Self Efficacy: The True Key to the Mint

BSD

Veteren member
Messages
3,819
Likes
988
Executive summary: If you think you can, you can.

Now ya don't have to read the rest.

:)

"The little secret to trading success

If you want to succeed in trading or in life in general you should understand the concept of self efficacy beliefs well.

Albert Bandura first wrote about self efficacy in 1977. His research on self efficacy is considered most influential in developing social learning theories. Anyone who has taken a course in educational psychology would be very familiar with Albert Bandura's work. Basically the research shows that learning is complete when the learners self efficacy belief for the domain being studied change. So learning and teaching strategies should be designed to enhance learners self efficacy beliefs.

Bandura defines perceived self-efficacy as
Perceived self-efficacy is concerned with people's beliefs in their capabilities to exercise control over their own functioning and over events that affect their lives. Beliefs in personal efficacy affect life choices, level of motivation, quality of functioning, resilience to adversity and vulnerability to stress and depression. People's beliefs in their efficacy are developed by four main sources of influence. They include mastery experiences, seeing people similar to oneself manage task demands successfully, social persuasion that one has the capabilities to succeed in given activities, and inferences from somatic and emotional states indicative of personal strengths and vulnerabilities. Ordinary realities are strewn with impediments, adversities, setbacks, frustrations and inequities. People must, therefore, have a robust sense of efficacy to sustain the perseverant effort needed to succeed. Succeeding periods of life present new types of competency demands requiring further development of personal efficacy for successful functioning. The nature and scope of perceived self-efficacy undergo changes throughout the course of the lifespan.



If you look at trading methods used by say Dan Zanger or Mark Minervinin or Charles Kirk or any other trader who has ben around for some years, you will find that there is no great secret behind their methods. The secret is in their perceived self efficacy beliefs.

Each one of them on their own through trial and error figured out a method which works for them. What was the process they used to arrive at that as opposed to several who attempt it ? That is the focus of self efficacy belief theory. What really happens that makes a person proficient in trading. Their belief system changes. They acquire confidence that they can do this on their own. They "figure out " or they experience a mastery experience.

For example I have told you people many times how I at the beginning of my trading career I looked at 40 years worth of data and looked at top 100 price performers in each quarter. That is about 160 quarters of data. Now immersing oneself in such intensive study resulted in me figuring out "how market works" or "why stocks make big moves". After that once I started getting experience of actually trading and looked at results of my trading ,it further enhanced my confidence. This kind of learnings is implicit learning. It is difficult to explain to others what really happens during such process.

Many of you are followers of Brett Steenbarger's blog on trading psychology and would have read his books. He is prolific writer , but what really is the core message of his book . The one line summary of all his books and blog and articles is that trading expertise can only be gained by implicit learning. This is exactly the same message from the book Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and expert Performance.

Trading expertise is about implicit learning and within that it is about procedural memory development. If you understand that view then you will approach learning very differently. Expertise is about developing your procedural memory to a extreme proficiency level. To understand this better lets us look at expertise outside of trading.

Every summer two fairs are held in our town and every year I take my daughter to these fairs. You will see some extreme example of procedural memory skills in fairs. Last year I saw a person who walked on a thin wire 50 feet above ground. Couple of years back I saw a person who rode a bicycle without sleeping for 5 days (he slept on the bike). He shaved , showered, cooked his meals on the bike without falling down. These kind of people have trained their procedural memory to extreme level. That is how they can do these kind of extreme acts. It is the same thing with trading.

Traders train themselves through immersion and extreme practice or study to level where a new procedural memory about say swing trading or a pattern forms. If you study 1000 or 5000 examples of historical EP your implicit memory will develop. Then you see a situation and you will instantly react in right manner. The name for this process is deliberate practice. Tons of practice is required before implicit memory gets trained. Not only that but you need right practice. Practicing wrong things will train wrong responses.

This is also the reason most working people and average investor has no chance of winning at the wall street casino. They simply don't have enough experience. Plus they don't have time to even attempt to gain that level of expertise. This is also the reason why you should try day trading. High frequency of trading in day trading helps you build up implicit memory faster. A typical hyper active day trader will do in a day more number of trades than I do in a month. So they can learn faster.

