Hemi-Sync® Journal 1993-2 (Spring)

--- PAGE 1 (OCR) --- DEVELOPING WINNING ATTITUDES: TRADERS, TRADING, AND HEMI-SYNC A Publication of The Monroe Institute by Mark Douglas Mark Douglas is president of Trading Behavior Dynamics, Inc., a Chicago-based consulting firm that works with individual traders, cer- tified trading advisers, banks, and brokerage firms internationally. He has written a best-selling book within the trading community titled The Disciplined Trader: Developing Winning Attitudes, and uses Hemi- Sync as part of a popular workshop for traders. Asa natural outgrowth of my book, which deals with the psychology of trading both the stock and futures markets, I developed an intensive two-day workshop, “How To Become a Disciplined Trader.” The workshop focuses on helping traders understand and develop the mental framework (a unique “market mind-set”) necessary to interact with the market environment in the most effective ways. It is in the workshops that I use the Hemi-Sync tapes, building them around the H-PLUS technology. The basic premise of the workshop is that there are x many egmmnen, or culturally learned, beliefs hab prevent people from becoming consistently successful as traders. IN THIS ISSUE The generally accepted industry statistic is that less than two percent of the people who identify themselves as traders achieve any measure of consistency. The other ninety-eight percent either consistently lose, or they can produce consis- tent earnings up to some internally imposed limit, after DEVELOPING WINNING ATTITUDES: TRADERS, which they unconsciously sabotage their success, lose their TRADING, AND HEMI-SYNC i earnings, and begin the cycle again. Mark Douglas describes his use of HUMAN PLUS to Consistent success, as opposed to the kind of random . winning and losing most traders subject themselves to, is Hep stock and Tunes traders neutralize the beliefs definitely possible. But, it requires very diligent effort on the ial trader's part to change many of the ways in which he thinks about being wrong and losing money. Regardless of how good someone becomes at analyzing and predicting market behavior, the trader will inevitably be wrong and lose money MEASURING INNER AND OUTER BEHAVIORAL sometimes. This is an unavoidable fact of trading. However, EFFECTS OF HEMI-SYNC i the typical trader is unwilling to accept this inevitability How do you quantify the unquantifiable? and, in the process of trying to avoid the inevitable, actually provocative article, Stephen Graf suggests the visual creates the very experiences he fears. a methodology of Standard Celeration Charting. When one considers that all of us have within us a natural propensity to avoid pain, both physically and emo- tionally, it is easy to see how traders can get themselves into trouble. Among the mass beliefs of our culture is the tacit agreement that losing money and being wrong are intrinsi- cally pain producing. As the trader attempts to avoid those conditions, he will naturally ignore, distort, or rationalize information that indicates he is in a losing trade. Therefore, rather than acknowledging that reality and cutting his loss- es, he maintains his position until the pain of losing one more dollar is greater than his fear of admitting he is wrong. © 1993 The Monroe Institute Route 1, Faber, VA 22938-9749 804/361-9132 --- PAGE 2 (OCR) --- HEMI-SYNC™ JOURNAL Many traders achieve consistent earnings after attending one of my workshops. However, to do it, the trader must first recognize that the market environment is, in almost every way, different from the cultural environment in which he was brought up. He must then learn to alter or neutralize the very fundamental beliefs and fears that were learned long before he ever decided to become a trader. In the workshop, traders learn mental techniques to monitor their thoughts or “states of being” to determine if they are in states that are most conducive to giving them- selves money, or at least not giving their money away. They learn to identify what beliefs they are operating out of in any given moment, and determine if these beliefs are appropri- ate to their goal of becoming consistently successful traders. For instance, a trader must be able to perceive being wrong and losing money as conditions offering information rather than as conditions producing pain. If the trader makes an assessment that a particular belief is dysfunctional and he completely understands why it won’t work, he then uses the “Plus—No More, No More” Function Command from the H-PLUS De-Hab tape to neutralize it. Originally, I intended to script and use self-hypnosis tapes as the primary means to break down these dysfunc- tional beliefs, However, I decided against self-hypnosis in favor of Hemi-Sync for a couple of reasons. First, self-hypno- sis as a system for change is somewhat passive, and, second, self-hypnosis tapes in particular are nonspecific. Many of the beliefs that traders need to confront and neu- tralize to be successful are very powerful components of their identities and do not break down easily. It takes as much, if not more, energy to neutralize these beliefs as it does to maintain them. A person passively listening to a self-hypnosis tape simply doesn’t generate the intensity of energy neces- sary to produce effective results. Furthermore, messages on self-hypnosis tapes have to be generic in nature, generally applying to everyone who might listen. Although many of the beliefs traders need to neutralize fall into general cate- gories, each is person-specific, unique to each individual. I have found that when working with mental energy the more specific one is, the better the results. Hemi-Sync avoids both deficiencies because it provokes a very active response to a very specific issue. Once the H-PLUS Function Command has been installed through listening to the tape, the trader must learn