Breaking Free from Self Limiting Patterns

Welcome everybody, my name is Randy Howell with Trader State of Mind and I am delighted you're here and I welcome each and every one of all the people who are trying to learn how to put their knowledge of trading together with the psychology of trading. But before we get started, let's just find out if you can see me and if you can hear me and if you can see the screen. That says breaking free from patterns that hold your trading hostage. Okay, as people will just go into the question box and say yes or a why, I would graciously greatly appreciate it. Or not. So I'm assuming that you can hear me. There it is. Okay, okay, there we go. Answer live. Yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. That is great. And we should be ready to go. Okay. Well, first of all, thank you for being here. And what we really want to do is to sit here and say, what actually is going on in my trading? Why do I know from a thinking standpoint that I have an edge and I can see that edge executed? However, the moment that things get volatile and the money's really real and I could really lose that, suddenly everything changes. Everything changes to the point where it's no longer in a place where it's just, um, I can do this, I can do that. But then suddenly you're looking at a psychology that's failing. Okay, all okay, good. So, and we want to explore what is actually going on there. Okay, there is a— some of this has nothing to do with psychology. It has everything to do with evolutionary psychology of who we are as great apes, okay, and what we have brought into the modern age. And that modern age, that stuff that's governed by the thalamus, part of the emotional brain, simply doesn't connect with and does not see money the way that your thinking brain sees it. So we're going to be looking at that. And last thing, I hold my questions toward the end, but I would really appreciate it if when you find a question that you go ahead and ask the question, okay? Because that way we'll have a list and we won't have that kind of crazy thing where he's going, well, it's tap dancing and stuff like that. So here we go. What we want to do, so we've, we come to this moment And we recognize, you know, what is actually missing. Okay. And here's the whole deal is that what we're looking for are people who know how to trade when the risk is not there, but somehow their performances fall apart when risk is there. And we would really want to say is what's really missing right there that you're missing. Okay. Simple truth is we don't understand how the brain and mind work together. To create perception. And you're going to learn tonight a lot about that. But the very first thing is it's a missing piece of the puzzle, is that we can put together a trading plan, we can put together an edge on paper, but what we're saying is, you know, all that's useless. You know, I can make— I can make so much money on paper, but the truth is, is when the risk is there, everything changes. So what we want to do is see that. We want to see what is actually going on that makes this thing happen. And here it starts, right here. Your brain basically did a brilliant, great job of helping us to survive from 6 to 8 million years ago up until probably industrialization. Then all of a sudden, things started changing. And the way the brain historically had built perception suddenly no longer worked well. And what we want to do is say, you know something, its directive is survival in the moment. If you understand that about your brain, you're really there. You know, this, this, the bias predates the thinking brain. And if you view the thinking brain as a tumor that grew out of the emotional system. So ultimately what happens is, as it's growing out, the emotional brain, it's just wiring intricately all sorts of communication pathways between it and the new brain. However, your new brain has only got 2 19th century telegraph lines going back into the old brain. And so you can see the problem is that unless you learn how to compensate for this— probably this glitch is one way to say it— this faulty wiring or design bill, you're going to be always stuck with, uh, with being able to, with being able to say, what's so wrong? And here, here, this graph right here is meant to show you how the brain was built in layers. And let me tell you, the other thing is, is I know that sometimes people see this— boy, that Randy Howell, boy, he's going to really throw some science at you. Friends, this part of the science is really important. You're seeing how evolution has built us. You've got this thing in the middle, that red part of the brain, that's, that's the brainstem, okay? And we call that the reptilian brain. It's controlling all the, the breathing, the heart rate, and all like that. That you don't even, you're not even aware of. And that is the brain that used to be there many, many, many millions of years ago. But the thing is, it's evolved. We evolved from reptiles and small rodents into mammals, social mammalians. And all of a sudden you start seeing that mammalian brain. That's that yellow section that arrived so much, so much later. But then what you start seeing is this green aqua part of the brain called the human brain. I call that the thinking brain. If you take a look at this, you begin to see how the brain grew, but at the same time, it's responding to uncertainty the way that reptilian and that mammalian brain did, and it's blocking the human thinking brain. from participating. This is the problem. That— and what the crazy thing is, the thinking brain thinks that it's separate from the emotional brain. Then you go, you know, you sit there and you go, you know something, I was doing a really great job, everything was fine. I just— I didn't have emotions. They were