Yeah, no, i i totally agree, and i i think definitely if you, if you're doing that, um and you realize, like i've, just took a bunch of shitty trades today. I guess i think it's a it's a good. It's a good idea to ask why and and try and fill that void a little bit or be more proactive and ask why you're taking the trade before you take every trade that day and look like you, don't have to do all the time you're! Never going to do it all the time, but at least do it once a week when you notice you're in that cycle and break the cycle yeah just at least do it once for one day and i'm probably gon na write it on my wall. After this good, what is the reason? Why are you doing this? Welcome back everybody to the steady trade podcast? This is a mini series that stephen johnson and i kim and curtin are putting together for you uh almost two years ago, stephen johnson and i did a similar four part series.

So if you haven't seen that one, you should check it out. It's probably uh. Two thousand twenty twenty yeah 2019 - maybe uh, it's a little. It's a little bit far back uh, but this series is on.

We just did uh one on trigger happy versus gun shy, so you should check that out, they're about 30 minutes 20 to 30 minutes long. Today, we're going to talk about over, treating to stay stimulated and the pitfalls that come with it. I'm going to riff a little bit about how i think that's indicative of me. It's not being met and or maybe an addiction to doing versus being uh and stephen is gon na give us the jewels that stephen always does.

How are you steven? How are you today good good, um, pretty good and yeah? It's it's! It's an interesting topic. Um a lot there's a lot of times. Well, traders will use the term punt there's a lot of times i'll punt a stock punch stocks lose three hundred dollars, losing 400 lose 400 dollars and and i'll just think. Well, that was silly, but it doesn't matter um and and again it comes from being num num to money uh.

If you know that you can make it back in one half of a good trade or one good trade will make it back times two times three times. Four you'll get complacent and sometimes pun stocks and you'll lose 400 dollars just out of boredom um. But you could, if you looked in the real world, 400 goes fairly far. It can go far further further than two seconds of fun point in the stock that you lost on and then it's like um.

I wonder what it's like it's it's like. You do. Something happens, really quick. You get a really good high.

It get excited. It's like you want to say it's like crack cocaine, because i've never done crack cocaine before right, but but it's like you'll, do it. It's dope. You'll get you you'll get the high yeah, then you'll be like wish.

I didn't spend that 300 bucks it's pretty expensive for that high. Do you know what i mean i do i do so. Dopamine is what is ultimately the instant satisfaction is that dopamine rush, but then on the other side of the dopamine rush. Is the realization that you just blew three hundred dollars, which is um? I mean it depends what you're going to afford right.

Like say, say: your wins, fifty dollars, if you you average, wins fifty dollars. If you lose twenty or thirty ponton, it's it's stupid, but you can get over it quickly. It's a mistake that it's almost worth it, because if it wasn't worth it, you wouldn't keep doing it. Do you know what i mean? Well, i think i think the worth it is that you're getting a dopamine rush uh.

That's why i think, there's a lot of things. We all do repeatedly that isn't in our best interest, but because there are physiological rewards, the reward system is set up to make us think. Oh this. This feels good, at least in the moment.

That's it's uh! It's like anything, it's like thinking, i'm meant to quit smoking, but i'd really like a cigarette right now. I know it's bad, but it feels good and it's also like just thinking you know what it is. I've got got some diet food in the cupboard, but how good would it be to have a big mac like how good would it be like i'm really hungry? How good would a warm big mac, taste yeah and the answer is really good and sometimes it'll be as good as you thought, and sometimes it'll be just a little bit cold and under on that paw uh-huh, yep yep, so so over trading to stay stimulated? Is you know, do you do you think that is something you engage in? Do do you find yourself sometimes over trading just because it's better to be trading than not trading terribly and uh, and you can tell yourself the lie that uh more market screen time is. Is good for you and it's healthy, but really what you're doing is just gambling on the ward, setups um and it's easy to lie.

It's easy to lie and say: oh no screen time, i'm watching yeah but you're watching nothing you're watching tickers that aren't doing anything! You're watching a quiet day, yeah you just haven't had your needs, met yeah um. I mean for my strategy honestly for the specific strategy that i play. I've got hundreds if not thousands, of sample of data samples of data that tell me to stop trading at 10. 30.

wow yeah you'll still see us at the computer at 11, 12. 1. 132. That's where a lot of the biggest losses come from wow, so so what stops you from just stopping at 10? 30? No, just pure love of this pure love of this.