Once you put enough effort in deliberate practice is when your self efficacy beliefs change. When those beliefs change you will have confidence in your own opinion and skills and will not follow the opinion of Gartman, Faber , or any other guru.

So how does one enhance self efficacy belief?

How can you enhance perceived self efficacy
Self efficacy is built through four processes:
Mastery experience
Role modelling
verbal persuasion
psychological cues.
These four are in order of importance. Most critical way to build self efficacy is through a mastery experience.

Mastery experience is basically a successful experience of mastering a task. Mastery experiences happen when the learner has reached the point where they understand the content knowledge enough to perform a task on their own or masters the task. It happens if the learner goes in to sufficient depth on material he trying to learn. It happens as a result of immersion in a particular field or task. It happens with plenty of prior exposure to the content.
At some stage the learners are able to interpret the results of their actions and use those results to develop their own capability to engage in future actions or tasks. Then the learner become auto learners. They are able to participate in tasks on a first hand basis with little or no assistance from outside influences. When you experience a intense mastery experience you get a feedback on your own capabilities. Long and sustained efforts are required for mastery experience.

Self efficacy beliefs are critical not only in academic situation but in any task like sports. Self efficacy beliefs are task specific. So a person might have high perceived self efficacy beliefs in one subject but have less self efficacy in other field.

Self efficacy builds over a period of time and more mastery experience you have, you become better at a task and learning other tasks.


Mastery experience is the main source of self efficacy. All other things are secondary. In training or coaching situation one can structure the situation in such a way that the trainee experiences a mastery experience. This is the fundamental principle used in training commandos and marines. In simulated and controlled situation they are put in situations where intense learning happens in a very short period of time. That creates a mastery experience. That forever enhances the trainees perceived self efficacy belief. Some years ago Discovery Channel had a 6 part series called Navy Seals Buds Class 234 , if you watch that , it is excellent example of creating mastery experience in a simulated environment. If you work for a successful start up at early stage, you will have a mastery experience. That is why you will find many successful entrepreneurs become serial entrepreneurs.

Many people go through a lifetime without having a intense mastery experience in any field and so have low self efficacy belief.


Vicarious experience or role modelling is the second source of self efficacy. It is when the learner is primarily gaining self- efficacy or confidence in a given task through observation of a role model attaining success at a task The learner does not play an active role in such learning experience. They are learning more through the watching of someone who already understands the task or the objective or is on the same skill level as the observer.

The social persuasion or the verbal persuasion as it is also called is basically the exposure to the verbal and nonverbal judgments that others provide that can impact the level of self efficacy that a student has.


Physiological cues is the next source of self efficacy beliefs. We judge our own degree of confidence by the emotional state we experience as we contemplate or engage in an action. So our physiological states affect our self efficacy beliefs. But such states tend to be temporary."

http://stockbee.blogspot.de/2010/02/little-secret-to-trading-success.html

sigpic21876_6.gif.pagespeed.ce.pOjYf7oA-Q.gif
 
"Positive Psychology

"I Think I Can, I think I Can", how Self Efficacy relates to Performance

Do you know the story of The Little Engine that Could?

“As it neared the top of the grade, which had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more slowly. However, it still kept saying, “I–think–I–can, I–think–I–can.” It reached the top by drawing on bravery and then went on down the grade, congratulating itself by saying, “I thought I could, I thought I could.”
This little engine knew the power of believing in ourselves and how this can push our performance.

Self-efficacy and performance

Self-efficacy essentially equals self-trust. It is our belief that we are capable of doing what needs to done for the task at hand, and is our belief that we can coordinate our skills in changing or challenging situations.

So, what’s the connection with performance? And how can we bridge the gap between emotions and motivation to become more of a peak performer?

Research has shown that, “efficacy beliefs (through cognitive, affective, and motivational regulatory mechanisms) influence how people feel, how much effort they invest in actions, how long they persevere in the face of obstacles and failures, and how resilient they are to adversity (Salanova, Llorens, & Schaufeli, 2010).”

