wrong.

If you believe the author, Rhonda Byrne, the prescription for getting whatever you want in life is simple. All you have to do is repeat positive affirmations and force yourself to think positive thoughts. And poof! the universe will give you a shiny new Ferrari, or that fat offshore Swiss bank account you always wanted. If you’re in a bad situation in your life, it claims equally, it is because you’ve concentrated on the negative and ‘attracted’ bad things to your life.

Blame the Victim
First of all, for you to subscribe to this you would then have to agree with the warped notion that an innocent child somehow ‘attracts’ a sexual predator. Or that the victims of tragedies like Darfur, ‘attract’ their own demise. It isn’t the responsability of the persons perpetrating these heinous acts, but rather the very victims who suffer. So in such a philosophy we have the victim suffer twice. Once for the act itself and again for being guilty of bringing it on themselves.

Need I explain further how ludicrous such an assertion is?

Will Power - The Domain of the Conscious Mind
Second, affirmations and forcing yourself to avoid ‘negative thoughts’ is not only an exercise in futility, if it yields anything it will be the opposite. It is quite natural for our thoughts to wander during the day and cover the whole spectrum. But forcing our conscious minds to avoid something, through the use of willpower, always backfires.

I was talking with my (therapist) brother about this and he said: “Willpower is a spontaneous state of mind. It can not be forced. In fact, wanting the absence of something through willpower only intensifies the yearning for it.” No matter how powerful your willpower, you simply can not forget something by forcing yourself to do so. Rather, the more willpower you use, the worse the results. Still have doubts? Spend the next minute using your willpower to not think about a white cat.

So that explains why willpower is futile, and why the ‘law of attraction’ implemented through the conscious mind is useless. But what then is the real law of attraction? Quite simple. The real law of attraction is that our subconscious, determines most, if not all, our values, beliefs and behaviours.

Everything you have achieved is thanks to it and everything you have not achieved can be traced back to your own limiting beliefs.

Imagination - The Playground of the Subconcious Mind
But the subconscious, for all its power, is rather primitive. It obeys. It does not and can not analyze. Neither can it differentiate between real and imagined inputs like the conscious mind can. The subconscious simply assumes all is real. And since the inputs are perceived as real, they create real consequences. Even to the point of affecting physiology! If, for example, you read in vivid detail about a ripe lemon, with its thick and wrinkled yellow skin, its juice trickling down the knife edge as it is being cut and then slowly squeezing the half lemon inside your mouth… don’t be surprised if your mouth starts to water.

Our fears and beliefs use the same mechanism to affect our lives. This is how they hold such sway over us, even when they may be neither real nor logical. And why if you wish lasting and real change in your life, you must change the protocols in your subconscious that relate to it.

So eventhough I do believe that we can ‘attract’ circumstances in our life, I do not believe that it covers everything in our lives. There is certainly room for randomness in life, for tragedy and for serendipity. And most importantly it is not through the mechanism of will power or conscious thought (repeating affirmations). Rather it is through the vastly stronger and hidden subconscious mind that we create our lives.

So as a trader on a path of enlightenment, do yourself a favor and put away the shock pads and the empty affirmations & platitudes. Set yourself instead on the real path to personal development and change.

It may not be new-Agey pseudo-science/pop-psychology but it is real and it is being used by the best therapists in the world to create positive lasting change.