Lesson About Perception Of Uniqueness In Trading

It was the beginning of July. Beautiful weather, sun was shining. We were heading to the seaside with my soulmate to stay for a week. We drove just a few kilometres out of town. I noticed that one of the mirrors was shaking slightly. I thought to myself: "Oh, this must be the wheel shaking. I had this problem with a previous car. Since the current car is a very similar model, it must be the same problem."

And a few minutes later - boom. The mirror unglued from the holder and crashed into the road. It all happened in a second, while our speed was around 100 km/h. I was left in awe, trying to comprehend what happened during the next 10 seconds. It was now very uncomfortable and dangerous to drive because I actually had only 1 mirror left, as the back mirror was obstructed by the bicycles in the back holder.

We quickly made a plan to stop at the nearest town. My soulmate called her acquaintance working in a car repair shop, letting her know that we'll come soon. They changed the mirror pretty quickly while we had a quick lunch and we continued driving to the seaside.

A few days later, I was reading Mark Douglas's classic book for traders - "Trading In The Zone", while lying at the beach. When I read the words below, I understood what a great lesson the crashed mirror taught me:

Unless we train our minds to perceive the uniqueness of each moment, that uniqueness will automatically be filtered out of our perception. We will perceive only what we know, minus any information that is blocked by our fears, everything else will remain invisible.

When I saw a shaking mirror, I didn't perceive the uniqueness of that moment. My mind automatically associated the sight with a previous experience and blocked me from understanding the true nature of the happening.

Interestingly, I knew that my car didn't have a problem with a wheel. Even though the previous car did have that problem, and even if it was a similar model - the sheer fact was that I never experienced such a problem with my current car. The thing is that I never fixed the shaking wheel in the previous car. I drove like this for half a year until I sold the car. It was my pain avoidance mechanism - I hate going to the car repair centres because it wastes a lot of time and I hate the smell of cigarettes and oils in those places.

Naturally, when I saw the shaking mirror, my mind wanted to avoid pain and tried to label it as "shaking wheel". Because it knew from the past that it is OK to drive with a shaking wheel. And if it's OK to drive - then the mind can comfortably "sleep" further in its fantasy.

I was amazed by the sheer magnitude of this lesson. It was like a finger of the God who pointed directly into the area which I needed to develop the most. To learn to perceive each moment in trading as unique, and never connect past experiences with current experiences. I paid just €20 for this lesson (cost of changing the mirror), but the estimated benefit of this lesson is at least €100 000 in additional profits over the next 50 years.

Thanks to the Teacher!