Free Rande Howell webinar - Adapt or Fail: Building Your Mind for Success in Trading

Adapt or Fail: Building Your Mind for Success in Trading Hello Trader,                Success in evolution and trading are very similar.  In evolutionary theory, it is not the biggest, strongest, smartest, and/or toughest that find success in meeting the challenges of living. Rather, it is the most adaptive (open) to necessary change.  Traders need to take this axiom to heart. Why? Because it is highly unlikely that the mind that you brought to trading is going to be the mind that creates success in trading. (The rules for success in trading are very different than for everyday life.) To be successful in trading, you are going to have to adapt your understanding of failure, winning, and losing. The rules for success are very different for trading than in your everyday life. In evolution, when an adaptive creature (like a trader) fails a challenging event (takes a loss), that failure is a call to action for adaptation – it is not cause for shame, anger, or fear. The organism (the trader) instinctually begins to invent a new way of dealing with the challenge – or they perish. Rather than becoming more rigid in its response to failure, it evolves a new way of understanding the repeating problematic pattern, so it can work with the situation differently – thereby increasing its chances of survival. This enhanced skill of adaptation becomes the edge in dealing with a constantly changing environment where there are plenty of risks to negotiate. You have a brain built by evolution to win (survive another day) by controlling outcome. And that brain was built not to lose because losing meant you were somebody else’s lunch. In fact, this instinctual aversion to losing is so strong that the trader will metaphorically fight for his/her life when the trade goes against him/her. To the emotional brain, you are being attacked by a dangerous predator and you must fight like your life depended on it. This is your survival instinct. It was an adaptation that helped humankind win the struggle for survival in that time and place so long ago. And now that same adaptation produces failure in the very strange world of trading. It is a very different jungle, with different survival rules, than the world where the original adaptation was helpful.  In this new world, losing is no longer about a threat to your existence, as it was then. Losing now is about working in worlds of probability and uncertainty that would have been impossible for our caveman ancestors to comprehend. To them, they had to believe that they could, in fact, control outcome. That fallacy became such an effective way (though delusional) for their survival, it became locked into human genetics. We strive to win against all odds in a belief that we are going to win. Every new crop of traders comes to the arena with a belief that they are going to win by acquiring knowledge of trading, trying hard, and never giving up. And in the world of our caveman ancestors, this instilled belief created survival success. Now traders bring this artifact from another time and place into trading, and they find the world of trading has very different rules for success than caveman’s and your everyday world.  Yet, you are locked into a mindset that has you believing you can win on an instinctual level. More than that, you bring the notion that you hate losing to an endeavor where losing is a natural part of the game. You keep losing money or leaving it on the table even though you experience failure. It is this blockage that is the problem. Failure, in evolution, is a call for adaptation. And, in trading, we have to come face-to-face with ancient, instinctual drives for survival that run counter to the emotional and psychological skills needed for success. The good news is that as humans, we can take control of the adaptation process – once we realize that we must adapt to this new world that is so very different from the one we are currently suited for.  First Question: What Are the Rules for Success Here? Early humans were built to control the environment (control outcome). Winning was everything for survival. Winning produced a safe world where the person was in charge. This survival strategy proved so successful that it was incorporated into the human genome and transferred into future generations for prosperity. The transfer of this embodied instinct continued until one day, a very successful person in the ordinary world decided to start trading. And suddenly the trader discovers that a mindset of winning (so useful in the ordinary world) is dangerous in the trading world. Outcome cannot be controlled no matter how much will and knowledge you have. The trading world is built upon uncertainty and probability. Winning (in the traditional sense) is produced by force of will or power. Winning in trading is produced by bringing a disciplined and patient mindset to work in the probability world of trading. This is the antithesis of winning by controlling outcome with which humans come equipped. The second rule is about losing. Our early human ancestors learned to hate losing. Losing meant death. It meant that you became somebody else’s meal. All the lions, tigers, and bears are gone now (almost), but the instinct of fighting losing is rooted in us as a survival strategy. Yet, in the probability-based world of trading, losing is a normal part of the game. And, to become a successful trader, you must also become a very good loser. You must know when to cut your losses. When you see a trade go against you and you go on tilt, this is what is happening. When you are trying to risk capital on a valid set-up, but keep wanting more confirmation, you are experiencing your Inner Cavemen fearing for his life if you enter that trade.  So, How Do You Adapt? First, acknowledge that force of will or denial is not going to magically erase what evolutionary genetics has built into you. The more you try to force your will against your survival instincts by brute force, you only dig the problem deeper. You already have a significant problem to deal with – you don’t need to make it worse.    