just kind of safe sitting back there in the background. And all of a sudden I had money, something happened, the trade went against me, and all of a sudden everything blew out of the water and I could no longer think. And When the smoke cleared, I blew out an account. Okay. All thinking is emotional state dependent. This is what you need to grasp. It's not independent from emotion. Basically, your, your, your thinking brain is making up alibis, making up reasons, making up stories that support what the emotional brain has already decided. And the deep sense of, of meaning that you carry about managing uncertainty comes out of that reptilian and mammalian brain and not the human new brain. So this is what you're going to have to grasp going— you may not notice that you're having emotions, but because you're thinking, there is an emotional base to the kind of thinking. I mean, think about it. Think about revenge trading. What you have there is you actually have an emotional base of fear that you're going to be consumed by a saber-toothed tiger and you're fighting for your very life. And you think about, that's absurd, Randy, there are no saber-toothed tigers. Well, don't tell your mammalian brain that because it believes they're there, and it, it mistakes that trade going against you for the attack of the saber-toothed tiger. That, friends, is what you're going to have to learn how to tame and reinvent so that the mammalian brain, the human brain, stays there. When uncertainty pops up its head, your evolutionary brain, that reptilian and mammalian brain, is going to want to think the saber-toothed tiger is on the loose. Or conversely, it's going to think that you've just come across— you and your band of brothers have just come across a big huge woolly mammoth. And you want— and that you look at that, and man, it just means that the clan can eat for a month and everything's great. You get all excited about the danger. Somebody's gonna die bringing that beast down. At the same time, if you are part of that group that can take that beast down, you become— you become a hero. You become the leadership of that clan. And you have more opportunities to move your genes into the gene pool and into the future. That's what it's all about, friends. That's to that primitive reptilian and mammalian brain. So we get the idea that thinking grew out of the emotional brain. This is enormously important because ultimately this This graphic right here really shows you what this is all about. That geek sitting there driving it is the, is the new brain. That's the, that's the thinking brain. It doesn't even know that caveman is back in the back seat with a club. It's just doing its little thing. It thinks it's in charge. It's got the brain under control. Everything's fine until it's not. Then all of a sudden, let's just say that trade goes against you. And all of a sudden, caveman thinks he's being attacked by the saber-toothed tiger, and boom, just like that, thinking brain has lost control. It's gone. It's been pushed aside, and the emotional brain is reacting to danger, to threat to life. In the same context, it could be the other way around. You're sitting there a little bored and just sitting there, you know, like this, that caveman's doing here, and all of a sudden A really interesting situation occurs, and you go, oh boy, something's, something's heating up. And it keeps heating up, keeps heating up, keeps doing— and all of a sudden, you know, the thing is, I got to get in before this thing goes away. I've got to get in. I got to get in. I got to get in. All of a sudden, you have an urgency to get past your boredom and jump into the trade so that you can make money, because you can take— so you can make food for the clan. Both of these start with the emotional brain triggering to an emotion and altering the way the thinking brain perceives reality. Now, that's what we've got, and that's what you have brought into the trading arena. It's not going to go away. And the deal is, is you're going to have to find a way to be able to deal with this. And now here, understand this, this is also really enormously important. And you're going to be able to see the paradox and the glitch right up close and personal. Your caveman, he's looking at a human skull, he's trying to figure it out. The thing is, is that caveman, his brain is built to avoid the uncertainty of threat, okay? It's wired that way at the Most primitive. And this happens every time you risk capital. Think about what I just said. Caveman Brown is built to avoid uncertainty. And when you trade, you know how the trades go up and down, up and down. They're very volatile. And this— and that's where the money's made. So you're asking a brain that has evolved over millions of years to avoid uncertainty by being in control To being in a place where you don't have control. It's volatile and anything could happen. And that caveman does not believe that he's trading and looking at screens. The primitive mammalian brain, that ape brain back there, thinks he's in the savanna and there's a pack of hyenas after him. That's the, that's the dilemma, is you're going to have to learn to tame And habituate your brain to something that it was never built to do. And you're not going to do that by simply pushing through it and ignoring emotions, denying it, and jumping into things and just doing anything but feeling and experiencing the emotion that could really help you. So that's what we are out to do. We're out to say, you know something? I know that the thinking brain always sees that risk and reward with, with impartiality. It doesn't— and by the way, impartiality is actually emotion too. It's actually pulling in at that. It's looking at that going, okay, yeah, I can see that. Yes, I know that I'm going to lose some, blah blah