Transcript
Hey, it’s Yvan here, Trading Composure on social media. I’m a professional trader. I’ve about 20 years of experience in the market; been trading for a living for the past 16 years. And on the side I create content on trading psychology—I find the topic inspiring, hyper relevant, and meaningful.
You’re here, on this channel, watching this video because you want to develop your trading psychology edge. And that’s what [inaudible] help you do.
This is the first lesson in a series of deep deep trading psychology lessons that I’ll be sharing on this channel. And this lesson, this first lesson…. well… well, I guess…. I’m [inaudible] structure my thoughts around how to do this. I have notes on the side that I look, a mindmap, but I’m trying to find a good way to begin because this is more of an introductory lesson, I’m gonna talk about why this trading psychology work is important and what the future lessons will entail.
By the way, I’m not gonna edit out any of my errors, of speech, of grammar, of reasoning; on this channel, what you see and hear is what you get. I’m a real human, alright? I’m error-prone imperfect, and I want you to see this. I want to stay authentic with you.
So, coming back to this very first introductory lesson in this broader series of lessons, let me say this: Trading is a high-performance endeavor –like athleticism, entrepreneurship, or even playing a musical instrument at a high high level. And in any kind of high-performance endeavor like those, a psychology edge, your mindset game is an all-too-important piece of the [inaudible] puzzle. Mindset game is an all-too-important piece of the success puzzle. And so, as a result, there is an enormous amount of… I guess solutions out there, offering quick results.
You see this all the time: Do that and you’ll achieve this; buy this tool and you’ll get that…. I mean, in this space, this is all-too-common. Short cuts. Hacks. Quick fixes. These quick solutions are very often shams… I think. Quick fixes don’t work consistently enough to be truly helpful to your bottom line in my opinion. Because… well they’re quick external solutions to deep internal issues.
To be clear, there is some really good stuff out there, by some talented and qualified people who know what they’re talking about… but what I’m talking about here is the usual surface-level trading psychology content that you find everywhere. That’s what I’m talking about. They’re putting a bandaid over a deep wound and calling it a day. You know? And that’s not enough. It’s not tackling the core of the issue. Of why people lose in trading, of why the failure rate is so high.
This sort of cookie-cutter approach to trading psychology doesn’t work for a lot of people. For a lot of people, that’s not enough. For a lot of people, what’s needed is a fundamental shift in how they think, perceive, and experience the market, let alone the world… or life. A fundamental shift.
So, this is some serious mind work (some paradigm-shifting work) that I’m prescribing for you, and offering. Because look, most people know what they should do in the market that would get them consistent, predictable, reliable success. They know that very well, they know what to do, but they can’t do it. At least they can’t do it consistently enough. Even if they have periods of profitable trading, it’s usually punctuated by massive drawdowns. I personally know this all-too-well. I’ve experienced this. Somewhere down the line, you find a way to screw up. And then you’re back to square one. I’ve been there. Been there done that.
So, I wanna help you get off this emotional merry-go-round once and for all, and maintain stability of focus and equanimity and perspective and independent thinking no matter what the market throws your way.
Now what qualifies me to lead you through such a paradigm-shifting work? Well…as many of you know, I myself have struggled a lot in the market. And those struggles, out of all things, led me on a self-discovery journey, a self-actualization path- I’ve personally studied with quite a few renowned meditation teachers and spiritual gurus; I’ve received their guidance along my path. I’ve lived the life of a monk for a short while, delving deep into my experience, analyzing the state of my knowledge, the nature of my thoughts and beliefs and emotions on a deep experiential level.
But that aside, I’ve also studied philosophy and performance psychology, and I’ve reflected a lot and have developed my own insights and conclusions. So, I’ve personally done that paradigm shifting work myself… and I’ve changed a lot as a result. As a trader, as a human being.
I say this with a lot of humility, I’m still a work in progress, and I always will be, but I think I’m far enough in my own journey that I can provide some insights and perspectives that I’m sure you will find useful.
