Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

FEAR, DREAD, ANXIETY, NERVOUSNESS

These are really the four horsemen of the apocalypse: fear, dread, anxiety, and nervousness. They ride into our lives together, spreading destruction in their path. Rather than being discrete and separate emotions, they are simply extensions of the state of being afraid. Dread is the feeling that many of us awaken to in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning when we think about the issues and problems we must face that day. Anxiety is that constant and low level of fear that has no specific face. And nervousness is that unsettling feeling that fills us as we approach a situation or a person we fear. Fear has many faces and these are just a few of them.

These feelings are all part of the same thing, and when we learn about one of them, we are simply learning about another facet of fear.

The Fearful Trader

What is the effect of fear on a trader? A fearful trader sees and hears only a fraction of the information that comes his way. As a result, he makes decisions in the dark. To compound the problem, fear slows down his reaction time, so that he may be reacting too late to incomplete information. To explore the problem, a major corporation studied the effects of fear and intimidation on the transmission of important directives within its organization. They were greatly surprised at the results. From the president to his vice presidents, the message lost some of its impact. From the vice presidents to their general managers, it lost ...