Quote of the day...

It's been nearly eight years since "The Greatest Recession Since the Great Depression". And, yet, the event to some was so traumatic that -- to this day -- a market dip/correction, or a headline suggesting some similar scenario is brewing, brings them to palpitations and cold sweats as they fear it's 2008 all over again. I know this because I counsel some of those somes. 

While there'll no doubt be recessions and bear markets in our future, I can assure you of one thing: it is absolutely unequivocally impossible that the exact same set of circumstances will ever come together in the exact same way causing the exact same results -- despite what our minds may tell us.

Here, again, is Mark Douglas in his excellent book Trading in the Zone:

Anything that you are perceiving “now” in the market will never be exactly the same as some previous experience that exists in your mental environment. But that doesn’t mean that your mind (as a natural characteristic of the way it functions) won’t try to make the two identical.

 As unnatural as it seems to do so, you can’t let some previous experience (either negative or extremely positive) dictate your state of mind. If you do, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to perceive what the market is communicating from its perspective.