The second thing to do is to learn how to calm down the reactive emotional pattern that keeps hijacking you when you are under pressure. I teach a form of breathing that has been around for about 4500 years. Because both breathing and muscle tension are elements of reactive emotional survival patterns, your learning how to breathe diaphragmatically and consciously reduce muscle tension which will calm the emotion down so that it never gets to the threshold of hijacking you. That’s a start. Third - here comes the heavy lifting. When you are looking at your P/L statement, you are seeing the impact of your deep emotional beliefs that drive your performances. These are not the beliefs that you “say” you have. These are the real beliefs that are revealed in your performances under pressure.  This is where adaptation needs to happen. As long as your sense of mattering, your worth, your adequacy, and your lovableness are based on winning and losing, then you will have problems trading because your value as a human being is tied to something you cannot control in trading – winning and losing. As a human being you can change this. Your inherent worth and your performances are completely separate.  In the upcoming Developing Traders State of Mind (DTSM) Group Course, you will learn the very skills needed to adapt the old brain you inherited from history and from your family of origin to the probability-based mind needed for success in trading. Most traders must take some very hard hits in order to realize that they have to build a performance mind for the rigors of trading. It simply is not the brain/mind that you brought to the game. Call this the Tools of Adaptation. The potential is there. And it is time to pick up the tools of adaptation and create the mind built for the uncertainty of probability in trading. Come join us for our next DTSM Group Course to explore this further.  Now is the time to learn how to adapt, rather than fail. Come and Learn. Watch my [video]( [register and attend our free webinar]( go to our [website]( and enjoy all the learning materials there. Sign up for our [Courses](. Make a move in the right direction. Take action, now. [[Facebook] ]( [[LinkedIn] ]( Rande Howell Traders State of Mind www.tradersstateofmind.com Free Rande Howell webinar in May 2023 Title - Adapt or Fail: Building Your Mind for Success  In Trading Speaker: Rande Howell Date/Time: [Wednesday, May 10, 4:30-5:30pm EDT]( IMPORTANT! The time shown is in U.S. Eastern Daylight Saving Time! Description:   Why doesn’t hard work, persistence, and never giving up work to produce success in trading? It is because the rules for success in the ordinary world of your life and in trading are vastly different. If you are going to make the transition from success in the everyday world to success in trading, you will have to learn how to evolve your own mind and adapt yourself to a strange world where the rules for success are different than the ones you inherited from evolution and from success in the everyday world. Success in trading is alien to our Caveman ancestors. Come learn how to harness the power of adaptation to produce the mind that is successful in the probability-based world of trading. Please [click here]( to register for this free webinar. IMPORTANT! The time shown is in U.S. Eastern Standard Time. [New free Video - ]( Adapt or Fail: Building Your Mind for Success in Trading The mindset you brought to trading, forged by evolution for short term survival, is not going to be the mind that produces success in trading. In fact, you will have to undo what evolution has done. Your Caveman Brain is built to control outcome (win), not lose (that means death), and to confuse money with power. The problem is that the outcome cannot be controlled in trading, and you are going to take losses. These are things that the Caveman brain hates and is diametrically opposed to. Success in the ordinary world beyond trading simply has different rules for success than the world of trading. How do you adapt your mindset from the old world to the probability-based world of trading? This adaptation is the difference between success and failure in trading, yet few know HOW to make adaptation work for them.  Learn more about what holds us back from our distant past so you can adapt for the laws of success in trading. Watch this video. Please [click here]( (and scroll down a bit) to view the video. Developing Traders State of Mind Group Course - Summer, 2023 The emotional brain is built to seek safety in a dangerous world. The world that it was created for has long since disappeared. It developed a hair-trigger to the fight/flight response because that is what was needed for survival. Now, it has been taken out of the jungle (where risk meant danger) and is being asked to act civilized in a world of probability - where risk is not lethal. Without re-training and re-programming the emotional limbic system, this is not going to happen. It is built to react to danger quickly. It was never built to ponder your rules when it is experiencing vulnerability, discomfort, and fear. It was programmed to act from your survival instinct.  Until this is done, your emotional brain will continue to hijack your thinking brain when you feel the discomfort of uncertainty and risk. This is your silent partner. The question is: Are you going to try to continue to pretend it's not part of your trading mind? Or, are you ready to re-program it for the modern world of trading and probability. Fortunately, this can be done. The Developing Traders State of Mind Group Course Teaches You How to Master Reactive Emotions The Group Course has been called a wake-up call by many traders. Most simply have no idea how the brain and mind work to produce performance in the clutch with risk on. You learn here. It's more than a wake-up call - it a door that opens you to a whole new world. You learn how the emotional brain (so focused on survival) needs to be handled to become an effective working partner with the thinking brain. This course is eye-opening. I had no idea how to fix the problems I had with my trading until this course. Learning how to manage emotions is only the start. You learn how to create a mind built to manage uncertainty. Bottom