How many times a day do you hear someone say "If I would have" or "If we had just gone short here"? Sound familiar? Not surprising to see a lot of heads nodding if you bring this one up at a talk in front of a group of people.

There is an interesting thing about human nature. It is the ability to take a very simple idea and massage the concept into this great thing that no one can understand or change. Ritual is what some call it and others refer to "it" as a process that requires time and experience to master. Or you can just call it stubbornness and resistance to change.

How could you ever expect to get a different result if the action preceding the desired outcome is always the same? Get it? If you exit a trade on a discretionary basis overriding a system signal, you are expecting a positive outcome. When the trade continues in the direction you initially speculated on, you say, "If I had just hung on to that one" which happen’s to be your mantra for everything you do, you are not really practicing a ritual, you are breaking the rules.

Is it a revolutionary idea to follow a set of rules? It is for traders. If you feel that you need an outlet for rebellion, perhaps you should shave your head and get your nose pierced. Of course change is necessary for discovery. But what if you are just trying to make some money trading? You probably don't want to get too creative with the indicators. There is a reason a twenty bar moving average is a good sample of price action and there is a good reason you do not buy/sell recent highs and lows. If you are curious at the mention of good reasons and logical thought, you may be a revolutionary thinker. This status does not however give you disciplined trader standing.

It's always the same. New trader gets a computer and is introduced to a couple of esoteric concepts involving advanced technical analysis and the change begins. He notices that his buddy Joe missed a big move in high grade copper and imagines how he would have been right there buying at the open on the day the market broke out of a channel because he uses a forty-two bar moving average on three hundred minute charts and there is no lag in his indicators. Man, Joe's always missing the big moves he notes as he's testing another approach utilizing the triple by pass crossover stochastic cherry picker.

The whole point is this. After careful analysis there are certain areas of each person's behavior where some new habits can be a welcome change. You will not always be right. This is a tough one for most folks. Also, if you perform the same action expecting a different result, you are literally beating your head against the proverbial brick wall. Again, if you are after a different result, you may need to modify the action that produces the result. This is not about wearing the same socks for ten weeks straight. This is about asking your self a few questions. If you like to change your approach daily, maybe the changing part is the thing you need to work on. Ritual is habit and revolution is change. Got it? Good!

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