As well, this same research in the Journal of Applied Psychology explains that efficacy beliefs indirectly impact our motivation and level of engagement in activities by influencing emotional state of mind.

Our level of enthusiasm is highly related to engagement and motivation.

With positive efficacy beliefs, we can have a more positive attitude, resulting in enthusiasm, vitality, optimism and enjoyment, all of which can enhance our level of motivation and engagement.

Furthermore, there is a spiraling effect that takes place as we achieve more, and see success based on our empowering beliefs, it actually increases our efficacy beliefs more, furthering the positive affect and motivation.

What do you believe?

Believing in our abilities is crucial for personal development and personal advancement. There are important implications for business owners and supervisors to spark enthusiasm in workers, and to provide the means for employees to utilize their talents and experience growth to increase their engagement.

In order to be fully devoted to the work we do there needs to be a sense of novelty and passion. If we are doing something where we feel comfortable and aren’t challenged, our level of motivation and engagement is likely to be lessened.

As we learn to think more optimistically and focus on our strengths we can see that there is a clear positive influence. By setting and achieving strength based goals we can develop confidence and self-efficacy, and can boost our positive affect and motivation."


http://blogs.psychcentral.com/posit...can-how-self-efficacy-relates-to-performance/

little-engine-that-could.jpg
 
"THE SUNDAY TIMES

If you want to be rich, first stop being so frightened
Felix Dennis, publishing tycoon, has written a guide to becoming a multi-millionaire. All you need is thick skin, cunning - and a work ethic

Why would a rich person waste time writing a book to help other people get rich? Two reasons. Because I enjoy writing about something I feel I know about. And because I believe that almost anyone of reasonable intelligence can become rich, given sufficient motivation and application.

It also helps that I am writing while sipping a very fine wine (a Chateau d’Yquem 1986, if you really want to know), nibbling on fresh conch tidbits, ensconced by a window with one of the most beautiful views on earth.

Across the valley, far, far below me, palm trees fringe the fishing boats and yachts nodding in the harbour. Beyond the bay to the west, a turquoise sea ripples out to a purple and pink horizon, heralding another glorious sunset.

I am in Mustique, a tiny island in the Windward Islands of the Caribbean. More specifically in my “writer’s cottage”, a study-cum-library some distance from the main house, built solely for one purpose — to permit me to write whatever I please in peace and quiet.

All of this, as if you needed me to remind you, costs money. It’s what you get, if you want, when you’re rich.

You’ll be suggesting next that it will improve my sex life.


People who grow rich almost always improve their sex life. More people want to have sex with them. That’s just the way human beings work. Money is power. Power is an aphrodisiac. Money did not make me happy. But it definitely improved my sex life.

Just how quickly can I become rich?


I have known it done inside five years, but there are very few “short cuts”. Knowledge learnt the hard way combined with the avoidance of error, whenever and wherever possible, is the soundest basis for success in any endeavour.

The bottom line is that if I did it, you can do it. I got rich without the benefit of a college education or a penny of capital but making many errors along the way. I went from being a pauper — a hippie dropout on the dole, living in a crummy room without the proverbial pot to **** in, without even the money to pay the rent, without a clue as to what to do next — to being rich. And I am certainly no business genius, as my rivals will happily and swiftly confirm.

Yet the odd thing is, I’ve ended up far richer than most of my rivals.

How rich are you, anyway?



I don’t know. Nor does any rich person know. I haven’t cashed in all my assets and I’m not certain what they will fetch. Let’s say $400m-$900m (£215m- £483m) of net worth before tax.

Five homes. Three estates. Fancy cars. Private jets. (The jets are always rented. If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it — it’s cheaper in the long run.) Thousands of acres of land. Art on the walls and libraries stuffed with first editions. Bronze statues littering up the garden. Chauffeurs, housekeepers, financial advisers and other personal staff coming out of my rear end. Oh, and thousands of bottles of fine wine in the cellars. Never forget the wine.

Less the debt, of course. Around $30m (£16m) of debt. Rich people always have a certain degree of debt. Apparently it helps to reduce taxes. I’m not so hot on the bean-counting side. But I can’t fly the jets or drive the Rolls-Royces or Bentleys either. I never had the time or the inclination to learn.

