How to handle your emotions to become proactive instead of reactive when trading, or when living life.
Hello, Chris, My name is Aris, I come from China.
I just read your new book. Apart from the spiritual experiences and the concept of the Galaxy 124 Planet, which I find hard to understand, I can comprehend and agree with everything else. I admire your enlightenment, courage, and talent.
I am a cryptocurrency trader, and this year my account has experienced seven significant ups and downs. Just yesterday, I shorted MYX, which I wasn’t optimistic about. I also shortened it in June. Both times, I failed to control my position size, leading to substantial drawdowns and losses in my account. I am on the verge of collapse. Unlike before, when I could still muster the confidence to recover after a major loss, now I just feel foolish. Even if I continue trading, I see no hope of success because I lack wisdom.
I’ve tried meditating, but I’m unsure if my meditation can lead me to a spiritual awakening. I am constantly swayed by my emotions. After a period of disciplined trading, there’s always an emotional trade that leads to failure. It feels like a random emotional fluctuation, yet also like an inevitability, causing me to fail repeatedly.
How did you overcome difficulties and train your trading mindset? How do you conquer emotional trading, this seemingly random yet inevitable behavior?
Looking forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Aris Li
Emotions must be acknowledged and handled. Ed Seykota's www.tradingtribe.com website is an excellent resource for this. The tribe pinpoints emotions which cause losses. These emotions can be traced back to first memories that may have resulted in some form of trauma. Marissa Peer is a top psychologist who has free hypnotherapy videos on youtube that can help one undo past traumas.
Meditation is also a great practice. Practice mindfulness, meditation, or breathwork daily and before trading; these habits increase present-moment awareness and help observe emotions without reacting impulsively. Maintain a detailed journal documenting trades, decisions, and emotional states; review this regularly to identify emotional triggers and patterns of reactivity. Set strict stop-losses, daily/weekly loss limits, and realistic expectations to minimize the risk of emotion-driven, revenge, or panic trades. Reduce position size during emotional or losing streaks, prioritizing capital protection and objectivity. Proactive trading means anticipating scenarios, preparing strategies, and acting with intention based on plans and knowledge. Reactive trading is driven by emotions and fluctuating markets, leading to impulsive decisions and poor outcomes. By mastering emotional discipline and proactively setting conditions for trade, traders stay focused and improve both consistency and results.
If you cannot overcome certain weaknesses, then you must recognize when such weaknesses arise so you can be proactive and not make the same error. Knowing yourself is key.
The overcoming of inner weaknesses is 90% of trading success.
Best,
Dr. Chris Kacher
Thank you for your reply. I'll look at the books and videos you mentioned.
I came across an idea: there are actually no 'mentally ill' people in this world — those we label as mentally ill are simply individuals whose thoughts and emotions are temporarily trapped in a narrow space and can't find their way out. They're caught in a clinging or fixation; they're people temporarily confined to a small corner of the mind. In this sense, every one of us who lives primarily in the brain's domain is, to some degree, 'mentally ill' — the only difference is the size of that confined space.
The 'brain world' is knowing, accumulation, and memory; everything in the brain world is stale and belongs to the past. The brain is a repository of knowledge, a department store of life experiences.
The 'soul world' (or 'mind-heart world') is trust, flow, and insight. The soul world has no past and no future, only the present, and in the present everything is fresh, lively, and spontaneous.
The brain's greatest skill is analysis, summarization, and induction; it tries to understand, and excels at logic and thinking.
The mind or soul, however, is an immediate response, an act of observing, a beam of light. All activities of the brain-world are illuminated and made transparent by the light of the soul.
The soul does not follow any logic — it has none. The soul and the brain are two completely opposite realms.
The brain-world is messy, entangled, and contradictory; the brain cannot avoid entanglement because there have never been two identical brains in this world. Different brains carry different knowledge, experiences, cultures, traditions, and customs. The planet is full of different, stubborn minds.
The soul-world is clear, simple, and flowing. The soul never remembers, because it does not need memory. The soul is an immediate response — a spotless mirror, clear and transparent like a lake. The soul never accumulates anything. It responds instantly; things come, it responds; things pass, it leaves no trace — an observation in the present. The soul only reacts, instantly. The soul-world is one moment after another, fully living in the present; it belongs neither to the past nor to the future, only to the now. Therefore the soul-world is light and free, without burden and without rubbish.
The soul-world is a relatively advanced domain in human evolution. How should we enter the soul world, how can we explore or cultivate it?
Sincerely,
Aris Li
PS: I struggle greatly with what I know and what I do. I know some things are wrong, but I still do them—both in life and in trading. My mistakes happen before I realize them. I always think, 'let me try it'—to reach into the fire and grab the chestnut, to make a quick gain and run—but I always fail to get away in the end. This shows I always have a gambler's or 'hopeful' mentality. It may be rooted in my upbringing: timidity, lack of love, and sometimes impulsiveness, Born in an atheistic country, I also had no religious faith, no convictions, and no courage from a child to now (early thirties), but recently I have begun to embrace Buddhism—especially Zen.
The mind obsesses about the past or worries about the future. The higher self lives in the present. The ego's job is to live in the present. One can train their ego. Meanwhile, the higher self does the heavy lifting which it is meant to do, thus does not at all feel 'heavy'. Getting out of the way of oneself, one's ego, allows higher self to take over.
Chapter 7 of my latest book in 2 parts discusses quacebo.com which is a good way to enter into the soul world, firmly embracing the present, firmly embracing unconditional love, compassion, and gratitude, while optimizing one's body-mind-soul via the powerful placebo effect. When quantum coherence is introduced, placebo effect is more powerful than all medical treatments combined. It explains miracle cures such as the countless witnessed under Joe Dispenza’s guidance. I discuss my own miracle cure the night of July 18, 2023 in Chapter 0 of my book “Truth to Power: The Insane Asylum": This is Me”.
Here is the article I just wrote which I included in Chapter 7. https://substack.com/home/post/p-173070809
Best,
Dr. Chris Kacher
PS: Zen is one of many ways. It is a good way if it works for you.