I completely agree with this.....in my personal life I try to do the right thing even when its hard.....one area that over time I've turned around completely is organization and clutter. I used to be a horrible collector of junk...piles of paper, dirty and clean clothes on the floor all the time, things never put in the same place twice, etc.

Then one day I knew I had to change so over the weekend I cleaned every thing....then made the effort to always keep it that way.....I still fall back into that mindset once in a while...but I recognize it quick and revert back to the new habits I've developed.....and that new habit has effected other areas of my life as well....all for the better.

I think habit development is more difficult in trading because of the fear of loss and the fear of missing out.....I don't really suffer from greed so much but I do fear missing out and to a lessor degree, I fear losing although I have to say I've always been able to take a stop.....I don't think I've ever moved a stop hoping a loser turns into a winner.....I have moved them once I realized they were in the wrong place but never to avoid a loser.....my biggest mental or emotional hurdle is fear of missing out.....and that causes the monkey brain to jump in when he should be waiting....and it causes the monkey brain to close early to avoid giving back open profits.....

today however, I managed to quiet monkey brain for the most part....he still go me in early with to wide a stop which meant I closed the trade for a loser even though it would have eventually been a winner....I got back in when the risk was lower and held it until it stalled out a bit....ended up leaving money on the table of course but I had already predetermined where to exit and if it stalled prior to that to just exit which I did.....still, today's conversation with the monkey brain was far more muted than the last two days.....he really only got out of hand once today.

the same old trap of looking for profit, wanting to be rewarded.... the will to meaning as a trader. The answer is finding meaning in following one's method, not in taking trades or 'winning'.

let's not forget that @PandaWarrior has been trading for 6 years, not 6 months; and neither the tenor of his posts have changed during that period of time, nor has his trading. continuing to patronize him with uplifting moral aphorisms and cliched trading advice is not going to do him any good. his problem is not superficial, but is deeply rooted and ingrained in his persona and psyche. like every other trader who has banged his head against the wall of frustration while learning how to trade, he is his own worst enemy. doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is as einstein said, insane. this is not to say brian is insane, but he is certainly very stubborn, unrealistic, and dishonest with himself. peel away the layers and there are a myriad of causes that have stultified his progress. at the very core, his problem begins with his attitude and approach to trading. either he doesn't fully grasp what's emotionally required to be a trader, is unwilling to make the sacrifice, or he is simply incapable of making the transition. until he adopts the requisite traits necessary to be a trader, he will simply be an individual who is attempting to trade, and not a trader.

his methodology is predicated on the avoidance of risk and as a result he has dramatically reduced his ability to profit. his results have been random to date, because he makes random trades, based on a simplistic, risk adverse, bar-to bar, methodology that does not possess any discernible edge. process has taken a back seat to outcome, and doing what it takes to be profitable, has been replaced with doing what makes brian the most comfortable. on a more pragmatic level, he does not trade the market. there is no two way interaction between the thought/ action process and feedback received from the market. he makes an assumption or develops a bias, that is not based on an objective analysis of fundamentals, sentiment, cross asset relationships, volatility, or price action; but instead, looks for hackneyed set-ups that confirm his subjective bias. on the days he guesses right, he makes a little money; and the on the days he's wrong he loses a little money - never making very much, nor losing very much, but still riding the emotional roller coaster from trade-to-trade.

the stubborn adherence to an approach and methodology that has never worked should be an obvious indication that one needs to make some drastic changes. it' simple logic and common sense that if it something doesn't work, you stop doing what doesn't work, and you try something else. and if that doesn't work , you keep trying new things, until you find something that does work. brian needs to finally come-to-grips, with the fact that how he approaches trading, and how he physically trades, is inherently flawed and inadequate; and do what's necessary to revamp and improve the entire process. he doesn't need to be coddled because he's a nice guy and sympathetic figure. what he really needs is an intervention and a self-administered wake-up call to action, otherwise he'll be in the same place 6 years from now, if he's not finished before then.

