Coué’s Law

“When the imagination and the (conscious) will are in conflict, the imagination invariably gains the day”
Evening all! … been a while since i posted up and have been reading some interesting material just lately so thought this would be ideal as i cant help but think of trading alot when reading about such things!
Trading the markets is not all about what you know with trends, resistances and spotting various other opportunities but a case of mastering yourself i would say too. A larger portion of it is in fact thinking about it!! we’ve all seen the videos where people say its possible to profit without knowing etc etc…. and although it’s not the most comfortable thought when were learning and looking its pretty true too!
Afterall how frustrating is it when we predict a correct move and still loose money?!! But on the other hand when your in your flow and going well you find even from predicting wrongly you make some cash?!! It’s all in the execution i’ve said before, which is true! but a very large part of that execution is how your feeling and thinking mentally… nothing describes this better than the above – Coué’s Law.
So as example im sure we can all relate to at some point in our lives, be it as a child playing or an adult working in certain cases etc…

Think about a plank of wook laying on the floor.. say 30cm wide and 10ft long, you walk along the plank from one end to the other without touching the floor, no problems right?? afterall your just walking, the same as anwhere else its not exceptionally thin or any different, you know you can do this its easy!
Now think of that same plank of wood, again the task is exactly the same, walk from one end to the other. However the difference is this plank of wood is suspended 10ft in the air! On walking along the plank you look down and think ‘thats a bit of a drop, i don’t want to fall’ – you are now thinking about falling, your heart starts to beat faster and you think ‘thats gonna hurt if i fall’ your heart starts to beat faster, your legs start to tremble which in turn is a message sent back to your brain as ‘i’m gonna fall’. The more you become fixated with the thought of falling the more you tremble etc etc. In the end the likelyhood of falling becomes alot more!!
…lets say you do fall, you then get to give yourself a pat on the back because you was right! when really all that happened was your negative thinking became a self fufilling prophecy because of Coué’s Law.

It’s strange how it works isn’t it but you could probably think of many different scinario’s that this confirms to be true. Is it any wonder top atheletes often spend alof of time before racing visualising the outcome they desire? the complete opposite of the above example!

So why should it be any different to our trading? It’s not!! We’ve all had them days where it just won’t go our way and we loose one after another and start to get paranoid… i guess when that happens were just reinforcing the negative thoughts to make sure it happens!! obviously there will be cases where probability throws up some strange results with adverse behaviour but all in all we are creating the outcome if we know it or not!!
A good example of this over a longer term maybe someone i talk to from time to time recently hit the PC3 band of 60%, obviously this took its toll mentally on the chap as its a huge percentage of the returns! from that point on i recall talking to him a few days on the trot where he was struggling and only making a fraction of what he usually would!
The market hadn’t changed as i was still making my usual amounts as were others, but to him he was actually changing his outcome because of his thoughts! After all if you didn’t think it was worth it they why even bother?!

Interesting stuff for sure! … im looking forward to working my way through the rest of this book anyway as hopefully it will help me realise and change the way i think so i never loose again!! Ha Ha – wishful thinking (or did i just make that the truth with my sarccasm?)

Untill the next time!

6 thoughts on “Coué’s Law

  1. “If your afraid to fall, you fall because your afraid”

    This was an old quote I remember from my free running days, and it really does apply to trading ha

    Michael

  2. I enjoy this Blog a lot and hope you enjoyed holls Caan now give us an update you kept us waiting ages lol 😉

  3. Caan. Interesting posts mate. I enjoy reading them. One question here, what is “the PC3 band of 60%” you refer to in this post. ?
    Cheers
    Alan

    1. Hi Alan,

      Premium Charge 3 (they have altered it several times) currently stands at profitable customers over £250,000 Net profit on their account have to pay up to 60% depending on generated commission – its complicated how its calculated – i wouldnt worry untill your half way there at least 🙂

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