Honestly speaking, what kind of people get to become rich?

An interesting topic. There is a confidence that radiates from first-born sons and daughters. Not in all the cases but in too many for it to be a coincidence. A similar confidence is to be observed, more often than not, in people who are rich, no matter whether they were born with it, inherited it or acquired it through their own efforts.

You can see it in the way they walk into a hotel or restaurant they have never visited before. In the irritating disposition of rich women to haggle in an Oxfam shop over a designer dress — unlike any working-class woman, who would be horrified at the thought of doing any such thing, even though she perhaps needs the discount while the rich woman does not.

You can see it, too, in the way the children of the rich appear to assume that the world was created entirely for their sole benefit. Money brings a kind of insouciance with it. It is among wealth’s least attractive characteristics.

Whatever qualities the rich may have, they can be acquired by anyone with the tenacity to become rich. The key, I think, is confidence. Confidence and an unshakeable belief it can be done and that you are the one to do it.

Tunnel vision helps. Being a bit of a **** helps. A thick skin helps. Stamina is crucial, as is a capacity to work so hard that your best friends mock you, your lovers despair and the rest of your acquaintances watch furtively from the sidelines, half in awe and half in contempt.

Becoming rich does not guarantee happiness. In fact, it is almost certain to impose the opposite condition — if not from the stresses and strains of protecting it, then from the guilt that inevitably accompanies its arrival.

If I had my time again, I would dedicate myself to making just enough to live comfortably (say £30m or £40m) as quickly as I could, hopefully by the time I was 35. I would then cash out immediately and retire to write poetry and plant trees.

Making money was, and still is, fun, but at one time it wreaked chaos upon my private life. It consumed my waking hours. It led me into a lifestyle of narcotics, high-class whores, drink and consolatory debauchery. As a philosopher might have put it, all the usual dreary afflictions of the seeker after wealth.

These afflictions, in turn, helped to undermine my health. But like an old, punch-drunk boxer, I couldn’t quit. It’s no excuse, but making money is a drug. Not the money itself. The making of the money. This sounds like so much hooplah, but it’s true.

Nobody believed that exercise could prove addictive until science stepped in and discovered endorphins. And making money, I assure you, is a hell of a lot more of a rush than jogging.

Up to just seven years ago I was still working 12 to 16 hours a day making money. With hundreds of millions of dollars in assets I just could not let go. It was pathetic. Because whoever dies with the most toys doesn’t win. Real winners are people who know their limits and respect them.

Eventually I found a way out. I handed over day-to-day control of my businesses to younger and mostly smarter boys and girls. I cleaned up my personal life.

I began doing what I wanted to do — not what I felt I had to do. After all, what did I have to prove? Except, perhaps, to myself.

IT IS possible that you will avoid such mistakes when you get rich. I hope so. One thing is for sure: “the usual afflictions” are no reason not to make the attempt. There is no reason on earth why financial success should lead to personal catastrophe.

If you wish to be rich, however, you must grow a carapace. A mental armour. Not so thick as to blind you to well-constructed criticism and advice, especially from those you trust. Nor so thick as to cut you off from friends and family. But thick enough to shrug off the inevitable sniggering and malicious mockery that will follow your inevitable failures. Not to mention the poorly hidden envy that will accompany your eventual success.

Consider carefully this shortlist:

If you are unwilling to fail, sometimes publicly, and even catastrophically, you stand little chance of ever getting rich.

If you care what the neighbours think, you will never get rich.

If you cannot bear the thought of causing worry to your family, spouse or lover while you plough a lonely, dangerous road rather than taking the safe option of a regular job, you will never get rich.

If you have artistic inclinations and fear that the search for wealth will coarsen such talents, you will never get rich. (Because your fear, in this instance, is well justified.)

If you cannot convince yourself that you are “good enough” to be rich, you will never get rich.

If you cannot treat your quest to get rich as a game, you will never be rich.

If you cannot face up to your fear of failure, you will never be rich.