Just the pure love of what's going to happen next, can i make more money? Can i eat well or better or a best month? What can i make a red one? Couldn't couldn't you potentially, if you love it, so much allow yourself to still watch but not treat after 10 30.. I mean that's like putting a burger in front of a hungry person. So what what you just spoke to around needs, i'm, as you can imagine completely on board with the fact that if we aren't getting our basic needs met in our day-to-day lives, then we are going to seek our needs in the market in trading. And that's when i find that maybe the need gets met, maybe if you're very, very, very lucky, but it's going to be met at a high cost, a high cost to yourself - and i don't just mean monetarily, but that could also be the case.

So i am of the opinion that most traders need to get connected to what their needs are, so that they can do a better job at getting their basic needs met outside of the market so that they don't get tempted to go. The high cost route of getting those needs met in trading. I i totally, i totally get that the only issue is with that. Is that there's no greater for someone who loves trading like for someone who purely loves it.

There is nothing greater, nothing greater than nailing that trade like there's, nothing, greater, nothing, nothing compares yeah, it's like sinead o'connor, like nothing compares, you know what i mean i do. I do nothing compares, but it's that, but if it nothing compares to that, if that is so incredibly satisfying, then wouldn't you want to discourage and dissipate in your trading. Anything that interferes with that happening. Not because trading is random and it's gambling and it can happen when you least expect it and it can happen when it shouldn't and it shouldn't happen when it should and that's the game and that's why it's addictive and that's why the reward is great, because your Luck was in today because you read the market well, today, yeah yeah looks on your side trading.

On god's all with you on this day. Do you know what i mean? What would those trading cards names be stephen? Well, i don't know because they don't come near me. They don't come near me. I'm praying i'm like.

Where are you? You know what to say. You say it was saved here. The last three times would not save any other side. You know you know that story about where they say the guy's like praying for his there's like a flood coming and uh he's on the roof of his house and and he has a boat, come pass and the boat the sailor on the boat says come into The boat, i'm i'm a heat, you know - want to get you out of this drowning river and the guy's like no, no, i prayed to god he's gon na save me and then and then a helicopter comes by and helicopter's like caught the water's rising, come up Into the helicopter and he's like no, no, i pray to god god's gon na save me and then he finally gets to heaven and he's.

Like god, i thought you were going to see me he's like i sent you a boat. I said you're a helicopter. What was yeah, i know that that joke made it to england as well yeah, it's a good one. It's a good one, it's a good one! So all right, so one of the things that i have seen with traders and them getting their needs met not because they're necessarily loving the game, but i've seen traders try to find uh their need for adventure met.

So the one more than one traitor has spoken about, especially during the pandemic uh. They were somebody who really loved adventure, so they would go on. You know intense hikes on the weekend or they would do uh. You know kind of like any kind of rugged.

Outdoorsy adventury type stuff, and then they couldn't for the pandemic, and so they noticed in their trading uh. They were taking way more risk than they had previously taken and they were kind of curious like. Why am i doing that? And i was uh, you know suggesting, perhaps because you can't get your need for adventure in your downtime now in your weekend time because of this pandemic you're trying to get your need for adventure met now when you're trading and once they started to ask themselves before They traded is this me striving to get my need for adventure met, they were able to dial it back. Does that not make absolutely? I mean it's like anything if, if, if you're on hikes and and uh doing things that you love and then you go to the market thinking, i love life, feel good you're, certainly not going to take a loss.

That's going to make. You feel bad because you feel good, why? Why would you want to feel bad yeah but yeah, and that and it's the same thing as um? If people have a shitty day, why would you drink two bottles of wine and feel even worse? The next day you know it's bad, but yeah you just want to feel something else, and and alcohol and trading are the the same kind of escape, you're feeling bad if you're not feeling fulfilled. If you, if you're just thinking another weekend in the house, do you know what i'm going to do? Yeah, i'm going to take a really big trade and it's going to make us feel grace and then i'm going to have a bottle of wine and you just you're going to compound bad things: yeah, yeah and uh. But it's kind of obvious.

