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Within a half hour of reaching its bottom, the stock was up six points. From its bottom, the stock had gone up 15 points in a half hour. And it finished up for the day. |
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At the time, I had never seen any stock recover this far and this fast. The following months would provide many occasions to see other fast-moving Internet-related stocks make similar reversal moves. But this one was striking to me. From inner hell, suddenly the sun came out and everything looked good again. A roller coaster ride past the shadow of death and now back out to roses and lollipops. And all just by watching a stock graph! |
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The moral of the story is twofold: (1) don't take the process for the outcome and (2) be aware of and learn to control the influence of fantasy on your disciplined decision making. |
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Discipline and the Mind's Productions |
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Crucial for the disciplined online investor is the ability to control the fantasies produced by the mind. It's not that we can normally control what passes through out minds. For the most part, we can't. |
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Unless we have had a lot of meditation experience, stopping this flow of thought just can't be done. Thoughts, fleeting images, associated feelingsall will jump forward into awareness on their own. This is simply what the mind produces. |
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If you don't believe this, it is simple enough to test it for yourself. Sit for 15 minutes quietly in a chair and close your eyes. Simply pay attention to the thoughts and images that come up. One of the astounding discoveries that anyone makes who tries this exercise in good faith is how truly out of control our normal thought process really is. |
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Thoughts, images, and feelings may rush forward, begging to be taken seriously and to be acted upon. It is our job not to be taken in by this deluge of material. We must realize that it is in our power to refuse to take a fantasy seriously. Or to stop the emotion of fear from dictating our behavior. |
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Since weighing the various factors that go into decision making is hard enough, for online investors, making rational decisions without the interference of confounding emotion will normally be to their advantage. |
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As my example of being swept into negative thinking indicates, fear may be magnified when we're watching a volatile market too closely |
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