{"id":35503,"date":"2014-01-26T09:41:26","date_gmt":"2014-01-26T14:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=35503"},"modified":"2023-04-27T07:20:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T11:20:50","slug":"ask-yourself-this-question-to-trade-in-the-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/ask-yourself-this-question-to-trade-in-the-zone","title":{"rendered":"Ask Yourself This Question to Trade in the Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent blog post on the ancient philosophers at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bakadesuyo.com\/2014\/01\/ancient-philosophers\/\">Barking Up the Wrong Tree<\/a> an interesting idea for our trading was presented.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Really thinking about just how awful things can be often has the ironic effect of making you realize they\u2019re not that bad.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From my\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bakadesuyo.com\/2013\/11\/the-art-of-negative-thinking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview with Oliver Burkeman<\/a>, author of\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B0080K3G4O\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0080K3G4O&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=spacforrent-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can\u2019t Stand Positive Thinking<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s what the Stoics call, \u201cthe premeditation\u201d\u2014that there\u2019s actually a lot of peace of mind to be gained in thinking carefully and in detail and consciously about how badly things could go.\u00a0In most situations you\u2019re going to discover that your anxiety or your fears about those situations were exaggerated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Often I can be heard on the desk saying, like the ancient Stoics apparently, to our new traders when they are sweating a position, &#8220;What&#8217;s the worst thing that can happen?&#8221; My purpose is for them to just trade the trade and not get emotionally invested in the results. I also use it as a way to encourage traders to get bigger in their best positions. Try this with your trading and see if it brings a sense of calm (to trade in the zone, as we say in trading).<\/p>\n<p>You can be better tomorrow than you are today!<\/p>\n<p>Mike Bellafiore<\/p>\n<p>Related blog posts:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/some-help-for-the-impatient-trader\">Some Help for the Impatient Trader<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/blogtest1\">Add a Dose of Patience to Your Trading<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/One-Good-Trade-Competitive-Proprietary\/dp\/0470529407\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375715301&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=one+good+trade\">One Good Trade<br \/>\n<\/a><\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/PlayBook-Inside-Think-Professional-Trader\/dp\/0132937646\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1390507658&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+playbook+mike+bellafiore\"><em>The PlayBook<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/mikebellafiore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com\/follow_me-c.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nNo relevant positions<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tradingworkshop.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-42831\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/smbwebinarsignup.jpg\" alt=\"tradingworkshop\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent blog post on the ancient philosophers at Barking Up the Wrong Tree an interesting idea for our trading was presented. Really thinking about just how awful things can be often has the ironic effect of making you realize they\u2019re not that bad. From my\u00a0interview with Oliver Burkeman, author of\u00a0The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can\u2019t Stand Positive &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/ask-yourself-this-question-to-trade-in-the-zone\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[134,223,682],"class_list":["post-35503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-comments-2","tag-emotional-trading","tag-patience","tag-trading-psychology","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ask Yourself This Question to Trade in the Zone | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/ask-yourself-this-question-to-trade-in-the-zone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ask Yourself This Question to Trade in the Zone | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent blog post on the ancient philosophers at Barking Up the Wrong Tree an interesting idea for our trading was presented. Really thinking about just how awful things can be often has the ironic effect of making you realize they\u2019re not that bad. From my\u00a0interview with Oliver Burkeman, author of\u00a0The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can\u2019t Stand Positive ... Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/ask-yourself-this-question-to-trade-in-the-zone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SMB Training Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/smbcap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-26T14:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-27T11:20:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com\/follow_me-c.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bella\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@smbcapital\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@smbcapital\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bella\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta 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