blah. I can do this risk management. The deal is that thinking brain of yours thinks in probabilities. For long-term benefit, okay? And this is what allows it to fall into the illusion of control. It's looking at all that really cool stuff and look just on paper seeing how much money can do. But what happens is that the moment that risk is there, you—I mean real risk—we're actually you showing the risk rather than just thinking about the risk. Suddenly, boom! That caveman activates. And all of a sudden everything changes. So the deal is this: is that you find out that you've bought into an illusion of control by saying, you know, I've look, I've had the best teachers. I've had this. I've had that. Man, I know how to do this. And you get in, you find out that you may know how to do it when the risk isn't there, but you don't know how to do it when the risk. Is there. This is the problem, because ultimately it comes to this right, right, right here. This is it, okay? What happens is Savage Tiger comes along, 2 guys are sitting there, and the one freezes and the other runs. Somebody may have chosen to fight, and that's, that's revenge trading. And the one that's running is taking the skinny profits because they think it's going to be taken away from them. The point is this: losses are not cerebral to the emotional brain. They are life and death. And that's something that you need to really grasp, is that your thinking brain likes to be able to sit this in rational terms and things like that. The moment that risk shows up, reason is gone. If you begin to understand your brain as your humanness. You are not— you're not an emotionless animal. What you are is an animal who rationalizes. You're not rational, you rationalize, and you mistake the rationalization for rational. Okay, is, um, you know something, it's kind of like this, is there's a saying In World War II that developed is that there's no such thing as an atheist when you're in a foxhole. Okay, it's the same thing here. What you're looking at is going, you know something, I am going to trigger to this a primitive part of myself when the risk appears. And then it may be, you know, if you're doing micros, you know, you're only risking $20, $50. But at the same time, again, the brain doesn't know that. That's still a limb. So again, this is what you've got. And what I want to do, I want to show you this, okay? And this is, this is the instinctual brain responding to threat. This is the way it would work. You have sensory at the very top. You see it's sensorial input coming into the thalamus. The thalamus is basically that gut-level analysis. And let's just say that trade just went against you. So all of a sudden the information is not being reviewed or rationalized from, oh, well, it's just within its range. Now it's against you. And that thalamus makes a decision about, am I going to send this information to the thinking brain and really consider this thing and think about it? Or am I going to be thinking that, oh my God, I could be eaten alive here. I'm going to send it to the amygdala for fast action as a response to threat. This is the, this is the, this is the reactive survival mind going into fight-flight. Now the problem for you is this: it's when the thalamus— we might call it the traffic cop, okay— it's taking all this information flowing around him and an emergency starts showing up, he's going to stop all the, all the other cars and let the emergency vehicle through. That takes 10, 12 nanoseconds to go from the thalamus to the amygdala to where it's chemistry moving into your system, becoming emotion and taking over thinking brain. If the thalamus said, okay, I'm going to let— I'm going to let the— I'm going to let this one through. So what happens is it takes 24 nanoseconds, twice as long. It's called a high road to get to the thinking brain where there's reason and logic. What happens is that the route between the thalamus and the amygdala is so hardwired it is grease lightning fast. Before the thalamus even gets to send the information to the thinking brain to consider what to do, the amygdala has already produced an emotional response. Response as chemistry in the body, and the thinking brain is being eliminated. This is— this happens to you every day. Every time you feel your heart go bum bum bum bum bum, every time you feel the muscles in your body tighten up, every time you hold your breath, this is what's going on. And it's sending the information to the amygdala. It's not sending it to the thinking brain. That's when you realize, unless you decide to retrain the way you're body and brain respond to uncertainty, this is going to happen again and again and again, no matter how much harder, harder, harder you try. This is what it knows at that level of survival. So you're going to have to learn to interrupt and reroute the biology of uncertainty, okay? Otherwise you end up, you end up Blowing up under pressure, you end up with a, okay, I know that I have an edge, I can produce that edge, I've verified that by backtesting, but yet when I try to use it and something happens, all hell breaks loose and all reason is thrown aside. Well, this is exactly what's happening. And that, my friends, as humans, is about 6 or 8 million years old. Well, humanoid. Okay. And, uh, your thinking brain is about maybe, I don't know, 125,000 years old. Do you see the problem? Okay, now what we want to do is, now that we've got all bummed out and stuff like that, what we want to do is say, you know, is there a way around this? And actually, there is. But understand this, once the brain invents a short-term solution to deal with a threat, Or opportunity, it wires it in to become reactive pattern. That means it bypasses the thinking brain. Okay, if you want to see this in action, watch, watch pickup truck