The truth is that getting rich means sacrifice. And it isn’t always you that’s doing the sacrificing. This is not a calling for the faint-hearted. There is no shame in turning away. After all, if everyone was prepared to make the necessary sacrifices, who would be left to work for my own companies? Quite apart from sacrifice, there is a last brutal truth to be confronted. After a lifetime of making money and observing better men and women than me fall by the wayside, I am convinced that fear of failing in the eyes of the world is the single biggest impediment to amassing wealth. Trust me on this.

If you shy away for any reason whatever, then the way is blocked. You will never get started. You will never get rich.
Fear of failure is almost certainly the reason that you have not already begun to make yourself rich. It haunts all of us.

In essence, it comprises two components. The first is our natural desire to avoid letting ourselves or others down. The second is the exposure of that failure to the outside world.

This nastier, stickier second component, the “broadcasting” of our misjudgments or errors, especially to our peers, is often the nub of the matter.

The same factors apply to me, sitting around with colleagues at Dennis Publishing trying to figure out if we should invest millions of pounds to launch a new car magazine, or to a young woman considering whether to take over her father’s used-car business or to invest another two years of her life into obtaining a PhD in bio-engineering.

Neither decision will involve utter financial ruin. But fear of a result that cannot be easily hidden weighs heavily in the balance.

The board of directors that runs Dennis Publishing will talk earnestly and sensibly about the effect on morale for the rest of the company (usually forgetting to mention its own morale) in the event our proposed new magazine bombs.

In reality, Dennis Publishing staff working, say, on The Week or Maxim or Computer Shopper, won’t give two hoots if the company’s new car magazine is a sensational flop. But by discussing the matter in such terms, in code if you like, the board gives itself the opportunity to weigh its own fears while appearing to weigh the fears of others. It is a form of well-disguised cowardice.

On a less corporate level, the young woman believes she might be able to expand her father’s used-car business more aggressively than he has done in the past. On the other hand, a PhD would add status to her life and offers the prospect of a fulfilling career in science.

She must decide. Her father is unwell and cannot wait for her decision. What if she takes over the company and it goes belly up? What if she shoots for a master’s degree and does not achieve it? A failure to obtain her master’s degree could be disguised fairly easily. She could always claim she has become bored with bio-engineering. The decision to take over her dad’s company, however, will be far more closely monitored — by relatives and neighbours, by the people who work there, by rival car dealerships, by the bank manager, and not least by her father. Should she fail, she will run the risk of becoming a laughing stock or an object of pity.

So what is her best option? She is unlikely to get rich as a bio-engineer. But she might well get rich expanding the dealership, especially because she is aware that her father has never invested to the extent that he might have done in marketing and promotion, especially on the internet.

The car dealership is already capitalised, and, although she will have to pay off her father eventually, he is hardly likely to foreclose on her. There is an opportunity, but is she prepared to exploit it? So what should our young college girl do? Normally, I would hesitate to offer any advice. But I happen to know her. I was half in love with her once. She happens to be real and her name is Julie. All this happened a long time ago.

In the event, she took her degree and her father sold the business to an outsider. Julie is a highly competent bio-engineer and has enjoyed her career enormously. But on more than one occasion she has told me she regrets not taking her father up on his offer.

What swung the balance was her fear of failure in such a “public” endeavour. She was frightened that others (especially the male-dominated community of car sales firms) would laugh at her.

It irks her to know that she will never be rich. It always irks intelligent people like Julie. And I can give you other examples. One of them is my mother.

She will be furious (if she ever reads this) that I have mentioned her in such a context. But I know my mother well. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything I have achieved I owe not just to care and love but to her genes.

She could have built herself a fortune had she wished. Her personality combines the resilience, the drive and the restless energy of so many people who become rich. But 60 years ago it was almost unheard of for a woman to act out such ambitions. Her parents would have been scandalised. Neighbours would have viewed such behaviour in the most negative light imaginable. And had she succeeded, horror of horrors, she would have earned their undying enmity. It just was not “done” for a woman to earn a fortune for herself — except, somewhat dubiously, as a movie star perhaps. Or a writer of crime novels.

Single or newly married women from respectable families in the 1940s and 1950s were actively discouraged from involvement in business except for a little light typing or serving in shops and department stores. Especially if they had children. Especially if they lived in the south of England.