To develop a trading psychology edge in the market, one that consistently helps you act in your own best interest, that works for you, not against you, you have to work at the deepest level of the mind, at the level of your really deep-seated patterns that….. influence, that direct your actions that you express in the world–and in the market in the case of trading.
So there’s no quick, fast solution to this. It requires the right information and guidance. It requires consistent work, alright? Consistent work and learning. It requires dedication, patience, it requires interest—you need to want it… okay? Because in doing this profound work on yourself, you will be confronted with information that’s hard to accept; you will uncover things that are uncomfortable about yourself and you will have to deal with them. Head on.
Consistency in trading… well, I dare say it, it’s quite simple in theory, if you know what to do and can do what you know. But that’s the tricky part: it’s doing what you know. You have to get your thoughts, your behavior, your actions to align with the way markets are in order to effect your results positively, in order to create a beautiful long-term… equity… uptrend.
And for that you have to work at the root level of the mind. This is where the impulse to “shoot yourself in the foot” arises. This is where it sprouts. The root level of the mind; the unconscious level of the mind.
I want you to imagine this. Imagine the most basic life form out there. A bacteria? An amoeba? I don’t know… one of these two. But picture how they’re constantly moving away from things that aren’t good for them and towards things that are good for them, that keep them alive. Like food or light or whatever.
And picture how it’s pretty much the same the further up you go on the food chain—it’s the same with fishes, reptiles, mammals… Life has a characteristic to move away from certain stimuli and towards others. Because life wants to survive. It’s a reflex, it’s instinctual.
And this is the root of the problem for us traders. Our minds have a natural tendency to mindlessly gravitate towards what is pleasant and comforting and known and move away from what is uncomfortable and uncertain.
This….mindless craving and aversion impulse is the cause of much of our suffering in this life. Mindless craving and aversion. In fact, this concept is so intuitive and simple to grasp that sages from ancient traditions began thinking about this more than 2000 years ago.
This cycling between craving and aversion is the very fuel behind most of man’s problems, from wars, ecological disasters, broadening inequality, to more simple matters, like the inability to stick to a diet or regular physical activity, the tendency to always want to be right, or the inability to quit smoking. It all stems from this impulse: we move towards what is pleasant now, we move away from what is unpleasant now. It’s a short-term mindset. You could see it as that. I want this now!
This impulse starts the moment we’re born, or maybe even earlier in the womb… and throughout the years the mind builds habits over habits and patterns over patterns around this very basic impulse of craving and aversion, of moving towards comfort and away from discomfort. And it will continue to do so. Because that’s what the mind does. That’s what it wants.
I mean, there’s nothing wrong with this per se…it’s a basic survival mechanism that all life forms have in common. Of course, as humans, we’re so much more evolved than a blob of bacteria, let’s say, I mean, we’ve shaped our environment through our understanding of it, and we’ve built technology to lower uncertainty and give us more predictability over our future. We’ve creates societies, rules, laws and all of that gives us the assurance that we’re all on the same page, so to speak, that we’re all striving towards a common goal and future, we’re not just.. you know, animals living on instincts alone. We’re a higher life form with a higher level of intelligence and consciousness.
That’s great. But in certain areas where we don’t have the same kind of control and predictability that we do in many aspects of our lives, we tend to revert to relying on our basic impulses. The market is a good example of where that happens, of where we’ve prone to reverting back to impulsiveness. And of course, that is why trading, especially as a means to earn a living, is such a tedious activity that only few people are able to do profitably.
What the mind wants in the moment isn’t always what’s best for it in the long run. What the mind wants in the moment isn’t always what’s best for it in the long run. Especially in the market.
The way the market is designed is that it traps those that buy and sell impulsively. Based on emotions. And it gives their money to those that operate on a higher level; a higher level of understanding and perceiving and thinking and cognizing.
So, as a trader, you gotta develop that higher level of being; you can’t rely on mindless impulses and emotions to survive and thrive and be successful in this field.
