Here's the truth

Positive thoughts don't make you money, unless you scam your way into people's wallets by making false promises that they will.

Trading is about developing a plan, sticking to your discipline and trying to not get crushed when you don't honor your stop loss. It happens to everyone. Everyone has at one time or another lost. I know that I've had way too many losers in my trading career, and get sick when I think about some of them. I've been guilty of the same infractions of the trading rules as many traders. Canceling my stop loss, having a trade come back so close to breakeven, only to let it dive bomb again because I wanted to hold on for green. Not selling for a profit because I was greedy and wanted more. Been there, done all that more times than I want to remember.

There are people I have discussed trading with every week for years, and will continue to do so for years to come. Guess what? They have all taken losses and broke their discipline at one time or another. Some of them have done it too often to count. Maybe they didn't visualize never losing! Yeah, that's got to be it!

Those that come across that they have never lost, or worse, spin their blatantly wrong calls (still not a word about RENN from these cowards) are thieves and should be ashamed of themselves, if it weren't for the fact that they had no shame left in them. They steal your confidence away from you, and insult your intelligence over and over again. They make you feel like you are wrong for not making money like them, but the only way that they could have made money is by front running their super duper deluxe calls. Like a good friend of mine always says, the ego is the worst drug out there. The more you feed it, the more you crave.

The person with the biggest heart doesn't make the most at trading. The person who wants it the most doesn't make the most at trading. Meditation is great to settle the mind, and if it helps you stick to your plan, then it's great. Just remember that taking yoga classes to pick up chicks doesn't make you a better trader, or a better person.

Write out your business plan. Define how much you are willing to lose on every trade. Write out the techniques that you are going to use to achieve your goal of being a successful trader. And for crying out loud, don't put down on paper that you are going to be using your "gut and feel". I don't care if you use charts or not, it's your money, but write a better plan that that. Then, take 10 deep breaths in through the nose, out through the mouth. Stand on your head, eat right, drink lots of water. All great things, as long as the plan comes FIRST.

Thanks for all the e-mails. I'm glad I could assist some of you, and unfortunately I was right about the entire RENN scam. It doesn't seem like anyone that wrote me got too hurt from the super hype, but next time (and there is usually another pumper right around the corner), it could be different.

Michael tiny Saul

tinymjs at gmail dot com