Never mind that my mother had more brains in her little finger than half the twerps she worked for as an accountant. Women were not even allowed to sign a hire-purchase form back then. They had to get their husband or their brother or their father to do it.

So she didn’t become rich. She had a decent career. She earned enough to support my brother and me and to provide us with more than just the necessities of life. And she married again and became a pillar of the community. But I know that she could have done it, had she been prepared for the unpleasantness, the sheer nastiness that would have been unleashed upon her if she had chosen to say: “To hell with them. Let’s go!” It was not so much a fear of failure on my mother’s part, I believe, as a fear of upsetting the whole apple cart of the community in which she lived. And now she is an elderly, if formidable lady who quietly walks her dog along English country lanes.

DENNIS'S WEALTH GUIDE

Total assets

£1m-£2m The comfortable poor

£2m-£5m The comfortably off

£5m-£15m The comfortably wealthy

£15m-£40m The lesser rich

£40m-£75m The comfortably rich

£75m-£100m The rich

£100m-£200m The seriously rich

£200m-£400m The truly rich

£400m-£999m The filthy rich

More than £999m The super rich



41SWY5FKT5L._SS500_.jpg
 
A: Believe You Can.

B: Visualize concrete objectives.

C: Implement.

SMB Trading:
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Visualization

When discussing elite performance, visualization is a key tool for boosting performance and increasing success. It’s widely utilized not just by traders but also by athletes and entertainers. Scientific studies have documented its usefulness in improving performance. We can all agree that it’s a fabulous tool and that it’s worth making use of.


"One of the best ways to increase profits is to do goal setting and visualizations in order to align the conscious and subconscious with making profits" – Ed Seykota, Featured in Market Wizard Series and who made 250,000% profits over 16 years for one of the accounts he managed
 
:):):)

Those visualization techniques SMB teach are absolutely top notch Terrie.

These guys in the link below are also strong believers in having a firm belief in outcomes and visualizing positive, concrete results.

Made 18 000% in two years I think it was:

https://books.google.de/books?id=CO...e&q=william o'neil 200 moving average&f=false

i have a visualization of filling up my savings account to a huge size, then going into the bank, withdrawing all the cash and closing the account. (bloody bank still wont give me a current account) :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
From SMB:
"The key is that you make pictures in your head to simulate the actual event that you want to happen and that it is relevant to your trading results. While you could make an image of you lying on the beach in the Caribbean and enjoying an early retirement owing to your trading profits, that would probably only improve your cocktail-mixing abilities."

:LOL::LOL::LOL:

images
 
i have a visualization of filling up my savings account to a huge size, then going into the bank, withdrawing all the cash and closing the account. (bloody bank still wont give me a current account) :LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:

:LOL::LOL::LOL:

Haha way to go.

images
 
From SMB:
"The key is that you make pictures in your head to simulate the actual event that you want to happen and that it is relevant to your trading results. While you could make an image of you lying on the beach in the Caribbean and enjoying an early retirement owing to your trading profits, that would probably only improve your cocktail-mixing abilities."

:LOL::LOL::LOL:

images

Damn thats my whole dream!!! have even found the island i want :cry::cry:
 
:LOL::LOL::LOL:

Satellite Phones can certainly get ya involved in some serious hanky panky:


"There has been alot of discussion about the analyst at Mac i have heard that he is supposed to be one of the best in the city.

I have heard from one guy at Mac that all you have to do is listen to his comments and analysis and trade off them and its free money.

Apparently his background is in the FX markets, where he used to advise some of the biggest FX traders in the City.

I'm looking to move to Mac to benefit from his indepth knowledge and would appreciate any feedback on how good this guy really is.


I heard the guy cut his teeth in the special forces. His in depth knowledge on fx moves often coming from covert operations in central banks offices. Not sure if this is true but ,but I don't think we can afford to ignore the fact that he often makes millions on paper trades!!!


I can shed some light on this mystery analyst, me and scally(as he was then known) served in bravo 2 zero under Andy Mcnab. He had a particular fondness for desert goats if you know what i mean...!.., to this day even when he gets a cup of coffee it is planned down to the minutest detail...!,,,,,,1 sugar,,stirred anticlockwise 13 times...etc..etc.

