TRADING PSYCHOLOGY
Are You In Control?
Overcoming Addictions
by Adrienne Laris Toghraie, MNLP
Addictions will turn your successful trading into a lost cause. What to do?
Addictions play a major role in the lives
of many traders. With few exceptions, addictions inevitably lead to behaviors
that can destroy a trader's professional and personal life, break down
hard-earned performance, and sabotage success.
How can addictions create such ruin? As the need to satisfy an addiction
grows, traders can be driven to the outer limits of normal behavior. When
an addiction worms its way into the center of an individual's consciousness,
it pushes the most important things in life out to the periphery. Activities
that were once considered off limits may become normal if the addict deems
them necessary to support the addiction. At the same time, activities that
once supported success may become difficult to sustain as addiction-related
activities compete for limited physical and emotional resources and time.
While it is most advantageous not to allow an addiction to enter our
lives at all, an individual who overcomes an addiction becomes the master
of himself and his life.
WHAT IS AN ADDICTION?
An addiction is the compulsive need for and continued use of a substance
or activity despite harm to the user. Major addictions, such as those to
drugs or alcohol, are conditions with both emotional and physical factors.
One aspect of an addiction is that it begins to impair the individual's
control over his behavior as his compulsions develop. If the addiction
is a chemical substance, the user will develop a tolerance to it and need
to increase the level of usage.
...Continued in the February 2003 issue of Technical Analysis
of STOCKS & COMMODITIES
Excerpted from an article originally published in the February 2003
issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights
reserved. © Copyright 2003, Technical Analysis, Inc.
