Fear is a Winning Force

Fear is a powerful force to help speculators perform at their peak. The best example of the use of fear that I know was expressed by Royce Gracie. You may not know who Royce Gracie is so let me tell you a bit about him.

Gracie is a world-class athlete, he is the guy in those Ultimate Fight pay-for-view TV shows. In case you haven’t seen one, they are for-real fights, no boxing gloves and just about anything is legal from kicking to gouging. This is for real violence. What is interesting about Gracie is that in over 100 fights he has never been beaten. That is never as in never, ever. By anyone, boxers, kickers, elbow punchers, Tai kickers. No one has been able to beat this guy.

Considering that most of these would-be tough guys weigh from 225 to 300 pounds, Gracie’s accomplished victories are even more awesome when you find out he weighs about 180 pounds and looks better in a Mr. Rogers sweater than fighting attire. You would never know the guy is a giant killer. Since I am fascinated with fighters and winners (they have a lot in common with speculators), I have followed this guy’s career and listened intently to his words of wisdoms.

In one interview, these television thugs were asked if they felt any fear going onto these fights because, after all, they are real – guys have been maimed, lost their sight, broken bones, suffered numerous severe concussions, and at least one fighter has died. All the tough guys machine-gunned out their male macho line about having no jear of anyone or anything.

That is all of them but Gracie. He freely admitted he is scared to death every time he enters the ring. He went on to say he uses that fear to his advantage as it enables him to respect his opponent and not take reckless action or deviate from his personal fighting style. “Without fear,” he said, “you cannot win as fear pumps me up for the fight but also assures that I will not lose control. What we do is very dangerous; my best protection is to be afraid so I protect myself in all the ways of my craft.”

Like Gracie, I have an immense fear of trading, I have seen people wiped out, losing all they owned from poor speculation. Some went bankrupt, some really did go crazy, and several killed themselves. I suspect all these people had one thing in common: They did not fear the markets.

I think you need to fear the markets and fear yourself.

Although the markets are frightening, the emotions you and I inject into trading are downright scary. Without fear, there is no respect; if you do not respect the markets and fear yourself, you will become one more dead body on the long trail of commodity market casualties scattered across the land. [1, p.169-170]

REFERENCE:

[1] Williams, L. R. (1999). Long-term Secrets to Short-term Trading. New York: John Wileys & Sons, Inc.