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See if this is not true when you try and stay fully focused in the present. It is very easy to do all kinds of things to distract yourself from staying right here and now. The reason why: It is the natural human tendency to lean into the next moment. It is just part of our natural, subjective experience of moving through time. |
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Here's one way this leaning into the future relates to the market: Watching streaming, dynamically updating stock quotes, along with real-time charts, for more than a few minutes sucks us into the present and compels us to stay focused from moment to moment. |
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At the same time, the quotes are always flowing into the future. Watching them will tend to bring us into a state where we are more aware of this leaning into the next moment. What is between the present moment and the next moment is this tension of leaning. |
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This is especially evident when we are talking about a fast-moving process like the stock market. Everything about it is focused on speediness, on getting the jump on the next guy. Speed of obtaining information and of execution become paramount in being on top versus being left in the dust. |
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The most obvious example symbolizing the ongoing movement is the ticker tape. When you watch it for a while, does it not tend to beckon you to enter the urgency of the moment? |
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As an online investor, you need to be aware of how both the urgency of the market and this "slouching into the future" personally affect you. If you don't adjust well to them, you need to limit the frequency and length of your online sessions so that you stop before you get too tense. |
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There is a group of online investors who just can't watch too closely without getting too anxious. Some obsessive and timid types are like this. They want to enjoy the low commissions that online discount brokerages offer. They want to make an occasional trade. But they will never be able to sit for very long and watch their portfolio rise and fall with each swing in the market. |
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Psychologically, we can think of it like this: Anything that is based on speed is always going to put us at least a little on the edge. And the edge is where both excitement and anxiety reside. When we stay on this side of the razor's edge, we feel excitementthe kind of excitement that active traders thrive on and that keeps them coming back for more and more. |
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But if we fall off the edge and plop into anxiety and even panic, suddenly it is a whole different experience. Keep this edge in mind |
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