commercials. What they're doing is they're selling mostly men something they don't need. At the same time, getting in those new ferocious pickup trucks makes them feel manly. It gives them a boost of testosterone, and suddenly they're up high, they're in control. That's what they figured out. The truth is, is, um, they're also buying $70,000 to $100,000 machines to give them that testosterone fix. How do you— how do you rewire it? Okay, this is the thing that we need to really learn, because, you know, ultimately We can stay stuck in this cage of where you are right now for the rest of your career in trading. If you say, okay, well, is there a way out of this cage? Is there a way to retrain my brain to get out of it? Otherwise, evolutionary speaking, is you're going to be one of those traders who are just simply part of the evolutionary dead end. You burn— most traders will burn out their capital in 3 to 4 years, and they decide trading's not for them. They make up a story that supports their self and stuff like that, and they, they ultimately move on. Okay, so all this stuff going against you is a threat to your existence. All this stuff, when all of a sudden you have the urgency to act, to jump on this opportunity that may or may not even be there You're also looking at the dopamine just triggering like crazy, getting you cranked up to attack the woolly mammoth. And some of you are going to die in the process. Okay. And you know that, you know, once that, once that fear triggers, you're fighting to the death. The revenge trading is going to happen. You're going to avoid entry, fear of loss. Are you going to overtrade, revving up for the opportunity? These are all simple. These are all really simple. And the question really gets to the point moment is, you know something? If there were a way to retrain yourself, retrain your brain to react differently to uncertainty, to that volatility that you want to use but triggers the old brain. If there were a way to be able to retrain. And interrupt that old brain and create a new, a new set of emotions that give rise to the mind that engages the uncertainty in the first place. Would you be interested? Or would you want to say, you know, I'm going to figure this out myself? That's what most people do. Most people see me in 4 or 5 years after they burn through a lot of their capital. And ultimately, it's you have to decide. Am I going to train myself for something that my brain was just simply not built for and is highly opposed to? To become consistently profitable, you're going to have to change the mix of emotions that give rise to the mind that engages uncertainty. And the question is, is, um, now how are you going to do that? Well, the first thing You have to take responsibility for the results you produce. Okay, you're going to have to find how I respond to uncertainty is something that is coming out of evolutionary genetics. It's also coming out of the way your brain adapted you, live-wired you from birth on to avoid. uncertainty, head towards safety, and there you go. Now what I want to do though is let's just say this. Here's a graph that kind of explains this. The very first thing that happens is an event happens. The trade goes against you, say, okay? The next thing is appraisal. That's happening with the thalamus, and this is what must change because it's a hair trigger And wants to trigger very quickly to save your life. But out of that appraisal, it interacts with the beliefs that you have about your ability to manage uncertainty, and what emerges is an emotion. That emotion moves in, in both thought— electricity to a neuroscientist, okay— and action, behavior. What I want you to see is cognitive behavioral therapy is built upon a very deadly principle. It's actually saying that you change the cognition, you can change the emotion. In some degrees you can do that, but the truth is, when, when it's hot, when it's a really hot circuit, once that emotion triggers, it's going to influence, influence your perception, thinking, and your behavior, the action that you're taking. This must change, okay? You are capable of changing the way your brain evolved to respond to uncertainty. That's true if you're willing to train it. Okay, and then as you start really applying emotional intelligence, you redevelop the way your brain responds to uncertainty. That's what most people don't grasp until all they think they have to do— they listen to all the advertising, they fall for it, they do the numbers, and they realize, man, I don't know, you can make a lot of money doing this stuff. And then what they discover is, yeah, you can, you can get really well trained, you can develop an edge in theory, and then you put it in practice out in the real world and you discovered that it doesn't work. This is why, you know, is you have to— it's not just the thinking brain that's important here. You have to calm everything down in order to get the thinking brain to do its job. So we want to redevelop the way you and your brain respond to uncertainty. Okay, if you don't want to do that, I, I encourage you to find a different line of, um, of making capital because it's not going to— it's just simply not going to change. So here's the deal: there is no such thing as freedom from emotion. There's people who tell you, oh, leave your emotions at the door, just push them down. Can't be done. It blows up in your face. However, what you are capable of as a human being, highly advanced, evolved human being, you can develop freedom of emotion. You can decide what emotions are going to combine in a cocktail to produce the mind that engages that uncertainty. That, my friends, is the promise of humanness. So you get it. There's no freedom from emotion. You are an emotional being who rationalizes. You're not a rational being who has emotions