Making Dreams Come True

...continued from yesterday.

Putting your list of goals into a form of a story about your ideal life helps ensure that your goals are congruent with each other. You’ll notice if any goals conflict. You’ll have to choose between conflicting goals, keeping only those that fit together and eliminating those that don’t.

Based on your story about your ideal life, select some goals to work on over the next 12 months in the following categories to make that ideal life come true.

Health
Housing and Living Environment
Personal Finances
Trading, Business or Career
Toys & Fun
Relationships
Growth: Personal, Emotional, and Spiritual Growth

For each category, decide on the 1 goal that would give you the most satisfaction when accomplished. This may have to be arbitrary. But you’re not eliminating goals. You’re just putting some of them aside for the time being and you’ll come back to them later.

Then of the seven categories, where you have just 1 goal for each category, decide what order of priority you want to give them in your life over the next 12 months. To make this easy, what order would you put them in if you absolutely knew you would succeed or if the world were to end in 12 months?

Finally, take your highest priority goal and decide how much time each day you want to work on that goal and for how long. Then get a calendar and make appointments with yourself to work on that goal, blocking off dates and specific time periods.

Gradually, over days or weeks, schedule some more top priority goals in the same manner. If you’re new at this, you might be best off working with between one and a maximum of four top priority goals so that you don’t spread yourself out too thin.

Choosing among your many goals and scheduling time to take action on them are key tasks that turn your goals into reality, making your dream life come true.

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Create Your Ideal Life

continued from yesterday ...

Take your list of goals and create a story out of it.

Create a story describing your ideal life in a way that includes as many of those goals as you can fit in.

If the story turns you on, you’ll know you’ve got goals that higher spiritual forces intend to come true for you. You may have to revise the story a few times, or many times, until you get a version that turns you on.

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Goal Setting Reference Materials

There’s plenty of literature about goal setting. My two favorites are:

1. Alan Lakein, How To Get Control of Your Time and Your Life (book).

2. Anthony Robbins, Time of Your Life (audio-visual program).

You can get these at a lot of places on the Internet, such as eBay.com or Amazon.com. Check to see if you can borrow them from your local public library.

Here are two products about goal setting specifically for traders.

1. Ari Kiev. Hedge Fund Masters: How Top Hedge Fund Traders Set Goals, Overcome Barriers, and Achieve Peak Performance (book).

2. Van K. Tharp, Psychology of Trading (audio program) available at http://www.iitm.com/products/psychology_of_trading_cd_series.htm

By the way, Van K. Tharp's product features me in the first chapter but I have no financial interest in the product.

What’s common among literature on goal setting is the need to get into the proper mood when you begin to set goals. The mood that works best for me is one of confidence and optimism. One way of doing that is to ask yourself this question: “What would you want to do, be, and have if you absolutely knew you can do, be and have whatever you choose?”

Another approach is the one suggested by Alan Larkein, namely, ask yourself: "what would you want to do, be and have if you absolutely knew you were going to die in 12 months from now?" I use this question to narrow down the gigantic list generated using the question in the previous paragraph.

So ask yourself those two question and take a few days to compile a wish list. Santa Claus is coming soon so you need to have your list ready!

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Early Start to New Year Resolutions

Are you familiar with the idea of New Year Resolutions?

I believe the best time to start thinking about them is December, before the new year starts. Friday this week is the beginning December, the last month of the current year.

Today is the first in a series of articles about New Year Resolutions. More accurately, it’s about goals over the next twelve months related to trading.

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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V-A-K of Gratitude

...continued from yesterday.

Now start describing your feeling of gratitude so that you can capture your own unique recipe for it. Remember to use visual, audio and kinesthetic parameters.

Visual: what did you imagine seeing when you experienced gratitude?

Audio: what did you say to yourself when you were experiencing gratitude?

Kinesthetic: what bodily sensations were you feeling when you were experiencing gratitude? What was the nature of the feeling (e.g. weightlessness?) In which part of your body did you have those feelings? In addition to any other bodily feelings, note especially how you were breathing (long slow breaths?).

Put those visual, audio, and kinesthetic components together and you have your own unique recipe for gratitude. Any time you want to experience feelings of gratitude, what you can do is play those visual, audio, and kinesthetic components. Then you’ll again experience the feeling of gratitude.

Remember, John Templeton says that gratitude leads to wealth. So try adopting the feeling of gratitude while trading.

Hope this helps.

Back on Monday next week after the Thanksgiving Holidays ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Scrouge Your Way To Wealth

…continued from yesterday

To answer that, turn to a branch of psychology that has not yet made it into mainstream academia despite its efficacy – namely, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP).