let's not forget that @PandaWarrior has been trading for 6 years, not 6 months; and neither the tenor of his posts have changed during that period of time, nor has his trading. continuing to patronize him with uplifting moral aphorisms and cliched trading advice is not going to do him any good. his problem is not superficial, but is deeply rooted and ingrained in his persona and psyche. like every other trader who has banged his head against the wall of frustration while learning how to trade, he is his own worst enemy. doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is as einstein said, insane. this is not to say brian is insane, but he is certainly very stubborn, unrealistic, and dishonest with himself. peel away the layers and there are a myriad of causes that have stultified his progress. at the very core, his problem begins with his attitude and approach to trading. either he doesn't fully grasp what's emotionally required to be a trader, is unwilling to make the sacrifice, or he is simply incapable of making the transition. until he adopts the requisite traits necessary to be a trader, he will simply be an individual who is attempting to trade, and not a trader.

his methodology is predicated on the avoidance of risk and as a result he has dramatically reduced his ability to profit. his results have been random to date, because he makes random trades, based on a simplistic, risk adverse, bar-to bar, methodology that does not possess any discernible edge. process has taken a back seat to outcome, and doing what it takes to be profitable, has been replaced with doing what makes brian the most comfortable. on a more pragmatic level, he does not trade the market. there is no two way interaction between the thought/ action process and feedback received from the market. he makes assumptions that are not based on an objective analysis of fundamentals, sentiment, cross asset relationships, volatility, or price action; and instead, trades in a vacuum, looking for hackneyed set-ups that confirm his subjective bias. on the days he guesses right, he makes a little money; and the on the days he's wrong he loses a little money - never making very much, nor losing very much, but still riding the emotional roller coaster from trade-to-trade.

the stubborn adherence to an approach and methodology that has never worked should be an obvious indication that one needs to make some drastic changes. it' simple logic and common sense that if it something doesn't work, you stop doing what doesn't work, and you try something else. and if that doesn't work , you keep trying new things, until you find something that does work. brian needs to finally come-to-grips, with the fact that how he approaches trading, and how he physically trades, is inherently flawed and inadequate; and do what's necessary to revamp and improve the entire process. he doesn't need to be coddled because he's a nice guy and sympathetic figure. what he really needs is an intervention and a self-administered wake-up call to action and change, otherwise he'll be in the same place 6 years from now, if he's not finished way before then.

Very few external things or people motivate me.....very few.......I have built a multi million dollar mortgage/insurance/real estate business largely by myself (Full disclosure, I bet very big at the wrong time and lost it all by myself as well).

The drive, the motivation and the required action all came from within. Only once or twice during the building of that business did an outside influence have much impact on me.....one of those was quite profound and yet even that was simply a guidance toward something I already knew I needed to do but had been reluctant to begin that process. Once influenced though, I undertook it with gusto and while it took a while to play out, one of the ultimate results was the adoption of my daughter from Thailand. Probably the best decision of my life to this point.

This post however has influenced me in a way I have not experienced in quite a long time. Without going into detail about my inner thoughts, Gary has managed to both infuriate me and motivate me at the same time. Regardless of his actual motivation for the post which I suspect is not as altruistic as he might otherwise claim, he has managed to awaken something in me I haven't felt for a long time......and it feels good.

I wont debate his allegations regarding my trading at this point....suffice to say I was profitable or break even every month last year.....and at least as far as his assertions go with regard to only making a little money, that much is true. I left a ton of money on the table last year from my simplistic method.....actual trades I closed early out of fear of giving back or failing to understand how far the market might go.....or both.

Gary, while I don't really appreciate some of the language you choose to use in many of your discourses both here and in other threads, (some of it is unnecessarily insulting on a personal level) I thank you for clarifying some very important points for me today. It has helped me make some decisions I should have made long ago.

Take care.

Gary, you are not my coach, boss, risk manager, mentor or anything other than an acquaintance on an anonymous forum.

I did not ask for your advice publicly although I have spoken to you privately with essentially the same results....lots of criticism with very little actionable advice.

It is not your job to belittle, make fun of or otherwise attempt to aggressively give me or anyone else here a wake up call.

Your over the top manner with regards to "helping" has irritated many many people on the forum and while I've tried to politely let you know it's not appreciated, you persist so to make sure there are no possible misunderstandings, your discourses are no longer welcome here in my thread.

And if I remember correctly, I did thank you already.