that you could just leave. And yet at the same time, that's the first thing that happens. Everybody wants to pretend they don't have emotions. And frankly, the only time that you don't have emotions is when you're dead. Remember, an emotion is a biological action potential that triggers when there is a change in status on your charts. Regardless of what you happen to think, that's what an emotion does. And its job is to coordinate activity between the environment— that would be the markets— and the organism— that would be you, the trader. You can do this, but you have to, you have to recognize that, that you really have to, you have to get past the notion that you're in control That control is really an illusion, and that you're not a rational human being, you're a rationalizing human being. And you need to— once you accept that, it's a lot easier to be able to deal with this thing. The question is, how do you do this? How do you do this? Well, let's take a look. And by the way, a lot of my work evolved from The time that I was working with at-risk youth, and a lot of my referral base came out of juvenile court, criminal court, DSS, and I got really hard people to work with. And they had to go through me to be able to get their kids back, to be able to get on parole, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff. So they were motivated, but boy, did I tell you it was difficult working with them because they were reactive and they didn't do very good thinking. What we want to do, we want to be able to use emotion to create the brain that engages uncertainty. Okay, and to do that, what we're going to do is we're going to start 4,500 years ago with the Hindu yogas learning how to regulate emotion. They did it by breath and muscle tension relaxation. And what I want to do right now, let's just do an experiment, okay? I want you to go back and think about the last time things went really against you and you just got eaten alive and you just got chewed up and turned away, just blown out, okay? I want you to remember how tense it was, how fixated you were on the screen, and to be able to notice that you weren't breathing. And if you were breathing, You are only breathing a tiny amount in the very top of your lungs, and you can feel the tension getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Now what I want you to do is, holding that, I want you to see the word calm flash, flash, flash in your mind. Then I want you to pull air into your belly with your belly muscles, expand the chest, hold that for a moment, and release. And as you release, let the tension in your body drain, drain, drain, like honey flowing out of a jar, until you are loose and limp, loose and limp, like a sleeping body. Baby, now take one more breath into your belly. Let it expand to chest. Hold for a moment. Release slowly. As you're releasing, let the tension drain, drain, drain, like honey flowing out of a jar, until you're loose and limp, loose and limp, like a sleeping baby. One more time. You're still back in that situation, but notice what's different now. Notice you're breathing diaphragmatically. Notice that the tension has started draining, and notice that you're calmer. All you've done is use breath and tension reduction as a way of managing the intensity of the emotion. Now breathe air into belly, expand the chest. Hold. Release. 1, 2, 3, 4. And as you release, let the tension drain, drain, drain until you're loose and limp, loose and limp like a sleeping baby. What I want you to notice is the calmness, the lack of tension in the muscle. The lack of tension around the eyes, the jaws, the back, and that you're no longer breathing in the top part of your lungs. You're breathing with your belly into your belly, and your entire lungs get filled with air, which means you're going to get a lot more oxygen to the brain for working, and you have a calmer head. Now, every one of you, when we end this, what I want you to do is tell me what it was like for you You know, just do it as an observation. Type it into the question box. This is what happened to me, Randy. Now imagine if you had learned to do that as a practice so that it was a behavior. It was a habitual habit rather than you tensing up and getting all squirrely and not breathing, which by the way It's also a habit. You're actually in the moment where you can see that you can retrain part of the response you have to uncertainty. Okay, that's what I want you to notice. Now, is that going to solve all the problems? No. However, it will take away the— just the tilting, the emotional hijacking, boom, that happens so fast simply by learning how to do this. Now I end up having very sophisticated techniques to do this in the trainings, but the deal is I want you to see this. This is possible, friends. Do this tomorrow. If you're taking my group course, you have been practicing with this for several weeks before you show up for the first class. I'm expecting you to be able to demonstrate that you can control the intensity of the emotion a lot better than than you did, say, right now. So this is the first step, friends. We are beginning to recognize that an emotion is a biological attraction— attention— biological action potential, okay? That it triggers— it has a signature that includes breathing and muscle tension and heart rate, and that you can manage all those, and you can bring the— you can bring the extraordinary movement toward tilt and emotional hijacking back down to where you can maintain control of the mind. That's engaging the trouble. Okay, so we've gotten there. So you've actually seen that we've gone through here, and this is just simply the kind of the way it looks. You know, you can see air coming in through the nasal passages down into the lungs, being pulled out the belly and expanding. This is