According to NLP theory, any emotion (such as gratitude) can be described in terms of visual, audio and kinesthetic parameters. Once described in those terms, an emotion can be reliably reproduced on demand.

Can you recall a time that you felt the emotion of gratitude? If not, try watching the ending of the movie A Christmas Carol (the ending shows gratitude among Ebineezer Scrouge and others).
http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Carol-George-C-Scott/dp/B00005NKW5

That should give you a vicarious feeling of gratitude.

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Attaining Wealth

Gratitude, according to John Templeton, is the single most important factor in attaining wealth. That’s what he said in a video recorded interview I watched when I first started learning about trading.

Templeton is well qualified to give advice on how to attain wealth. He became a billionaire by pioneering the use of globally diversified mutual funds. He established Templeton Growth, Ltd. in the 1950’s, ran it for five decades and then turned it over to the Franklin Group

Additionally, the John Templeton Foundation gives grants for research on gratitude. http://www.templeton.org/funding_areas/core_themes/gratitude/1137.html

Highlights on some of that research appear in an article by Robert A. Emmons and Michael E. McCullough.
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/labs/emmons/

If wealth is the objective of trading, and gratitude leads to wealth, then what leads to gratitude?

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Redirect Fear's Energy

This is the fifth in a series of articles about Fear of Failure, Fear of Success and Fear of Rejection in trading. This series started November 13, 2006 with the article entitled “Fearful Trading”.

Yesterday, I wrote about releasing yourself from these three fears. Today’s article is about how to use these fears for your own benefit.

Given that fears are emotions and that emotions are a form of energy, you can conclude that these fears can be useful energy instead of harmful energy.

Here’s some examples of using these fears instead of being a victim of them.

Fear of Failure – Use this fear to extinguish behaviors that hurt your trading success, such as impulsive trading (as opposed to disciplined trading). “If I keep trading impulsively, I’ll fail at trading”.

Fear of Success – Use this fear to commit to succeeding as a trader instead of giving up. “If I apply for that corporate job, I’ll probably get hired. That job pays so well that I’ll likely quit trying to succeed as an independent trader”.

Fear of Rejection – Use this fear to reinforce disciplined trading. “I’ve got to stick to my trading plan or else I’ll look undisciplined”.

You already have these fears. There’s nothing to install. One way to redirect their energy is adopt self-talk that has that effect.

I'll be back on Monday ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Collect, Welcome, or Scrutinize Fears

This is the fourth in a series of articles about Fear of Failure, Fear of Success and Fear of Rejection in trading. This series started November 13, 2006 with the article entitled “Fearful Trading”.

That’s another way to handling these fears other than trying to resist, overcome or eliminate them.

There’s the Sedona Method Release Method. Actually, the Sedona Method is three methods, all intended to release yourself from the power of these fears without trying to resist, eliminate or overcome them.

1. When you feel these fears, notice where in your body you experience them. Then imagine yourself gathering up those fears in your body and blowing them into a balloon, much like putting computer virus files into quarantine without deleting them.

2. Or, when you feel these fears, welcome them into your awareness instead of resisting them. Just "Let It Be".

3. Or, when you feel those fears, pay attention to them, focus on them and describe them to yourself in detail. These fears become powerless during this type of clinical examination.

You can read more about these methods and how to use them in the book, The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin.

But I’m not finished yet. The Sedona Method is only part of what you can do with these three fears (rejection, success and rejection). In addition to releasing these fears, you can actually put them to good use.

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Fears You Resist Persist

This is the third in a series of articles about Fear of Failure, Fear of Success and Fear of Rejection in trading. This series started November 13, 2006 with the article entitled “Fearful Trading”.

Literature on these fears in trading deal mainly with the idea of resisting, eliminating or overcoming these fears.

Joe Ross, author of many books including Trading By the Book has an article (click here) in which he describes ways to resist the fear of failure. (http://ezinearticles.com/?Fear-of-Failing-in-Trading&id=214110)

Janice Dorn, in an article (click here) offers advice on how to trade despite the fear of failure.
(http://www.elliottwavetechnology.com/news/29.cfm)

But some trading coaches advise that resisting, eliminating and overcoming these fears can hurt your trading. Trading Coach Chris Shea says that “In overcoming fear there is a danger for supertraders… there is the potential that the supertrader loses respect for markets and the uncertainty involved. He or she is tempted, because of past successes, to become complacent or overconfident with an unrealistic belief in their own prowess.” To read article, click here.(http://www.themarketcoach.com/fear-in-trading.html)

If you’ve tried eliminating or overcoming these fears what you’ll likely find is that the more you resist, the more these fears persist.