But it's not not talked about right. I i would agree, i would agree, i think trading, i think, uh any drinking like anything we use to numb ourselves is just a flag that needs aren't being met and that's why i'm such an advocate of people finding out what their basic needs are and a Lot of times too, i see traders getting their need for community met they're trading because they want to be part of a community. They want to be in a conversation with other traders, so it they will take trades that aren't even their setup just because they want to kind of be in a come, have a comrade or two that they can shoot the with over twitter and be like hey Man, i'm in this too, just so they have that sense of community or sense of tribe that they're part of the tribe yeah. I know i mean and again absolutely and it's the same with uh sports button, if you, if you're, watching a game of football soccer, whatever um with some friends, it's it's malely entertaining if you've got a bet on it's more entertaining if you've all got the same.

Bat on that's a fantastic day, that's a fantastic day because you're all in it together, you all win. You all lose. If you all win, you all celebrate, if you all lose you're all one of them things, let's have another paints. Do you know what i mean exactly you're you're you're in that community you're in that tribe, having a similar shared experience, and one of the needs is to to know and be known to uh see and be seen and that's what i feel.

Sometimes a lot of traders are getting met in their trees, because they're able to relate to somebody else around them, i'm grabbing out my portable needs list. I carry this actually around in my wallet uh, even though i have a bigger one. This one fits nicely and this i just want to show everybody. This is just a small sampling of the needs that all of us have like.

That's how many there are i mean, and these are the feelings and this this is when, when i first started to learn this work, i started to look at what are the feelings i'm having? Are they pleasant or unpleasant, and then i would be able to track back? What means did i get that prior to this feeling, or what means did i not get met, and that's you know what i will say to traders is try to start to look at what is the feeling you're having before you potentially over trade? What is the feeling? That's not you know that's happening for you and they'll be like apathy, depression, anger, frustration, um to you, know a bunch of other unpleasant ones and then i'll say well what happened prior to that moment when you started to over trade? Well, i had an argument with my girlfriend. Well, i felt uh frustrated because i was trying to make money through my other side gig and it didn't work out like i'll, try to get them to nail down. What is it that what me didn't get mad that precipitated this hard to be refeeling, i mean the ultimate question is: why are you taking this trade? Why? Why are you taking this? If you just can ask that before every trade, why am i taking this trade? That's not the great it's not the best setup! Well. Why are you taking it then? Because of this? Why do you want that? Oh well, because actually this happened yesterday, yep, you just have to ask why a bunch of times like like a three-year-old does yeah.

It's true it's true, it's true, it's true, but um, but yeah, there's the sense of uh com commune being communal, the sense of being community community it just it just roots roots back to ancient times i mean live together or die alone. It's absolutely humans right, absolutely and i think during this pandemic, probably people have experienced loneliness and uh isolation more than ever before, even if you're in a house with other people, you can still feel incredibly isolated. You can still feel incredibly lonely and i think that's one of the things that trading now because of social media facilitates it facilitates a community even even if you're, not in a chat room with somebody, you can see all the traders on twitter you can see. Everybody is, you know, being active and you're like wow.

I want to be part of that so anyway. I i just think that the concept of being addicted to action is simply because action allows you to be busy as opposed to being still and sometimes having to. Then face the hard to be with feelings you might be having yeah. No, i i totally agree, and i i think definitely if you, if you're doing that, um and you realize, like i've, just took a bunch of shitty trades today i guess it's.

I think it's a it's a good, it's a good idea to ask why and and try and fill that void a little bit or be more proactive and ask why you're taking the trade before you take every trade that day and look like you don't have to Do all the time you're never going to do it all the time, but at least do it once a week when you notice you're in that cycle and break the cycle yeah just at least do it once for one day and i'm probably gon na write it On my wall after this good, what is the reason? Why are you doing this yeah yep? One of the things i always like to say is instead of asking why we use the word what, instead, because what i've noticed is that and i'm i'm just going to do this to you now, if you're a game like maybe just close your eyes for a Second and i'm going to say two phrases to you: i want you to just notice how it physically feels inside. Does it? Do you feel, expansion or contraction? Stephen when i say the first phrase and then when i say the second phrase, the first phrase is: why did you do that? Stephen just notice, you can tell me afterwards and now i want you to notice what it feels like when i say what do you think uh had you do that stephen okay, so open your eyes? What what yeah, i think i mean, i think, there's definitely uh tone tone differences in your voice, but what's up did you did you notice it hugely there's this that yeah the tone difference more than the words, so i'd be really curious. I'd be very curious to have the listeners because i actually strive to say those two phrases neutral: the same tone yeah. No, no.

