A Tribute to Mark Douglas

I recall the day I executed my first trade as a rookie over three years ago blindly entering the first instrument I found hoping that the direction I choose was the right. My mind went into overdrive with mixed emotions on every tick movement that went by causing a kind of battle between the good and the bad feelings. 

It started working in my favour, the trading adrenaline that so many had spoken about had bitten me for good. It felt like I was a natural even though I had maybe 30 minutes of screen time.  What could these so called experts be on about with daft expressions like “school fees” and “mastering your emotions.”

The next trade I doubled up on the opportunity by taking 2 trades feeling confident from my previous experience.  They both started to work nicely; it felt like the whole concept around trading fitted my personality so easily because I had a natural aptitude to do it. My job would simply be to click a button and viola profits would appear until…

The wheels came off in motions as profitable trades turned into rotten apples and suddenly I was devoid of the euphoric feeling I felt not so long ago. How could this be possible that the market could feed me profits in one way yet abruptly steal them away in another? 

I think there’s conformity when it comes to trading stories detailing our encounters with our trading mindset for the first time.  There’s a mystery about the way the market flirts with us then hurls us around at will that almost flabbergasts traders at any given moment. It was with this thought that I set upon debunking the mystery behind it all which took me of a journey to the unexpected.  

My search into the field of trading psychology lead me to game changing book called Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas which had a profound impact on my attitude to trading so when I heard that Mark had passed away I felt a deep sense of sadness and belief that the trading world is all the more poorer because of his absence.  

Mark taught me that fear is an emotion created within our own minds, we instinctively allow our minds to control whatever it is we feel threaten over to avoid encountering a similar situation. 

However this instinctive reaction is the root cause of why so many fail at trading.  We have a fixed set of attitudes to the way we experience losses, to the idea of missing out when we not in a trade, the fear of not knowing what will happen next and hoping the money left on the table will somehow translate into more profit.  This is what Mark called the 4 primary fears of trading. 

Fear is one of the strongest emotions to deal with, it has the ability to stop you in your tracks and prevent you from reaching what you really want. However knowing that fear was created in your mind and that you acknowledge its presents, understand the imbalance it creates then logically switch it off with confidence is the single greatest weapon in defeating it.

 It’s this mindset that Mark had so aptly taught me to use in my own trading that has afforded me the opportunity to continue on my own pathway to trading success, a journey of self-enrichment not only in a monetary form but also on a personal level by tapping into the emotions that identify the realities and actively confront them to make us all better people striving for the same goal.

I owe Mark a huge amount of credit for setting me on this path although I will admit that it has yet ended and my belief is I’ve only touched a fraction of what lies ahead. However I do not feel afraid or worried about the task ahead because I know that by consistently applying the principles Mark has shared with thousands of traders around the world gives me the confidence to reach my desired goal.

Thank You Mark