The other night, I had finished up my shopping at the local supermarket and was heading homeward in my car. The main lights in the car park were off, which definitely distracted me somewhat as I had to fumble around to get into the car, and then really strain to see the keyhole to turn the ignition.

So, now I was on the main road just outside the supermarket, heading back, when suddenly a silver car pulled out from a side road and almost slammed into me side on. He braked suddenly and pulled back into the side street. He also had the wretched nerve to honk his horn at me!

So I’m thinking stuff like, “You idiot! Why don’t you look the heck where you’re going? And then YOU honk at ME?!”

But I’m also thinking, how could this happen? It’s as if he didn’t even see me. Is he totally blind or am I invisible?

Then I noticed something very interesting. My gaze flicked to my dashboard. My headlights were completely off! Yes, I could see the road ahead just fine because there were streetlights. But I guess that nobody could see me coming so very well!

It was night and I was driving like a bullet in the dark, unseen.

Hmmm. So who’s the idiot now, I wonder?!…

I have to admit I felt more than a trifle guilty about it. There could have been a really bad accident if I had carried on much longer. Luckily, I had only just left the supermarket, and even more luckily, my attention had been immediately alerted to the problem by this incident.

So, what's this story got to do with online trading, you might ask? Well, nothing and everything!

The fact is, it's a very good life lesson. Many traders trade like this – absolutely certain that what they are doing is right, and MUST be right because it's them doing it. And that's totally irrespective of what the markets are plainly telling them!

We get negative feedback from the market, e.g. it moves against our position. So what happens? Instead of having a stop that gets hit and takes us out for minimal loss, we have no stop at all. Or worse still, we actually ADD to the position. That's kind of like saying to the market, "You IDIOT!"

It's just like when the guy nearly hit me and had “the cheek” to honk at ME. We carry on all the same, just swearing that we are RIGHT! Then one day, we crash and burn and scratch our heads and wonder why?

Is it any wonder that 95% of online traders crash and burn when it's like they're driving without their headlights on! They're just asking to crash.

It's a great analogy that I want you to think about for your life and especially for your Trading. What is your blind spot? What is it that you are just refusing to see in your method?

We can drive along in our lives, not examining what we are doing, not being as AWARE as we should be. Then one day, reality collides with our fantasy and we are left to pick up the pieces, and wonder what the heck happened. This happens ALL the time in Trading.

Rather than think “Idiot” about the other guy, I was left asking, “SO who’s the idiot now?” And that's what we need to ask ourselves (in a constructive fashion of course, i.e. "What can I learn from this?") when we get our noses bloodied in the markets.

In fact, the guy who nearly hit me was symbolic of all those people who warn us we are in danger when we take a wrong path, but who we filter out and ignore because we don’t want to hear what they have to say. Luckily for me, he appeared on the scene and awakened me to something I would not have seen otherwise until perhaps it was too late.

Maybe the lesson is, switch on your headlights BEFORE you have the crash! In Trading this means, examine what you are doing in full awareness and make sure that it is what you really want to be doing. Do you have a method and is it PROVEN to work?

Realize that what you do has financial consequences for your trading account. Every lapse, even momentary as mine was, can have enormous results.

So, make sure that when it comes to your Trading, you too are not a dark bullet in the night, heading for a certain crash and burn. Switch the lights on, and shine the bright light of Awareness onto your Trading and your life in general.

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