Trading Psychology  |  OCT 2003

Shrinking From Opportunity by Adrienne Laris Toghraie

Shrinking From Opportunity by Adrienne Laris Toghraie Stretch your comfort zone of predictable patterns and look for your shot at the gold ring. Opportunity is all around us. True, occasionally it is a challenge to locate it, when conditions have changed or supply has temporarily shrunk and the competition for finite resources has increased. But even in the worst of circumstances, opportunity is always there. Since a trader’s success depends upon finding opportunities and taking advantage of them, a serious problem exists if he or she loses the ability to identify and pursue opportunity. RECOGNIZING OPPORTUNITY As time passes, traders often shrink from opportunity. The main reason is that people tend to dislike change. When we are younger, change is frequently linked to fun, excitement, and reward. However, over time, we eventually experience enough pain through change that we come to associate change with pain rather than opportunity. As we age, our brains work harder to keep us in an increasingly smaller comfort zone while protecting us from change and the possible opportunities or pain that come with it.

by Adrienne Laris Toghraie