I will help you develop that higher level of cognizing and functioning. You will teach you how to relax your mindless clinging and aversion impulses in favor of a more equanimous mind, a mind that lives fully in the present; a mind that is at peace with everything, that flows with everything, with every circumstances the markets or life throws at it. I will help you develop a mind that thrives in uncertainty.
Here are some of the things we’ll tackle on this channel:
– How to think in the market’s perspective – are prices random, are they not random, what’s really
happening behind each up and down tick, what creates trends, etc.
– We’ll see what positive expectancy systems are—and what they’re designed to do. And what can’t they do.
– We’ll also look at how to think in probabilities. Important. Very important.
– We’ll see how to develop self-awareness and remove emotions from your trading process.
– We’ll discuss mindfulness; we’ll look at what thoughts are, what emotions are.
– We’ll discuss money and our relationship with it.
– We’ll see what uncertainty is and what it means; we’ll discuss risk
– I’ll help you develop a life philosophy that supports you on this challenging but very rewarding journey.
What else…I mean, this is a non-exhaustive list – we’ll explore much more than that. But, as you can imagine, these lessons are very far from the usual trading psychology stuff you see online– there’s even you could say a spiritual component to the work that I’m gonna share with you. Well because that’s what’s needed to induce a true paradigm shift.
Now. Two important points:
1. [Inaudible] approach these lessons from the perspective that you already have a proven edge in the market. Once again, this channel is mostly about the deep mental work that is often poorly addressed or brushed off completely in most trading education contents. You hope you understand that. Though, the lessons on uncertainty, positive expectancy systems, risk, market structure, and all of that will help you build your own system… but I’m not gonna hand you a trading strategy. It’s the whole give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish, feed him for a life philosophy that I espouse and live by.
2. The lessons on this channel are all about theory. That’s great. Theory is important, but you gotta balance it out with practice. And this is where the trading psychology mastery course comes in… this is where you take it to the next level with actual practice, to seer these teachings into your subconscious mind. But I’ll have plenty of time to discuss about that later.
Again, every trading error you make in the market, the resistance you feel when you place and manage your trades are direct results of you losing your balance of mind and operating from a primal, impulsive mode.
For instance, when you don’t take your signals when you should, when you don’t let your winners run as far as they could go. When you revenge trade, when you risk too much on your trades. And so on. Those are mindless reactions that can be stopped. Once and for all. But as said earlier, this work cannot be done on a superficial level. It needs to be done via the right kind of knowledge and practice. We have to work within the deeper complexities that lie very often below conscious awareness.
If you’ve been trying to engineer consistent trading results without much success, the only way to experience a different reality is to do that. It’s to get the right knowledge and to look within. Because without knowing from experience what drives your behavior, you’ll remain a slave to forces within yourself that will continue to create your inconsistent trading results.
So… I’m going to delve into some deep deep stuff in the next lessons. Much deeper than anything you’ve ever come across on the topic of trading psychology. Most of you at least.
But you will learn a lot from them.
If you’re prone to cutting your winners too soon and letting your losses ride, you will gradually seize such a behavior.
If losses make you sad, moody, pessimistic and conversely profits give you an adrenaline rush make you feel elated, irrationally exuberant, you will also gradually cease this.
If you tend to trade impulsively, compulsive entering where you shouldn’t risking too much, etc.,
etc. That will also be eradicated.
You will learn to accept change and you will cease to expect things from processes you don’t have any control over. You will learn to detach yourself from the outcome and to stay laser-focused on the process.
You will develop maturity in how you deal with your emotions. You will embody all these changes…. because we will make an operation right on the very core of the issue. We will attack it from many different angles.
At times the content might appear repetitive, but that isn’t a bad thing, again we’ll approach things from many angles and I will drill these concepts and behaviors into your mind, into your very being. So… yeah. Try to stay curious and open.
You can expect a new lesson once every two weeks, generally on a Sunday. That’s the schedule. But if I feel inspired to talk about something I’ll just pull up the camera, press the record button and release something earlier. But the regular schedule is once every two weeks. For now.
