We as humans have the ability to evolve intellectually and have done so at a rapid rate, but when it comes to emotions we have been unable to change in thousands of years. The saying ‘this time it will be different’ is coming from the perspective of an intellectually evolved civilization, one that is somewhat aware of history, but emotionally has not changed at all to prevent it from repeating.
For proof of this, look at the last several thousand years or so. Many religious leaders and other great minds have attempted to show us ways to evolve emotionally, and have failed in shaping the globe as a whole, only influencing pockets of civilization and even then contentiously. Even the recent hit ‘The Secret’ has been unable to change our behaviour on an emotional level, merely making us more aware of how we can evolve more at the intellectual level, i.e. “Can we learn how the law of attraction works through quantum physics or any other science etc.”
Many people believe that we are at the dawn of an amazing era, yet my suspicions have been this has always been the case, and each progression has always been on an intellectual level not an emotional one. I am not religious, but I respect many religious leaders because they have attempted to teach people to evolve emotionally, leaving the intellectual frontiers to the scientists. I am not a scientist either, but as a human being who craves challenges, I would never shy from evolving intellectually either. For me it’s all about balance.
The markets are based on emotions; it’s as simple as that. Even the large multi-decade trends are based on an emotional outlook on life as a collective whole. To master the markets and enable them to work for you, it is my belief you must evolve to an emotional level beyond that of the majority of market participants.
To evolve emotionally is not that hard, in fact the biggest cause of this inability is fear. Fear is everywhere whether it is God, Cancer, the Government, War, Criminals, Drugs, and the list goes on. But when it comes to the financial markets I think what we fear the most is our self. We fear ourselves to the point where we become our worst enemy, and when engaged in the financial markets the worst thing we could possibly do is be at war with our self.
Overcoming fear of ourselves simply means understanding who we are and what we are capable of. If you are in the markets and something is not sitting right it means you are out of your zone, you are attempting something that you do not have the experience or skills to overcome if the worst case scenario should happen. Examples of this can be risking too much, not understanding your tools and method of analysis as much as you should, being in too many markets at once and being unable to adequately monitor all your positions and the list goes on.
Evolving emotionally is an ongoing journey but for the market participant it need not be a journey to a mountain top. It simply means getting in touch with one’s own inner strengths and weaknesses, by understanding where you are great and where you are not, and learning to manage the weaker areas and continuing to build on the strengths. The masters of the markets have always done this, whether they are aware of it or not.
Dean Whittingham is a trader/investor and created A Traders Universe – Stock, Futures & Forex Trading System Development in 2005 as a resource site for traders of all levels, with education, courses, brokers, tips, free videos, newsletters, trading systems, simulations and a free 7 step process for building your own profitable stock, futures or forex trading system.
