If you're afraid of being wrong, your fear will act upon your perception of market information in a way that will cause you to do something that ends up making you wrong

If you have to win, if you have to be right, if you can't lose or can't be wrong, you will cause yourself to define and perceive categories of market information as painful. In other words, you will view as painful any information the market generates that is in opposition to what will make you happy

Remember our definition of a winning attitude: a positive expectation of your efforts with an acceptance that whatever results you get are a perfect reflection of your level of development and what you need to learn to do better

Traders with losing attitudes pick the wrong trades regardless of how much they know about the markets. In any case, the result is the same — they lose

Accepting the risk means accepting the consequences of your trades without emotional discomfort or fear. This means that you must learn how to think about trading and your relationship with the markets in such a way that the possibility of being wrong, losing, missing out, or leaving money on the table doesn't cause your mental defense mechanisms to kick in and take you out of the opportunity flow

When you accept the risk the way the pros do, you won't perceive anything that the market can do as threatening. If nothing is threatening, there's nothing to fear. If you're not afraid, you don't need courage. If you're not stressed, why would you need nerves of steel? And if you're not afraid of your potential to get reckless, because you have the appropriate monitoring mechanisms in place, then you have no need for self-control

Let's set up a scenario, where your last two or three trades were losers. You are watching the market, and the variables you use to indicate that an opportunity exists are now present. Instead of immediately executing the trade, you hesitate. The trade feels very risky, so risky, in fact, that you start questioning whether this is "really" a signal. As a result, you start gathering information to support why this trade probably won't work. This is information you normally wouldn't consider or pay attention to, and it's certainly not information that is part of your trading methodology. In the meantime, the market is moving. Unfortunately, it is moving away from your original entry point, the point at which you would have gotten into the trade if you hadn't hesitated. Now you are conflicted, because you still want to get in; the thought of missing a winning trade is painful. At the same time, as the market moves away from your entry point, the dollar value of the risk to participate increases. The tug of war inside your mind intensifies

Traders who have learned to think in probabilities don't attempt to pick and choose the edges they think, assume, or believe are going to work and act on those; nor do they avoid the edges that for whatever reason they think, assume, or believe aren't going to work. If they did either of those things, they would be contradicting their belief that the "now" moment situation is always unique, creating a random distribution between wins and losses on any given string of edges. They have learned, usually quite painfully, that they don't know in advance which edges are going to work and which ones aren't. They have stopped trying to predict outcomes. They have found that by taking every edge, they correspondingly increase their sample size of trades, which in turn gives whatever edge they use ample opportunity to play itself out in their favor, just like the casinos

The typical trader wants to be right on every single trade. Typical traders go through the exercise of convincing themselves that they're right before they get into a trade, because the alternative (being wrong) is simply unacceptable

We have to be rigid in our rules and flexible in our expectations

What is the source of our potential to interpret market information as threatening? Our expectations! When the market generates information that doesn't conform to what we expect, the up and down tics seem to take on a threatening quality. What is the underlying source of our expectations? Our beliefs. If you are still experiencing negative states of mind when you trade, you can assume there's a conflict between what you "know" about probable outcomes and any number of other beliefs in your mental environment that are arguing (demanding expression) for something else

Beliefs exist in our mental environment from the moment they are born to the moment we die, unless we consciously take steps to deactivate them

The secret to effectively changing our beliefs is in understanding and, consequently, believing that we really aren't changing our beliefs; we are simply transferring energy from one concept to another concept, one that we find more useful in helping us to fulfill our desires or achieve our goals

We have to create a new belief and de-activate the conflicting ones. This is the secret to achieving consistent success as a trader

There could be a huge gap between how much money we desire for ourselves, how much we perceive is available, and how much we actually believe we are worth or deserve

When our beliefs are completely aligned with our goals or desires, there's no source of conflicting energy. If there's no source of conflicting energy, then there's no source of distracting thoughts, excuses, rationalizations, justifications, or mistakes (conscious or subconscious)

1. Anything can happen
2. You don't need to know what is going to happen next in order to make money
3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge
4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another
5. Every moment in the market is unique

1. Beliefs seem to take on a life of their own and, therefore, resist any force that would alter their present form.
2. All active beliefs demand expression.
3. Beliefs keep on working regardless of whether or not we are consciously aware of their existence in our mental environment

Creating a belief that "I am a consistent winner" is the primary objective
I AM A CONSISTENT WINNER BECAUSE:
1. I objectively identify my edges
2. I predefine the risk of every trade
3. I completely accept risk or I am willing to let go of the trade
4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation
5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me
6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors
7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them