Yes indeed the man is a legend.

I remember when we were together in Borneo and he still managed to call his broker from the satelite phone 10 times a day.

Look closely the next time the Iranian Embassy footage is on the telly - watch for the man abseiling on to the balcony shouting "Just buy me 500 and look sharpish sonny I'm gonna be busy in a minute"

that last comment wasn't me - someone is hacking me - if Clare Short is reading this give me a shout.

Just shows anyone can be got - even us.

The man is a diamond and not at all like Captain Mainwaring ( get your spelling right on military matters nerd ).

If you don't believe me just ask yourself this:

There you are, stuck in the jungle and coming under heavy enemy fire. Your government denies the fact you even exist so you really are expendable. You've taken a round in the **** and just been stung by a ....er...wasp and the paint on your blacked out face is running into your eyes and mouth ( tastes a bit like 10 yr old marmite ). Suddenly a grenade goes off no more than 5 yards away and you see your brother and best mate ripped apart by shrapnel. What do you do ? What do you do ?


You do what our man did - GET ON THE SAT PHONE, FIND OUT WHERE ZEW IS COMING IN AND MOVE YOUR BUND STOP UP !

It's all about discipline boys - and our man has it in spades. ( And I don't mean.....oh never mind )

COMING TO AN EMBASSY NEAR YOU !!

Here's an example for you mate - Sep '92 and we're in the chopper ready to go to Kosovo ( or was it Marbella ? ) anyway, tensions were running high as you can imagine. I had a brand new, and rather fetching, balaclava that military mum's mum had knitted for me between clients and a new pack of Juicy Fruit - I was primed for action. Suddenly our man stands up, cocks his weapon and shouts to the driver " Oi Shag - forget the Balkans we're going to Brussels. Land on the roof of the EU building and look sharpish sonny" With that he sat back down with a wry smile on his face but with fists clenched. Do you know what he did next ? Do you know what he did next ?
GOT STRAIGHT ON THE SAT PHONE AND TOLD GEORGE SOROS TO KICK STERLINGS **** !
Analysis ?? This is the stuff of legend mate !

Bloody marvellous


Bill and MM - classic examples of good men sent off the rails by the system.

We had some times didn't we ? What do you think pushed you over - the Napalm or the vaccinations ?

Still - memories eh ?

I remember one time in Bangkok when we were on leave. Me and the guv'nor went to see some Thai boxing in one of the suburbs. Picture the scene:

A hot balmy Thai evening as we pulled up in the jeep outside what can only be described as a large tent. The occasion was the final of the Fuc King Wan Kin un-licensed boxing tournament. These boys were tough - ever seen boxing gloves with Kitchen Devil knives strapped to them ? Ever seen boxing shorts with broken glass glued to them ? It wasn't often men like us were granted leave and when we were we played hard. And drank hard. And did all the other things that hard *******s do on their days off.
Anyway, there we were looking forward to what promised to be the fight of the century. Forget the Louisville Lip, forget the Brown Bomber, forget Flowerday and Balboa this was the real deal - the ruckus in the....er....tent thing.

Anyway, the guv, fresh from giving a technical analysis lecture at Pong Fanee University ( where he reportedly killed a student who failed to recognise a descending triangle ) decides he wants to have a bet. "Come on Boss" I said " You already have those condors on can't you leave it alone ?"
I didn't have a chance - when the guv'nor wants something he goes for it.

Little did I know he'd had a leak ( not in the American sense of the phrase ) and knew that Lee Hung Low was going down in the fifth. He lumped on with all the evil looking Thai bookies and we sat back to enjoy the show.

In 20 yrs service I have never seen anything so gruesome. It was worse than when John "Legsy" Leggsville mistankenly thought a stick of brown dynamite was one of his Havanas. Blood, guts, noodles - it was everywhere. Sure enough, both fighters came out for the 5th and 30 seconds in under a flurry of blows Lee Hung Low crumples to the canvas never to rise again.Deads.

