One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life...Chinese Proverb
Our society is driven increasingly by the need for speed and incessant movement. As such, we are becoming increasingly
dopamine-driven and psychophysiologically destabilized. What does this mean to you as a trader, investor and human
being?
Everything is faster today than it was a few hours ago. Technology is advancing at a logarithmic rate and we are
becoming more and more addicted to and unable to separate from technology. Every person reading this has a computer
and is wondering what to do about the increasing number of e-mail and instant communications which require response
now. Almost every person reading this has access to some kind of trading platform, trading tools or systems which afford
instant access to the financial markets. Almost every person reading this knows that the Pavlovian bell will ring to open
the casino on Monday, and he or she will be waiting for an opportunity to pounce on this or that trade based on this or
that hot tip based on this or that piece of information which he or she received at almost the same time that millions of
other people received it.
It means that we want it all and we want it yesterday. Today's news has its fifteen or fewer minutes of fame and then
flames out as we continue to be bombarded with the next piece of information and then the next and then the next. It is
fashionable to be totally busy all the time. We are hypertexting, hypercommunicating, hypercomputing and hyperliving.
As a logical corollary, many are hypertrading.
Do you see yourself in any of following mindsets? Have you ever done or thought anything like this? If you have not, then
please stop reading since you have attained trading mastery and don't need any words from me:
“No time to wait for setups. It looks like it might work, so I am going to get in now.
No time to wait for this to play out, I have a small profit and it might turn around and go against me, so I am going to
get out now.
My position went against me, and it looks bad so even though it did not break support and the downage was on light
volume, I better get out now.
The markets are running away without me. I have to find something so I can get in now. Just about anything should
work and the most important issue that I don't miss out on this great move, so I am going to just buy something now.
This setup looks good and I just made some cash on the last two trades and am feeling pretty good, so it's OK for me to
deviate from my system, and get in now.
I lost a lot on the last two trades, and am feeling pretty lousy about the losses so I need to get into something and
maybe double up now to try to get it back now.
I don't have time to wait for setups since I can only trade a couple of hours in the morning before I go to work, so I have
to do something now.
I am leaving this frigging service because I want to be trading all day. The markets are here now and I want and need to
be in and out of stuff all day so that I can make bank now.
I am feeling so bored right now and just need to put on a trade in order to do something. “
The litany is endless, and, at its very core represents the inability to contemplate, to move at a considered pace, to wait
for opportunity and to just plain have patience. At its foundation, impatience is a subset of fear and greed and is among
the most common reasons for trader and investor failure.
More insidiously, the inability to be patient and wait for trades to come to you or to work out for you, coupled with the
continual need to be always doing something in the markets is a form of compulsive gambling. Not speculation, not
rigorous systematic trading, but gambling. Not good.
There are strong similarities between obsessive compulsive trading and pathological gambling. There are also specific
antidotes to this dis-ease. Among these are the ability to cultivate an attitude of mindful contemplation that will enable
you to attain higher levels of awareness, patience and trading success.
The journey to trading mastery is a marathon, not a sprint. It is time to slow down, breathe deeply, become a distant
observer of yourself, and take a good look at what you are doing to dopamine your life.
Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water clears. They remain unmoving until the
right time, so the right action arises by itself. They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all
things... Dan Millman
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