applied— this is applied to the act of trading to manage the intensity of the emotion. This is something that in my coursework you would be learning to do as a habit, okay? This is developing your response ability, okay? This is when it gets really interesting. Then the truth is, a lot of people say, golly, Randy, this is great, I'm gonna go apply this, I'm, I'm going to make a lot of money now. My aim is not for you to make money. My aim is for you to learn to perform much better. The second piece, knowing that emotional regulation by itself is not going to solve the problem, what we learn to do is we're going to learn how to produce mindfulness, okay? Because that's where the beliefs are that are all about how you respond To the threat of uncertainty. Okay, we've gotten there. So, in awakening the observer— and here's a way of— by the way, this is a photograph of me. Okay, and what I want you to notice is that in here you can see that first reflection is called the first-order observer, first-order metacognition. And this is when you move from mindlessness To mindfulness, to where you can actually begin to notice what you notice. What you'll notice though, deeper still, is there's at the very back of the image, there is another part. That's the second-order metacognition. This is when you are watching the participant, the first-order observer, and you're looking to see if you can figure out what makes it tick. What are the beliefs behind him? Because we have to uncover the beliefs that you don't see right now. This is the power of mindfulness, is that what we're doing is recognizing that you and your thoughts are not the same. You and your beliefs are not the same. Fact is, is you are not having thoughts and beliefs. You were born into a world where they incorporated into you, and you look through them and you don't see them at all because you just think that's air. Nothing's there. No, beliefs are completely shadowing and doing everything. It is producing the world that you see, and that is the problem right there, is the beliefs are, are failing you and you haven't decided to look at them. We want to look at them. And this is, again, this is part of the group course that we, that we work on, is you're learning how to reduce that second-order observer, that first-order observer, and recognizing that you and your thoughts are not the same. It's a completely different world. So here's the deal, is that if you're in observer mode, all that— you're gonna fail, well, who said you thought you could trade, you know what, you're, you're such a loser, blah blah blah blah blah— all that stuff are Get in, get in right now! It's going to get away from you if you don't hurry up! Hurry up, make money! Come on, come on! What happens is you're not seeing that as your thoughts. This guy over here on the left, that's exactly what's happened with him. He is absolutely caught up in his thoughts. He's in the fog of thoughts. He can't notice that he and his thoughts are separate from one another. The guy on the right, the observer mode, is noticing, I'm not my thoughts. I can actually recreate— I can actually recreate the observer that engages. So what you're doing is that this has to change. It's not like it'd be a good idea. This idea of who you are has to change because you have to build a mind that when it engages uncertainty does not have the fear of death. Every time it sees some fluctuation, every time it sees some good volatility. This is something again that can be taught. Okay. And out of that, you begin to recognize that. Hmm. What you also discover is this: is this is that the inner commentary. If you'll notice inside you that there is a, um, a dialogue going on inside you all the time. And what you'll notice, particularly when trading, it can be very negative. That's called the inner critic, shown here by, um, by— actually, it's me actually whispering into my son's ear. Okay, but the— you get it. You can see this stuff happening, is that you're sitting there trying to trade, you're trying to Figure out how to use this volatility to your favor. And then at the same time, what happens? There's a voice saying that you're going to lose, you're going to, you're going to mess up. So this is what we're doing, which you're realizing there is an inner critic for you. If you say, I'm my worst, worst enemy, that's the inner critic talking. Or, or, you know, it's just not going to happen for me. That's the inner critic. You would also recognize there is something that I call orphan, or the adapted self, that is basically your fear or your aggression about, about uncertainty. That's what's happening in this, um, brain of yours, because that brain is composed of— it's really composed of a, a community of rival emotional programs that are duking it out for control. of the self that you think you are. Okay, so what we want— you want to start noticing that commentary because it has observations and judgments of you that are really not to your great— they're not for you. Okay. And you can learn to get them. And what you begin to recognize is this, is that your brain, your mind, is loaded with a thousand voices. And what you've done is believing that, oh my God, I can't have thoughts, I can't have voices in my head, I must be crazy. No, you're not. What happens is all of us have these internal resources, some negative, some destructive, some, some positive, that are constantly going on within us. Your job as a human being is to organize which voices within the self become the ruling committee of the mind. This is where it's interesting, because at this moment, at this very moment, you start recognizing that you have an enormous opportunity to change the dialogue going on within your head. Instead of this, you know, it's interesting, is that this inner critic guy— is that I work