I mean i had my eyes closed and born felt like i was six years old again and my mother was talking. So let let me tell you how comments it. It isn't. What, if it's not the tone, but it's the word when we hear the word, why we usually go into a contraction and we also begin to justify yeah when uh, when i the first one my stomach, went in the second one.

My stomach went out. So contraction is pulling in defense pulling yeah totally, but usually the the reason behind it is the word the word: why has a start to shut down and defend and protect ourselves and justify? But when we hear the word, what it's more expansive, it doesn't feel like we're being cornered. So what i suggest to people with their own self-talk and we're talking about now trading is instead of saying. Why did you take that trade right? Because if that's going to elicit you to start to defend and justify ask yourself what is going on, that's having you take that trade, it's just yeah.

I know i mean approach. Why isn't more entire interrogative? If that is it's more remembrance, something that happened in the past curiosity, it's curiosity when we look at why it feels like an interrogation to ourselves, but we ask what we're opening up the door to curiosity and we're also meeting whatever is going on for us with Neutrality, yeah agree agree. So, instead of posting on your wall, why did you take that trade maybe put on your wall? What is that trade about? And the answer could be because i've seen this one a million times or or i don't know what that trade is about. You may not know sometimes so then it's like okay get curious.

What might be going on for me? What needs me am i getting met for me. I don't get that anymore, because i have a system and a network so ingrained okay to take the right, nah, i'm lying. I do take the wrong trades all the time and that's probably the reason why i've been on a bit of a downturn recently is because i've took the wrong trades, but that's it's not through being bored. It's through thinking that i've more said more of the market.

At a faster pace than i actually have, and, and then they're kind of two different things, if you answer that question just for yourself like what, what do you think is behind the trades that you've had to draw it down, what what do you feel is what Was thinking about it, uh thinking that thinking thinking that i know the setups that i'm not as familiar with as i i'm not i'm not last year i traded one set up tracked, a short load of data on it, traded it like 1000 times and pretty much Most that it did really well like. I turned the 666 000 because i had mastered that setup right, but then it was only november december. Last year i started venturing into a second set up in the third setup, but that first setup i took four years to master wow and because i had more said one, i thought i could quickly master many more very quickly and and and then i did in A way i did and then that gave us even more confidence and then it all came raining down and i looked back and thought you know you really didn't you really uh. You really haven't spent the time learning about those setups that you did the first one and and really you're winning everything on the first one.

All you winnings 90 are on the first one still and only 10 are on the second in the third and the fourth and but your size of what you're taking is even bigger on the ones. You don't know, wow and, and i've just like. This is why i told you like, i took some bad losses, but i'm i'm not too phased because i'm like well, you know what it is. I think i figured i think i figured out what's going on yeah yeah and it's all it's all.

Okay, it's all fine yeah. I i think when we when we start to get curious and we look uh about what is going on as opposed to the. Why not only do we step into a place of neutrality, but we step into a place. Hopefully that's judgment.

Free and that's what it sounds like you're doing now: you're not in a place of judging yourself you're in a place of curiosity and discovery, and that is opening up for you. The ability to not be attached to that loss and to that draw down and to be able to be like okay, this happens, i'm gon na be neutral about it. I'm gon na take the and i've learned and i'm going to move on, which is huge yeah. I know i think so and i think um.

I think the one thing that i pride myself on, that i've heard a lot of other traders say as well, and i mean i'll. Never like i've deliberately set up me live, so i don't lose. Everything like. I have investments that i can't take out.

I've got a house that i can't put it put on. The dealer can't be like take me. Take me house just give us give us a hundred k, speed trader whatever just take my house and put 100k in like i can't do that. So, like i've designed i've designed my life, so i can never lose everything um yeah, but but what i'd pride myself on, which other traders have said is if i lost everything i had cash monetary.

I could always just start again and do it again. I could always start from zero and i can always build it back up. Yeah and that's that's that's the important thing just as long as you're learning as long as you're growing yeah. That's all what matters you can always you can always start again.

You can always lose it and start again for sure you don't want to it's backwards way of working, but if it does, if it happens, yeah yeah there's a great comeback story. Yep. I i think i think the only thing i want to say before we close up is just the concept of staying stimulated uh. I just find that sometimes traders need to diversify in their uh ways of getting stimulated and a huge advocate that some of that stimulation come from nature come from being outside whether you're in a cold or warm climate.

