[johnw]

Originally Posted by Rande Howell »

johnw

It's probably a little of both. There was an excellent interview by Terry Gross with George Soros a few years back. In it Soros spoke of an Observer/Participant. He said most of his success had come from being able to develop this Observer, yet it was never fully independent of the Participant. He had never become completely detached from emotion, but he recognized that being in the game of investing he was never independent of emotion. (Now, from my perspective event impartiality is actually an emotion -- but that's another discussion).

By being aware that the Participant was never fully independent of the Observing Self, he had built in a check that worked as a feedback loop into his capacity to Observe. This makes a lot of sense to me. And it is something I practice in my life and teach.

The key here is in recognizing that meaning (belief) becomes fused into emotion and becomes an element of emotion. By becoming aware of the meaning that is embedded in the emotion, we can deconstruct the ontology that drives our thinking. Fear, for example, usually has a meaning ranging from inadequacy to powerlessness to worthiness attached to it. When fear triggers, the deeper self limiting belief can be seen in operation. This is when it can be worked with. With work, that meaning is reconstructed so that it is more effective in dealing with managing uncertainty than interpreting uncertainty as something to be fearful of. Gotta get the awareness going first.

Rande Howell

Thanks Rande,

Adding more depth and words to the conversation adds clarity.

[jaysmith124]

Trade 7

100 shares .15 loss

I took a break not being able to focus. I will attempt to trade everyday.
This trade was counter to the trend. I noticed that my emotions are in check. The intensity of what I feel has mellowed out.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

[Rande Howell]

Originally Posted by jaysmith124 »

Trade 7

100 shares .15 loss

I took a break not being able to focus. I will attempt to trade everyday.
This trade was counter to the trend. I noticed that my emotions are in check. The intensity of what I feel has mellowed out.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

What do you mean by "my emotions are in check"? I'm certainly not sure. Here's the way I observe your comments:

I took a break not being able to focus.
I look a the the distraction inherent to not being able to focus. Suspect it is avoidance of discomfort. So my suspicion is that the distraction (motivation of the emotion) is an indicator of worry. Worry tells me that the limbic system is heated up by hypervigilence. This needs to be cooled down and the fearful part of self needs to be understood and encouraged.

I will attempt to trade everyday. Can't tell if this is a structural problem (job) or fear based (simply can't face the trading room)

The intensity of what I feel has mellowed out.
This is the arousal of the underlying emotion. Most likely fear. Fear is to be soothed, not ignored. If fear is present, you capacity to observe from a mindset of impartiality is truly compromised. What ever the fear is, it needs to be understood, de-constructed, and separated from managing uncertainty.

Our fears can teach us what we need to learn in emotional competency, but we have to approach the fear and push through it, rather than avoid it.

This may be more than you want to hear. If it is, just let me know.

Rande Howell

[jaysmith124]

Originally Posted by Rande Howell »

What do you mean by "my emotions are in check"? I'm certainly not sure. Here's the way I observe your comments:

I took a break not being able to focus.
I look a the the distraction inherent to not being able to focus. Suspect it is avoidance of discomfort. So my suspicion is that the distraction (motivation of the emotion) is an indicator of worry. Worry tells me that the limbic system is heated up by hypervigilence. This needs to be cooled down and the fearful part of self needs to be understood and encouraged.

I will attempt to trade everyday. Can't tell if this is a structural problem (job) or fear based (simply can't face the trading room)

The intensity of what I feel has mellowed out.
This is the arousal of the underlying emotion. Most likely fear. Fear is to be soothed, not ignored. If fear is present, you capacity to observe from a mindset of impartiality is truly compromised. What ever the fear is, it needs to be understood, de-constructed, and separated from managing uncertainty.

Our fears can teach us what we need to learn in emotional competency, but we have to approach the fear and push through it, rather than avoid it.

This may be more than you want to hear. If it is, just let me know.

Rande Howell

I meant that my emotions have been mitigated. I still have to deal with what is there. I have started writing down current self talk, and replacing it with more accurate self talk that does not include fear, but reasoned optimism. I have only been through this once last weekend, and I will go through the exercise again this evening. I believe this has effectuated changing my state. (Mindset) But, it takes daily practice.

I will be trying to read and re read everyday. Accepting the current fear based emotions, and replacing them with confidence. Eventually, I should be ruminating a new mindset throughout the day without reading it first.

Today, I experienced frustration, as well, after I was letting trades go by.

I know my fear based emotions are from a culmination of past, and future, thoughts/beliefs. Understanding that mindfulness is about staying in the present, I believe, and is putting me on the right track to trading with impartiality.