Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple: How We Made 18,000% in the Stock Market

Chapter 10. Trading Is Life; Life Is Trading

The material covered so far can be used to optimize your own trading, but this form of learning is only half the story. If there are "misalignments" within yourself, this implies that your personal psychology is not fully optimized, and as Ed Seykota, the legendary futures trader who was interviewed in Jack Schwager's book Market Wizards says, you will not reach your full potential, or in the worst case, you are setting yourself up for a big fall.

Much as athletes psych themselves up for an event, traders should be sure they too have optimized themselves psychologically. As O'Neil always told us, never operate from a position of fear, or put into the positive, always operate from a position of strength. Psychological strength is paramount, and, as we all know, one of the biggest challenges when it comes to successful investing is in mastering one's own psychology. Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt selected individuals for their Turtles program, briefly mentioned in Chapter 7, section 2009 Commentary, who had the necessary psychological characteristics so that they could be taught to trade profitably.

It should then come as no surprise that many traders see trading as a looking glass into oneself. We would add that trading is like looking into the abyss and seeing yourself magnified a thousand times, where all your best and worst traits are shown in full measure. As we discussed earlier, an oversized ego is often the downfall to successful ...