I think part of the challenge of stimulation. These days is that dopamine rush that comes because we're always plugged in and one of the things i learned from celeste hedley in her book do nothing is that the brain is really not set up to work beyond four hours, uh chunk at a time our ability To focus the the rest of our brain is compromised when we go beyond that, and one of the things that i see is that even b, which i didn't know before reading her book was that even social media, our brain receives it is working, it doesn't know. It's off, oh i'm just going to scroll through instagram. That is your brain feeling like it's still working.

So i'm just a huge advocate of finding out is, is: are you in need of a dopamine detox if you're over trading to stay stimulated is stimulation? The default setting for you and if it is, then how do you reset that and that could be to come offline? You know during the weekend go out in nature, um and and find you know the dopamine detox. You can find that on youtube, and that would be not being on social media not being on your phone just being out in nature, not looking for that huge fix, which is part of why some people now struggle with reading it's it's not just because of a Lot of reasons, but one of the reasons around that is because it's not going to give you a dopamine hit when you read so some people can find that to be hard to do yeah, no, like honestly, the the best the best res it's it's just. You need to reset, sometimes you have to reset yeah and i think one of the most underrated resets is a well there's a couple both like fasteners, a major reset um, tell us more about that. I've done i've done three like three weeks.

I've done i've been doing it for months now, but i've done three weeks in a row. Just 60 hours, two days don't eat sunday. Five o'clock stop wednesday. Nine o'clock start: you go full monday, tuesday, without food, drink lots of water, and i just i just really believe from it from an energetic perspective.

If you're and i've said this before, but if your stomach for the first time in 15 years doesn't have to break down food, it doesn't have to do its function and like 90 percent of the serotonin in the stomach right. What? What made her do like? What made your brain do your stomach, dude together, it's like a deep frick, it's a deep friend for the whole system. It's not going to do its exhausting job of burning pizza, mcdonald's, kfc, fries, all that crap! Imagine you give it two days off what i always feel very centered and very present that jumping in freezing cold water freezing ice cold. You you get very present you suddenly, you suddenly know what uh a real problem is it's been too cold and then there's also the the psychedelic section yeah, but we'll we'll not we'll not will not will not die there.

Well, look there's a lot out there about the psychedelics. Uh gabriel mate speaks to it. Tim ferriss speaks to it, so i would say if you guys are interested in learning more about that. Just go! Look at the people that are talking about it because there's a lot of different ways, it's being uh, addressed and handled today in you know controlled settings so that i'm i'm not a big fan of self-administration, because i feel that when you step into the world of Psychedelics you want to be very cautious and very careful because without proper support without having it properly monitored, you could put yourself at great risk emotionally, psychologically and physically, but i do think it's worth exploring today, but again in a very you know, controlled setting with somebody Who knows what they're doing and also to understand you, because your body and your tolerance level could be very different than what? If, if done in a big group, setting or you're doing it yourself could be the wrong dosage amount yeah, but but those those uh, those controlled study results uh very promising many many studies showing it more effective than antidepressants, yep, absolutely no side effects, absolutely very, very Promising thought for those who need gabar.

Mate has uh a great movie out. There now called the wisdom of trauma, and he also talks at length with tim ferriss about the use of psychedelics, uh and healing trauma uh, and that talk is just on the you know. Tim ferriss podcast, where he talks at length about gabor mate's advocacy, all of us yeah. It's all about anxiety, depression, trauma, stress, yeah, yep, absolutely all right! Well, we'll bring this clip to a close, but it was uh.

It was a good conversation. I hope you guys found it useful. Please give stephen and i your feedback. We look at all the comments, uh and you know hearing what matters to you, whether we're talking about topics that matter to you helps us formulate.

You know the topics we talk about, so please let us know. This is part of a four-part series, stephen johnson and i are doing we did hop uh trigger happy versus gun shy. In the last episode today, we talked about over trading to stay stimulated and the next two episodes will be taking trading seriously. What that looks like what that means for you and finding or building your edge.

So we'll see you in the next episode and we hope you'll join us there. I hope you guys enjoyed that video thanks so much for watching and being part of the stocks trade community - we wouldn't be here without you guys make sure you hit that like button and subscribe to the channel. If you have not already, our goal is to hit a hundred thousand subscribers by the end of the year, but we can't do it without you guys. So if you like what we're doing here - and you want to hear more - please please please hit that subscribe button and i'll see you guys on the next video.