TRADING PSYCHOLOGY
Questions Can Lead You Out Of A Trading Slump - Or Lead You Into One
Questions Are The Heart Of The Matter
by Ruth Barrons Roosevelt
Questions can confound you or they can enlighten you. How can they help you in your trading?
If you're not making money through your trading, you are probably not asking the right questions. The reason questions are so important is that they direct your thinking and your energy and, ultimately, your actions. Answers give you an assemblage of facts, but questions set up the groundwork for those facts. Questions create the architecture of your thinking and establish your direction. They direct the focus of your mind.
Some questions empower and some questions destroy. Some questions keep you stuck in the past and some move you forward. For example, "Why do I always lose?" presumes that if you have lost in the past, you will lose in the present and in the future. Further, that question establishes your identity as a loser. On the other hand, a question like "How can I increase the probabilities of winning?" assumes that you can create an edge to change your trading results in the future. It creates potential for your becoming a winner and identifying yourself as a winner.
Some questions are virtually unanswerable. "Why am I such a loser?" is a simple condemnation and has no answer. "How can I change this? How can I begin to win?" implies possibility and calls for a concrete answer. The first question focuses on the problem and would remain stuck on the problem. The second and third questions focus on the solution and presume there is a way out of the dilemma.
Some people tend to stay away from asking questions because they are not comfortable about uncertainty. People who become anxious about not knowing have a difficult time trading because trading is nothing but uncertainty. Courage lies at the heart of creative questioning -- and trading -- because it requires the willingness to ask questions that might have no answer or might challenge your current position or way of thinking. Other people have a vibrant and easy curiosity and automatically ask questions when confronted with a situation.
RIGHT QUESTION, RIGHT ANSWER
The interesting thing about a question is that it not only presupposes there is an answer, it also presupposes the authenticity of the question. The question sets up a perception or behavior that ultimately engineers an answer. But a wrong question results in a wrong answer. And the answer will seem believable.
Sometimes we're not even aware of the questions we're asking. A simple statement or thought often has an implicit question behind it. A person who can't pull the trigger to enter a trade might well be unwittingly asking himself, "How can I be sure this trade will be a winner?" The unspoken question causes him to wait for confirmation, and by the time clear confirmation comes, the trade has passed him by. Opportunity passes like a cloud.
Ruth Barrons Roosevelt is a psychological trading coach, working with traders around the world. She can be reached at her Wall Street office at 165 William Street, New York, NY 10038, 800 692-0080, or on the Internet at http://www.RuthRoosevelt.com.
Excerpted from an article originally published in the October 2000 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2000, Technical Analysis, Inc.
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