line is that I know longer sabotage myself and have become profitable. I wish I had taken the group course a long time ago. It's a difference maker. SD From the start you learn how to calm survival emotions down before they become big and hijack your trading mind. That's just the first step. The major benefit is that you learn how to create a mind built for trading, rather than survival in the past. This is what has to happen for success in trading. You have been using a brain/mind created for circumstances that no longer exist. What is needed is a brain/mind built for probability management. Where you learn to become comfortable with the discomfort of uncertainty rather than triggering to your survival instinct. This is what every trader, to be successful, has to learn. All those who register now will be enrolled in the Summer 2023 Group Course, which has its 1st Group Meeting on May 18. Give yourself lots of time to study, and get started now! The survival Instinct is not going to just go away. It is your partner. Do you want to learn to work with it so that it helps you to become the trader you can be? [Please Click here to register ]( the Group Course. [Please Click here to view a video about the Group Course or for more information.]( The DTSM Group Course teaches the same basic skills that are taught in my individual course, but is only $1195. This can be spread out as five payments of $239/each over a 10-week time period. It's a whole lot of training for a reasonable cost. SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING PAYMENT - PayPal CANNOT be used as a payment method for this Group Course since PayPal does not allow for rebilling. If you have any questions regarding this, please contact Delores at delores@mytradersstateofmind.com Mindful Trading: Mastering Your Emotions and the Inner Game Author: J. Rande Howell, MEd., LPC If you know how to trade when not in the pressure of trading, but you have not been able to trade live from a calm, detached, and disciplined state of mind, this book will open your eyes. Mindful Trading actually shows you HOW to develop a peak performance state of mind specifically for trading. This book gets in the head of a trader. You will meet a number of real life traders who have overcome self doubt, fear, and impulsiveness. You will see how they overcame self-limiting beliefs and began trading from an empowered state of mind. You will discover your core beliefs that actually trade your system and methodology. And without change at this fundamental level, old self-limiting patterns of thought and belief re-assert themselves shortly after your brain pushes off any "tricks and tips" you learned from self-help seminars. It is this change at the organization of meaning and biology that makes this book so different. A number of disciplines are folded into a unified process that really gets at long term change. Those disciplines include neuro-biology, emotional intelligence, ontological reconstruction of the self, attachment theory and the meaning of the self, and Jungian archetypes. In Mindful Trading, imbedded in self-limiting beliefs, you are carried through a change process that transforms traders mired in mediocrity to a re-organization of the mind for peak performance trading. Mindful Trading is available both as an [Audio book]( a [paper book]( and a [downloadable e-book](. [Read an excerpt from Mindful Trading]( free and you get to look inside a trader's mind) And consider the companion study tool: the  [Mindful Trading Companion]( [e-Workbook!]( Explore a Trader's State of Mind Coaching Relationship with Rande Howell This is a personalized course for the trader who is ready to move beyond being stuck in self limiting beliefs. If you have recognized that it is you that stands in the way of your becoming a more successful trader, then this challenge can become an opportunity for re-invention of yourself as a trader, rather than something to avoid. It's like a door opening to an entirely new world. Great athletes recognize that the mental aspect of their game requires a performance coach for them to reach their potential. Trading is the same. Self-limiting beliefs have to be rooted out and changed - and a peak performance mindset has to be developed. It's all part of the training. Having a methodology that gives you an edge is not enough. You have to develop your mind so that it gives you the psychological edge to use your methodology and platform so that the uncertainty found in trading favors you. This is trading beyond fear. It is trading from a disciplined, impartial, patient, and courageous state of mind. Without emotional regulation training, this can take years (if ever) to achieve on your own. Teasing apart uncertainty from fear is simply something that the brain will not do on its own. The psychology to this has to be developed...or you stay stuck in the same old self-fulfilling prophesies of mediocrity. Do you want to move beyond fear and trade from a calm, detached, and disciplined state of mind?  If you are seriously considering registering for the Individual Course, then c[lick here to check out a free, no obligation consult with Rande Howell]( get to see how this powerful technology of the mind can move your trading to the next level. To make this free consult productive for you, I recommend that you first attend one of my free webinars. This will lay down a lot of groundwork so that when you speak with me -- you'll be hitting on all cylinders. Also, reading my book - Mindful Trading - is advised.   [Website]( Book]( & Interviews]( Videos]( rande@mytradersstateofmind.com | [www.tradersstateofmind.com]( [By joining you get to keep connected to this powerful training process for the development of the potential you have as a trader. And if you decide differently, you can always un-subscribe. If you're a student of trading, this newsletter is a powerful tool for your development.]( Empowered Horizons | 1824 Prescott Ct., Iron Station, NC 28080 [Unsubscribe {EMAIL}]( [Update Profile]( | [Constant Contact Data Notice]( Sent by rande@mytradersstateofmind.com powered by [Trusted Email from Constant Contact - Try it FREE today.]( [Try email marketing for free today!](