a lot with a lot of men, obviously. The vast majority of men in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s are still trying to prove to someone, usually their dad, that they matter. Okay? And this is trying to matter. All of a sudden it gets translated into making money, and that'll make me matter. And before you know it, that's what really screws you up. And here, Guy draws his inner critic. You drew me all wrong. Do you have one of those in you? Of course you— of course you do. Of course you do. Are you doing anything about it? Every time you hesitate, every time you revenge trade, every time you just absolutely jump into trades, the inner critic is there. It's always whispering to you. And the emotional reaction you have to the inner critic's prosecution is the adapted voice, the orphan. This is the part of you that is activated. You experience an emotional hijacking. Before you know it, you're just mad or you're scared, and it's just, it's just primitive at that time. This is again something that you're going to learn how to produce the mind that governs very differently than the mind that you brought to trading. And it's not like your mind that you brought to trading is wrong. It got you where you are. But the thing is, is what you're attempting to do is build a very different mind. And this can be taught. As a matter of fact, here, here's another picture of me. All of us have a monkey mind, okay? There's no way around it. But at the same time, it's just become— because you have a monkey mind doesn't mean you have to listen to it. You can decide what inner resources, what parts of the self in you are the best to have to engage uncertainty. And this is exactly what you learn in our work. So what most people recognize, that the difference between life and trading is pretty slim. The problems that you have in the rest of your life are the very problems that you see happening in trading. The difference is you can't deny the ones happening in your trading. You can't just blunt them. You can't just pretend they're not there. You can't rationalize them. They're happening. So the difference is, you know, it's the compression between cause and effect that is greatly shortened from regular life. In regular life, you can ignore defect, you can blame other people, you can do all that stuff. But in trading, if you're going to make it, it's instant karma. Is you have to take full responsibility and you have to be able to actually see who is actually doing my trading, who is actually in there. Is it capable of doing what I need it to do? And what you'll discover is it needs a lot of work. Everybody— it's not just— it's just I am a student of my own work, okay? So that should tell you something. But in trading, you must adjust your beliefs about uncertainty to grow. Or what happens is that you're eaten alive. There's no choice there. So what I want you to start recognizing is that you've gotten here and you have knowledge, but can you use it? You're going to have to develop that mind. So the world out there does not change, okay? This is the mental edge that you need to drive your method edge. This is where you become responsible for the mind that you develop to engage uncertainty. And it's very different than the winning mind, the winning and losing mind that works in athletics and things like that. You don't win, you perform. You recognize that the truth is, is that you're going to lose a lot and you have to become an incredibly good loser. So quit hating losing. The thing is, is what you're doing is you're realizing that your job is to produce an edge and to execute that edge. That is what you can develop with all these inner resources that we've been talking about. And out of that, a good way of actually looking at this is The Lord of the Rings was one of the greatest archetypal movies I've ever seen. All these different emotional programs from Frodo to Gandalf. All the way through, all of them, the warriors, all of them, they were all acting in concert with one another to beat a very bad black part of themselves. And what happens is they had to hone themselves over time in working together to find their inner strengths. Like Frodo, my gosh, the strength that he had to have had, but at the same time he still needed Sam. Okay. And Gandalf had to go from being the gray to the white. There's transformations that have to occur if you plan to master life. And this is the deal: it can be done, and it has been done. And the deal is, is that this is, this is your hero's journey. This is when you realize that you may have stepped into trading to think about making a lot of money and have time freedom. But what you stepped into is one of those powerful avenues of, of self-mastery the world's ever known. Okay, that's, that's the deal. And out of that, what you really get is you're going to have to be reborn. Not like religious. You're going to have to reborn— be reborn from the beliefs that you've held about dealing with the uncertainties of life to where you are resurrecting yourself into a higher way of being able to deal with the uncertainty. It's in you. Have you ever thought of trading as being personal growth, self-mastery, and developing your potential? It's all those things. It's all those things, my friends. And the truth is Trading requires self-mastery. It requires it. You will carry around very self-limiting beliefs, and you will find that you have been able to make excuses for them in other walks of life, but in trading, they're in your face. When you take a look at your trading account, the health of your trading account is based on the beliefs about your ability to manage uncertainty that you project onto the world. Okay, so this is the deal, friends, is that you can learn how to do this. And I invite you to our upcoming group course. And