There’s a way to handle these fears that actually helps in trading...

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Fear of Failure, Fear of Success, Fear of Rejection

This is the second in a series of articles about Fear of Failure, Fear of Success and Fear of Rejection in trading. This series started November 13, 2006 with the article entitled “Fearful Trading”.

If you have done any trading whatsoever, you’re already familiar with these three fears and don’t need to be reminded about how they manifest in your trading.

Here’s some examples anyway of how these fears manifest in your trading. That's right, I'm exercising my anti-Fear of Rejection muscle [hahaha :) ]

Fear of Failure – “I’m going to hold onto this losing position until it goes back up to breakeven”.

Fear of Success – “Hooray, price has gone back to breakeven so I’m getting out.”

Fear of Rejection – “I’m staying in this losing position until prices go back up. I don’t want this trade to show up in my brokerage account as a loser because my broker will think I’m a loser”

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Fearful Trading

Fear of Failure, Fear of Success, and Fear of Rejection.

Browse through any book on trading psychology and you’ll find one or all three of these fears mentioned.

Browse through the internet and you’ll find plenty of articles on all three of these fears.

For example, success guru Brian Tracy is featured on an internet video talking about Fear of Failure at youtube.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKnJTj-yliI)

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Become Psychic

This is the fifth in a series of articles that started with the article entitled “Psychic Trading” on November 6, 2006.

Psychic powers is a powerful advantage in trading. It’s not the lunatic fringe that uses it. It’s a secret that mainstream investment funds feel embarrassed about.

If you’re interested in having this powerful edge, here’s some resources to get started. They all require a substantial time commitment. That’s just like learning other aspects of trading profitably.

ProbableFuture.com has an audio program in the nature of a hypnotic. Their website has a substantial amount of information about Remote Viewing. You’ll need more than 10 hours to read all of their free materials. The audio course that they sell will take you about 3 months to work through although you could do it in about a month going at it full-time. http://probablefuture.com/

Remote-Viewing.com offers a free internet course on Associative Remote Viewing. http://www.remote-viewing.com/

Paul H. Smith is the author of Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate -- America's Psychic Espionage Program. His book was featured as the Book Bonus/Editor's Choice for the March 2006 issue of Reader's Digest. He offers a free sample instruction sheet on the internet showing you how to get a Remote Viewing experience. http://www.rviewer.com/SimpleRemoteViewing.html

we'll chat again Monday ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Psychic Brainwaves

This is the fourth in a series of articles that started with the article entitled “Psychic Trading” on November 6, 2006.

Psychics don’t all use the same method to access information about the future.

One method involves doing repetitive boring tasks to distract the conscious mind so that the subconscious mind can access information about the future.

Another method involves silencing the conscious mind through meditation (or hypnosis), whereupon the subconscious mind comes to the forefront and can access information about the future.

What’s common to the methods is that brain waves slow down to between 4 to 7 cycles per second, often referred to as the Theta State.

Present day training methods for developing psychic powers generally involve training that enables you to intentionally attain and maintain the Theta State.

Continued tomorrow...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Associative Remote Viewing

This is the third in a series of articles that started with the article entitled “Psychic Trading” on November 6, 2006.

Training in psychic trading often involves a method called Associative Remote Viewing (“ARV”).

A central idea in ARV is that the psychic does not attempt to directly know about market direction. Instead, the psychic does it indirectly. Some of the reasons for this include the notion that some psychics believe that using psychic powers for personal enrichment is improper and therefore involuntarily disable themselves from doing it directly.

In ARV, the psychic works backwards. Here’s an example. Let’s say that on Tuesday the market closed lower than the close on the day before, namely Monday.

The psychic would select an object, for an example a sponge, to symbolize a lower close and another object, for example a pen, to symbolize a higher close.

Therefore, the psychic would on Tuesday handle a sponge while looking at a price chart showing the market having closed lower.

On Monday, the psychic accesses his psychic powers and foresees himself handling a sponge the next day, Tuesday, while looking at a price chart. This conveys information to himself that the market will close lower tomorrow.

There’s interesting theories to explain the foregoing. One of the theories is that time is not linear. That is why a psychic can send information to himself back in the past to pickup so that he can foretell the future. In other words, what happens in the future affects the past!

continued tomorrow....

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Psychic Trading Not Lunatic Fringe

This is the second in a series of articles that started with the article entitled “Psychic Trading” on November 6, 2006.

Psychic powers can be and are being used for profitable trading. And it’s being done by mainstream traders, not a lunatic fringe.

