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the 1960s drive-in movie theaters flashed the words "eat popcorn" and "drink Coke" as subliminal messages on the movie screen. Our unconscious mind was aware of the message even though our conscious mind was not. In a lot of ways our unconscious mind and our conscious mind act as filters for the information that passes in both directions. Our unconscious mind shapes conscious thought, and our conscious mind influences our unconscious. As we shall shortly see, our unconscious mind is constantly attempting to meet certain needs and desires. By using our conscious mind, we can generate thoughts that influence our unconscious mind. In this manner we can increase our level of creative and intuitive thought.
As we master our ego we are actually mastering our conscious thoughts, our unconscious desires or thoughts, and our perception of outside events. Mastery of our mind comes from awareness that there must be a change in our beliefs. Successful traders know that they have mastered their ego when they are able to suspend judgment and conscious thought while trading. In short, while trading they are in the zone, though unaware of being there.
In many sports competitions, the participants are totally unaware of their surroundings or what they are actually doing. Motorcycle racers are truly oblivious to their environment and completely focused on the present moment. Mentally they are not reflecting on the accident that occurred back in turn four, or on the victory dinner scheduled for that evening. There is no fear because they are existing in the present moment. If asked after the race is over, they would say that they were one with the motorcycle and the racetrack. In short, they were in the zone. Similarly, many successful pit traders will tell you that their most profitable days are days when they are in the zone. In other words, a trader in the zone is trading in the present moment, at one with the market, and oblivious to everything else. While existing in the zone, the trader has no ego, has suspended conscious thought, and has adopted the thoughts of the market.
The Power of Beliefs
It is our beliefs that determine what we value most in life, the character traits we live by, and our ultimate destiny. Every individual has a multitude of beliefs. We have beliefs about love, success, failure, happiness, anger, resentment, contribution, driving a car, raising childrenin short, every emotion or activity possible. As traders we have beliefs about the meaning of a divergence, double bottoms, rising moving averages, increasing volume, advance/decline ratios, hammers, and so on. Our beliefs are what our

 
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