the deal is this, it, uh, this is the last one we're going to be having this year. Okay, is that we— it will be in January or late January that the next one will end. If you're looking and going, you know something, I recognize that I need to develop this part of myself? Well, I encourage you to look at this thing because ultimately this is, um, this is 5 sessions over a period of 10 weeks. Yeah, group sessions where you are learning the tools to be able to produce those inner resources that where you can change the observer that you are that engages the uncertainty. That's what it's all about. It starts with with breathing as a way of regulating. It goes to mindfulness. Then it goes into looking— using that mindfulness to find what I call the bad news, that dark side that we don't like to show to people. It shows that because that has to be mastered. And then it actually shows you how to develop the discipline of a ruler, the courage of a warrior, the self-calming, the self-soothing, the self-love of a caregiver, and the impartiality, the clarity of thought of a sage. Those are the essential emotional programs, archetypes that are required, required to be able to build the mind that can engage uncertainty and not get freaked out by uncertainty. Okay, so I would love to see your questions, and if there— if you have any questions, please write them in. That would be really great. And what do you say? Otherwise, I can take it early and we can— and by the way, this will be on our YouTube channel tomorrow. Okay. I'm not sure what time, depends on how much editing I have to do to this. It'll be on our website. I'm sorry. That's right. It'll be on the website. So I do not see any questions or observations. Okay. Nope. So what I'm going to do is just kind of begin to sign off. If a question shows up, I'll be happy to answer it. The deal is this, is that most people come into trading and they realize that a lot of money can be made in trading. And they think, okay, I can do this. I'm smart. I work hard. I can push through this. And what they discover is some people can. About 1.5% of the people that trade actually make good money. 5% are profitable, but with all the marginality in it. And this is an opportunity of actually recognizing that, you know, I can develop the mind. I can develop the brain to engage life very differently. And in the process, what you're going to discover is you're developing a presence, an observer in life, where self-mastery really opens its door. And you begin to see that the way you engage people, the way you work with people, the way you engage life changes. Okay. Oh my goodness. Let's see here. Um, this, um, this is Craig going through a divorce and losing money trading. I'm kind of a mess. Would you be a good time? Um, yeah, as a matter of fact, you need the tools if you're going through a divorce. The very first thing is I would get into micros before I blew up, uh, really serious damage. But yeah, this You've got to develop tools. Okay. And so I encourage you. What kind of beliefs about uncertainty do traders project onto the world that gives them problems? The belief that, that making money makes them matter. The belief that money makes them competent. The belief that, that if they win, people will like them. If they win, they'll be adequate. The truth is, is that a lot of people come in with a sense of powerlessness, and the powerlessness about being effective in the world is revealed to everybody. The thing of never making it— oh, winning makes you— winning makes you matter. And the truth is, is that you do not control winning and losing in trading. You control the mind you bring to performance. And I teach people to really focus on their performances. They need an edge. That's why you're getting trained. But you, you have to have the mind that can execute that performance. And ultimately, uh, here's from Steve. What is the difference between the group and the individual programs? Are they payment plans available? Yeah, there is a— there are payment plans available for both the group It can be done. It's 5 payments. 5 payments. 5 payments. And they— of $300. The individual course is powerfully more intense and personal and longer. It's 10 sessions with me through Zoom. And you're going to a specific site on Thinkific where you have— You have very specific information there. You're learning it. But the main thing people say, Randy, the reason I'm taking you is because I get to work with the teacher one-on-one. Yeah, in the individual course. And people, that's important to a lot of people. It's an incredible time. It's an incredible journey. Okay. That is correct. Yeah, go to traderstateofmind.com and you can find all the information there. It's it's all there. Let's see here. What kind of beliefs? I've already said that. Thank you so much. Great information. Well, it's done down there. Okay. Well, friends, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and my own hope. Is that you recognize that— one guy put it to me this way. He says, Randy, the cost of your programs I can lose in a day or less. And I consider this something where I need to start learning how not to lose so bad. And that's where you really need to focus, is most people don't want to— don't want help. They want to do it themselves. They want to— they can do this. And the truth is that you are asking an ungodly thing for your brain to change by magic. It takes work to be able to get the brain to change the way that it engages uncertainty. That's what this course is going to teach you how to do. So anyway, I want to thank all of you and think about it and Whatever. Tomorrow, watch yourself trading. Do the breathing just from the skill level that you have now and notice the difference. Okay? So good luck, my friends. I wish you well. Take care. Bye-bye.