How to Have 100% Control In Your Trading

Hi, Trader Brian here with InsideOutTrading.com and today's video is entitled why Is this Happening? It's about taking control of your fate. Now, in trading, a lot of times traders are feeling like they're subject to a lot of sources for their troubles. But the thing is, the real cause of your troubles, it doesn't help to find fault, sit back and say, well, it's the markets or it's the system or it's my data feed, or just beat yourself up. Playing the blame game really just doesn't do anybody any good. It really doesn't. Here's why. Whenever you assign blame or find fault with something else and you sit there and say, well, the markets are doing this, or it's the big banks or it's the governments or whatever, whenever you blame something else, you give up your power to do something about it. And that's the real source of problem. Now, the worst thing about it is so long as you blame something else for any misfortune that comes your way, it's also likely that you're going to continue to experience it and repeat the circumstances, the situations the misfortune is going to repeat. Here's the whole thing about what I'm talking about. Here's a good example. When I was back in 10th grade taking driver's ed, one of the things that one of the examples that our instructor brought up to us wanted to make sure we were aware of is if you're sitting at a green light in your car. I mean, you're sitting at the light and the light turns green, and then you pull out in the intersection, you get hit by somebody that's running the red light. Obviously it's clear you had the green light, they had the red light, they come flying into the intersection, they bash into you. Well, the thing is, when you go to court, you're not going to win because the judge is going to tell you this is how the law reads. It's called contributory negligence, because even though you have the green light, you still have the responsibility not to enter the intersection until you know it's clear. Now, kind of the same thing in trading. If you enter into a trade and you're not properly prepared, you're not protecting yourself going into it. You haven't planned it out or thought it through or put your protective measures in place and. And you get hurt. Well, you can't really blame anybody else because you made the decision to go ahead and enter the trade. And that's where the analogy comes into play. If you Enter the intersection before the light is green. Because green doesn't mean go, it means proceed if the coast is clear. Kind of the same thing in trading. Now here's where taking responsibility can really benefit you big time in your trading. First of all, you have to make the decision that you're going to take responsibility and decide that whatever it is, yes, it is all your fault. Because whatever happens to you really is the result of some decision or decisions that you've made along the way. You do have to accept that responsibility. That's fine. When you accept that responsibility, what happens is you begin to take control. And it does your integrity and your self image a lot of good if you handle it properly. Here's the thing, if something bad happens or you do make a mistake and you acknowledge it, don't just sit there and beat yourself up and say, I'm stupid. I'm such an idiot. Don't do that. Just say, that was a mistake. How can I avoid that mistake in the future? How can I do better next time? When you do this, you reclaim your power over everything anywhere that you decide, yes, it's my fault, and you take that responsibility, you make that decision, you reclaim all your power from those circumstances. You no longer are giving away your power and subject to these other factors, these things outside of yourself. And that's really powerful. So you do want to take control of your fate. Because when you do decide, you make the decision, yes, it's all my fault. I accept the responsibility. I'm taking the responsibility for it. You gain 100% control and that really is huge. Once you do that, you'll find that your anxiety goes down because now you're not subject to the power in something else to hurt you. Your stress will go way down. You've got the anxiety before you get into a trade. You also have the stress of once you're in the trade, both of those will go way down. The best thing about it is you'll find that you have better direction now that you've discovered that, yes, you are in control of things, what you do and the decisions you make, and you look at the things that happen in that light, you'll have a much better direction. When you're looking ahead to things instead of just saying, gosh, the big banks, they control everything. It's the big market makers, they control everything. Gosh, I can't do anything about that. Then you don't have a course of action. But when you decide that you have control over what you do now, you'll find better direction. You'll find better solutions to the problems. Now, as far as putting responsibility into action so that you benefit from it in your daily trading, awareness is the first step. You can't just say, I'm going to take responsibility for everything. And then you continue with your existing habits. First thing you have to do is be aware when you're in the moment, in the situation, when you're planning your trades, when you're getting ready for your trading day, actually before you even start trading, being aware of how you feel, how you are, are you tired, are you stressed out, are you just feeling lousy? Or have you got yourself in proper mental and physical condition to be trading at your best? You want to start with your state. Then of course, before you enter the trade, have you properly prepared the trade? Have you really taken a good look at your system? Yes. Is it clear? Green lights go. Do you have your exit plan in place before you enter the trade? Really huge. Once you're in again, understanding that it is your responsibility whether you're going to make money or lose money and you take responsibility for that. You're not hoping for the markets to turn your direction, you're deciding when you going to get out and what profit you're going to make or how you'll limit your losses. Like I said, it's in the moment that you understand and you make that conscious decision. And the awareness is there that yes, you are in control and you have responsibility. Once you're in the trade, it's going to help you tremendously. Not just get caught up in watching the market, but be aware of what you're doing and are you acting responsibly. Then again, of course, following up after the trades are executed at the end of the trading day, are you following up and giving yourself feedback. There are other areas where you can benefit with this as well. At the end of the month or at the end of the week, however, often you get your statements or you just sit down and are you doing monthly reviews? Are you tracking your expenses and your performance? Just in general, are you managing your trading business or are you just trading? Real important thing to do, track your progress. Don't just look at the bottom line, run your metrics, track your progress, look for opportunities for improvement in what you do. Now that you've taken responsibility and it's all under your control, where can you make improvements in what you're doing? In your rules for your system and all that kind of stuff? Then measure the results of the actions that you take, record them and review them, but measure the results of them. If you decide to make a slight change to your system, adjust your stops. You decide to sample other markets or other systems. Whatever action you take or action you drop, measure the results of it and make sure that, like I said, you're giving yourself feedback. The other thing is further development in your trading system, in your business, your execution and yourself. Are you tending to yourself? Are you developing yourself as a trader, as a person, in your health? Are you pretty much constantly in the further development of it? But again, it's in taking responsibility. No longer giving up your power and saying, oh, it's because of this, or even asking the questions, why is this happening to me? That's a horrible question to ask. Best question to ask is, what did I do or fail to do that brought about this situation? I don't like this situation. And make sure that you also keep things in perspective. Speak to your actions. Don't make statements like, I am. I am a loser, I am unlucky, I am an idiot. Those are the kind of things that will only hurt you. What you want to do is make sure that you separate the actions from yourself. You're a human, you'll make mistakes, you have things to learn. That's fine. Keep things in perspective of your action. If you make a mistake, say, wow, that was a mistake. That was a stupid thing to do. What can I do to avoid it in the future anyway? Again, take responsibility. Don't be a victim. The sooner you take responsibility for everything, you go ahead and accept, yes, it's all your fault, that's fine. But you'll benefit from it tremendously because now you have control and you can become the master of your fate. Anyway, do share this with your friends. This is Trader Brian with insideouttrading. Com. Cheers.