By Louise Bedford
Getting an elite level of any successful endeavour can mean being subjected to pain.
Usually when we reached out our podgy little toddler hands while Mum wasn´t watching, we received a burn for our efforts. Pain makes you withdraw, cry and sometimes get angry. It makes you less likely to repeat an action that causes pain. Pain serves a purpose.
How you react to being physically hit can give you a glimpse into your true self? Your external façade is stripped away and you find out whether you are more likely to cower in the corner, or summon the strength to hit back. Many martial artists find that the only way to train to an elite level is to be willing to experience pain. If the pain, or even the thought of pain, interferes with our ability to function, then we have a problem.
While Robert Redenbach and Graham Kuerschner were training police and military personnel in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics, they used a controversial, yet highly effective tool. The course organisers believed that it is only by being subjected to pain that people can combat their fear and maintain their focus despite what is happening to them.
During the five-day course, recipients were subjected to the infamous slap test. This is where the course attendee kneels on the ground without a shirt and his partner slaps his chest and back repeatedly with an open palm, as many times as possible in five seconds.
Reactions to the slaps varied. Some guys with vast amounts of bravado crumbled. Others who didn´t look like they would be up to the task ended up coping admirably. There are lessons for us as share traders in using pain to our advantage.
Rather than risking real money in the markets, many traders simply paper trade and continue doing this for years. They write down their positions, monitor them, and imagine they´d actually traded.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with this idea. The main issue is that there is no pain involved when an incorrect decision is made. The pain of losing money and the pleasure of making a profitable trade are denied to the paper trader. As experiences in trading go, there´s nothing like the pain you will experience after having money mercilessly ripped out of your account! Paper trading sometimes allows people to kid themselves that they are actually more skilled than reality would suggest. They tend to remember the good trades and forget the ones that are less than favourable. By trying to avoid pain, they are actually prolonging their own learning cycle.
It is wise to try at least a few trades on paper at first, especially if you are testing a new trading system or instrument. This will give you a chance to understand how these instruments work before risking your capital. Just remember to limit the number of trades you intend to make and the time duration you will take to make those trades. Set yourself a deadline for putting real money into the market. Work on your trading plan as ferociously as if you were planning to take over a multimillion- dollar company. Iron out the visible flaws in your plan before jumping in, but don´t be afraid of a little pain. It´s truly the quickest way to learn and to become an effective trader.