There was pandemonium. The guv'nor and I went to collect his loot and were immediately surrounded by the evil looking Thai bookies. "You cheating round eye *****" they shouted whilst reaching into the shoulder holsters concealed under their Palm Tree print shirts. **** ! Now me and the guv have been in some tight spots I can tell you. This was tight. Tighter than Wheeler in a bar-room, tighter than Knighty's combats . Tight !

I looked at the guv. He nodded at me - our special secret signal that we had used for years. In a flash the guv's arm had shot out. Do you know what he did ? Do you know what he did ?
GRABBED ONE OF THE BOOKIES SAT PHONES, CUT HIS CONDORS AND SPOOFED 10000 SCHATZ.

All the bookies dropped dead in surprise. We hot footed it to the nearest whorehouse.

Hard men at work and play.

Bloody marvellous"



Epic, best thread ever haha.

:LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
Also good:

Hedge Fund Masters - An Interview with Dr. Ari Kiev

This is Dave Goodboy, executive producer of www.realworldtrading.com. This week I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing, Dr. Ari Kiev. Dr. Kiev is a world renowned trading psychiatrist, high performance consultant, and author. His latest book, “Hedge Fund Masters” served as the impetus of our talk.

He has consulted with many Olympic athletes and top money managers guiding them to achieve their ultimate potential.

On the money management side, Dr. Kiev works directly with Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Management. Mr. Cohen wrote the preface of Dr. Kiev’s first book, “Trading To Win” stating that the program Dr.Kiev developed for SAC helped the firm go from 25 million to $500 million.

Dr. Kiev still works with Mr Cohen, helping him grow the hugely successful fund to it’s current size of over $6.5 billion. Many of the principles he developed over the past 13 years working with SAC are further expanded upon in “Hedge Fund Masters, as well as his first three books, “Trading To Win”, “Trading in the Zone”, and “The Psychology of Risk” all published by Wiley.

This interview will dig deep into Dr. Kiev’s core concepts and provide an overview of what his years of hands on experience can teach us as traders. Let’s get started!

Dave: Welcome to Real World Trading Dr. Kiev. Thank you for joining me today.

Dr. Kiev: Thank you for having me.

Dave: I know you have quite a reputation for working with athletes and top financial traders. What first got you working with traders?

Dr. Kiev: Well, I have been working with Olympic athletes since the early ’80s, and I had written a few articles about visualization, goal setting, performance enhancement, injuries, and those sort of things. In about 1984, Steve Cohen, a trader, got in touch with me stating he thought what I was doing with athletes probably had relevance to traders. We started talking and we continued talking for the next few years about the application of some of these ideas to trading. In 1992, he invited me to start working with his traders and I have been doing that ever since, with an increasing amount of time, because his firm has been consistently expanding. I have also worked with other hedge fund managers during this time as well.

Dave: I have the utmost respect for Mr. Cohen, was he correct? Did you find similarities between Olympic athletes and top performing traders?

Dr. Kiev: Absolutely!

Dave: What were these similarities?

Dr. Kiev: The biggest similarity is that they tended to be very focused, goal oriented individuals with a competitive edge. They are very driven to get outstanding results rather than settle for mediocre or average results. The similarities were a willingness to self examine, review performance, to look at what needed to be done to upgrade the full overall performance.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/recent/hedge_fund_masters_the_dr_ari_kiev_interview-655840.html
 
My experience has been that those people who believe in making money overnight in shares are the ones who regard it as a gamble. Making money in shares is a science. There are steps one needs to follow - be it a trader or investor.
The key to making money is discipline, sticking to rules, monitoring the portfolio, learning from mistakes, and getting trained to get better!
People who are not willing to put in the time and effort to get better at this art generally refer to investments in shares as gambling!

Self-efficacy beliefs that the thread is about and the overconfidence that you mention are two very different things. Your list of steps is right, these are the key things you need to be successful but if your mind is not in the right place you will either never reach your full potential or suffer during the whole process.
We need to develop a healthy level of self-confidence where we can realistically judge our own abilities. Constant self-doubt can be just as damaging as believing you are invincible.
 
By the way, I love this thread. I think it is important to learn about trading psychology, and this is an angle I'm less familiar with.
 
Top