There’s one thing that, if you can’t do, will virtually guarantee failure for you as a trader. It’s counter-intuitive because it actually seems like you shouldn’t do it. But who said good trading was intuitive?
Not being able to do this one thing will be responsible for more missed opportunities than anything else I can think of. It’ll have you doing the wrong things, entering in the wrong places, and staying on the sidelines when you shouldn’t be.
So what is this thing? It’s not being able to sit comfortably with uncertainty. You see us human beings hate uncertainty and every part of us will fight that feeling. It seems very reasonable to want certainty. Yet in trading, wanting certainty will kill you. Instead of thinking in probabilities and taking trades with good odds or good reward-to-risk, you wait for the move to confirm by extending a bit more. You want to be certain that it’s the right trade to make and that you’re not making a bad decision. Instead of focusing on a few things and using those to develop correct mental maps of how the markets work, you look for more and more indicators and tools to increase your certainty. Instead of executing decisively, you hesitate and wait for more signals to line up.
But all you’re really doing in these instances is giving yourself a false sense of certainty. You’re making yourself feel better psychologically, but you aren’t actually improving the odds of any trade. To the contrary, you’re missing trades, and over-complicating your trading, and ultimately chasing moves that don’t wait for you while you’re trying to gain certainty.
So what’s the solution to this? Do what’s counter-intuitive. If it feels hard and uncomfortable… do it. And what could feel harder and more uncomfortable than accepting and sitting with uncertainty? Yet if you want a comforting thought, here’s one: do this and you instantly separate yourself from the masses. Because doing this puts you on the opposite side of the field. You’re no longer being run by your instinctual ‘caveman’ programming. Instead you’re choosing to reprogram your mind and think in a different way. And this will make all the difference.
So from now on when that feeling of needing certainty rises, don’t succumb to it. But also don’t fight it. You can’t fight what’s hardwired into you. Rather, choose the middle road and accept it. Sit with it. Let it be there. Do this from a place of awareness and a certain level of amused detachment. Wouldn’t you be amused if you saw a caveman in front of you? Well, in a sense you’re just looking at your inner caveman. So smile and sit with him, because when you don’t lose sight of him and you don’t fight with him, he can’t run the show.