Jack Schwager, in his book The New Market Wizards, reported that “One of the traders I interviewed, an individual who had made several hundred million dollars in trading profits for his firm, felt that the resulting chapter, which contained a lot of copy related to intuition, dreams, Eastern philosophy, and trading anecdotes, presented an image of him that would be viewed askance by his corporate clients.” (page 411).

A leading researcher on psychic matters, Russell Targ, had enormous success in trading an investment fund. You can read an interview of him in which he discusses his adventures into financial trading using psychic powers at http://www.intuition.org/txt/targ.htm.

By the way, using psychic powers to access information about the future is now called Remote Viewing.

Continued tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Psychic Trading

Knowing tomorrow’s prices today would certainly be an edge in trading. Even having precognition of the next price bar or two would be an edge.

I’ll be exploring the use of psychic powers in trading in this week’s series of articles. In learning how to trade profitably, this is one of the areas that fascinated me the most.

If this interests you too, then ….

Stay turned … Back tomorrow.

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Trailing Stops Based On Lower Pane Data

This is the fifth in a series of articles this week that began with the October 30, 2006 article entitled “Protecting Profits With Trailing Stops”.

Some traders use indicators as stop loss points. A popular one is the MacD. As prices trend towards profit, the position is held until the MacD line crosses to the other side of its average.

A similar idea is using the Stochastics indicator to signal an exit. In a range bound market environment, you exit a long position when the Stochastics rises above 80 and you exit a short position when it falls below 20. But in a strongly trending market environment, the Stochastic indicator gets “glued” above 80 in an uptrend and gets “glued” below 20 in a downtrend. The exit in those circumstances occur when the Stochastics indicator hooks in the opposite direction.

Another idea for trailing stops appears underneath the lower pane in a price chart, namely the time axis. If you notice that the last several rallies lasted 3 bars, then you might consider exiting or at least tightening the stop on that bar.

we'll chat again Monday ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Protecting Profits With Data In Upper Pane

This is the fourth in a series of articles this week that began with the October 30, 2006 article entitled “Protecting Profits With Trailing Stops”.

There are other ways of setting a stop loss price. The following are a few of the ways that data in upper pane of a price chart are used for setting stop loss and profit protecting stops.

Some traders use a moving average as a stop loss point. As price starts trending towards profit, they stay in the trade until price crosses to the other side of the moving average.

A similar technique is to use a parabolic curve on the price chart as the stop loss point. For this, you have to get a charting service that provides it.

Along the same lines, some traders use a trendline as the stop loss point. As price starts trending towards profit, they stay in the trade until price crosses to the other side of the trendline.

Something different would be using the low of the previous bar as a stop loss to exit long positions and the high of the previous bar as a stop for short positions. For example, let’s say you bought at 1350 and the low of the day was 1345. The initial stop with this method would be just under 1345 (e.g. 1344). Then the stop is changed next day only if the low of the next day’s bar is higher than today’s. This continues until your position is stopped out. Vice versa for short positions.

A similar idea is to use a prior congestion low violation to exit longs and prior congestion high violation to exit shorts. For example, let’s say you bought at 1350. The last time prices went sideways (i.e. formed congestion) before your entry involved a low of 1345. So you set your initial stop slightly under 1345, for example 1344. Then you leave the stop there until prices go up and form a new sideways range at a higher price. Once that new higher congestion area forms and prices again move higher, you raise your stop to just below the new congestion area’s lowest price.

cont'd tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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Starting Equity Stop vs Accrued Profits Stop

This is the third in a series of articles this week that began with the October 30, 2006 article entitled “Protecting Profits With Trailing Stops”.

Here’s another version of the two trailing stops mentioned yesterday.

Decide to treat loss of starting capital differently than accrued profits. For example with a “fixed value trailing stop”, decide that you’re willing to lose 5 points of original capital but that you’re willing to risk 10 points of accrued profits. For example, you bought at 1350. Your first stop loss would be “sell at 1345 stop market”. Then, as prices move favorably, you move the stop price so that it is always 5 points below the most favorable price seen since starting the trade. And when price reaches that point that is 10 points more favorable than your entry price, you change the stop price so that it is always 10 points below the most favorable price seen since starting the trade.

Similarly, for the example of a “fixed value trailing stop”, decide you’re willing to lose 10% of original capital but that you’re willing to risk 15% of accrued profits. Then in the above example, your initial stop after buying at 1350 is “sell at 1215 stop market”. Then, if and only if prices rise 15% above your entry point, you start trailing the best price seen by a stop that is 15% below the best price seen since starting the trade.

cont'd tomorrow ...

Copyright 2006 Raymond T. Lee. All rights reserved.
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