Specifically, we call it the BIKB - the but I know better trade... generally, traders of all skill levels do it ALL the time.

Why? In short, because there is an emotion or feeling that isn't conscious and therefore is being acted out. It really is that simple - every trade you do that you wish you didn't, has an unconscious emotional driver behind it. This makes the solution simple - if not easy.

GET CONSCIOUS.

Specifically get conscious of the more insidious emotions that are not on the surface. Sure any trade can be plotted along the spectrum from fear of losing to fear of missing out - but if it were only that simple.

Fueling those fears are fears of being wrong or fears of being rejected - uglier, messier, more complicated - but very human stuff. And also very powerful stuff - the stuff that really drives us. And it is buried deep within our neural networks - papered over with adult intelligence, math, rationalizations and defense mechanisms.

At the end of the day, you don't have to be afraid of what you feel. Most people however are. Lots of feelings don't feel good - so we try to avoid them. What happens with that though?

We simply act them out so that maybe just maybe our conscious mind will catch on and try to repair the unconscious mis-wirings. In other words, things that feel bad are a signal - not that something is wrong with you - but that something that is or has happened to you was wrong, unfair, did you a disservice....

It happens to all of us. It is the human condition.

Trading gives us the perfect opportunity to re-wire - and make money at the same time. The implications of both are incalculable.

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