when, where, and how to use it. I provide very specific instructions for activating the Function Command consciously and appropriately. Assuming the trader has learned to recognize when he is operating out of a belief inconsistent with his goals, at the moment he realizes it he must capture whatev- er thought or emotion is being experienced and make it tan- gible. The traders are taught to do this by either stating the thoughts or emotions as beliefs, or by using some form of mental imagery to give the beliefs as much substance as pos- sible. Once they are completely clear about what they want to release, they state the Command with as much conviction as possible—“Plus—No More, No More!” The greater the energy behind the conviction, the more pronounced a shift they will feel. Other than the effects produced by the low-frequency binaural beat stimulation, it is the high level of participation required—mental focus, personal choice, and willingness to use the Function Command—that makes the H-PLUS sys- tem so effective in helping people create desired change. Approximately one month after the workshop I send sur- vey forms to the participants asking them to indicate on a scale from one to ten 1) their ability to identify and capture beliefs, 2) the strength of their convictions when they use the commands, and 3) the effectiveness of the Function Command in neutralizing beliefs. Results from the returned surveys indicate a very strong correlation between the par- ticipants’ perceived abilities to identify exactly what beliefs they want to neutralize, the strength of their convictions, and the effectiveness rating they assign to the Function Command. Interestingly, most people who take the workshop have had very little exposure to information or concepts related to self-awareness or learning to change oneself through directed conscious effort. Despite this, virtually everyone's initial reaction to the H-PLUS tapes is overwhelmingly posi- tive, regardless of how skeptical or uncomfortable they may have been at the first listening. It is clear that the tapes resonate with people at a very deep and fundamental level, regardless of whether ; they understand the dynamics at work. @ MEASURING INNER AND OUTER BEHAVIORAL EFFECTS OF HEMI-SYNC by Stephen A. Graf, Ph.D. Stephen Graf has specialized in applied behavior analysis with gen- eral interests in informational and educational technology and, partic- ularly, applications of Standard Celeration Charting. A professor in the psychology department at Youngstown State University for twenty-two years, he has edited the Association for Behavioral Analysis Newsletter for the last nine. One primary goal of The Monroe Institute since its inception has been stated succinctly: To provide “something of value.” Defining that something can be an elusive process. Even when agreement exists that something of value has been provided, the quantitative aspects of that value often seem difficult or impossible to measure. I'd like to share some insights gleaned from working in the field of behavior measurement, where some of these measurement difficul- ties have been solved using Standard Celeration Charting. Unfortunately, resistance to new technology seems to be the general rather than the special case, regardless of the partic- ular topic area. Much of what follows has yet to be incorpo- rated in the very specialty that spawned it. For that reason the “Tomorrow Is Now” theme chosen for the 1992 Professional Seminar seems particularly appropriate. By gathering and sharing information from the cutting edges of various technologies, those of us using Hemi-Sync in research and practice can indeed make tomorrow today. ii --- PAGE 3 (OCR) --- Spring 1993 ___ Something of Value When something of value has been provided, behavior that wasn’t occurring before, or wasn’t occurring often or fluently enough becomes possible. In other words, behavior changes provide the substantiation of value. In the parlance of science, a specific condition is varied (added or subtract- ed) while all other conditions are controlled as the effect is measured. Hemi-Sync serves as an added condition and the user’s behavior serves as the effect to be measured. How can one determine the significance of behavior change? Traditionally, in the behavioral sciences, the approach has been to use inferential statistics. After making the assumption that no differences occurred between two or more conditions, results can be quantified to show how like- ly it is that differences would occur in the event that chance, alone, were operating. A multitude of statistical tests, each with its own requirements and special considerations, often produces a nightmarish quagmire into which many of us fear to venture. The good news? With appropriate measure- ment and appropriate charts, determining the significance of behavior change can be done using one’s own eyes rather than someone else’s statistical tables. This sophisticated visual statistical technology, ideal for determining significance of behavior changes, can be used by anyone with some rudimentary training. Known as Standard Celeration Charting, it contrasts with typical social science and industry applications, where Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Statistical Process Control (SPC) have been promoted as the processes necessary to answer questions about behavior change. . What Is Behavior? Behavior can be classified using several tools, one of which looks at outer and inner behavior. Outer behavior is everything we do that an ordinary observer could perceive, be it scratching one’s head, typing on a keyboard, running across a field, or talking to a friend. Inner behavior involves the domain of activity within us that an ordinary observer cannot perceive. Access to inner behavior seems to be limit- ed to the behaver and includes the person’s thoughts, urges, and inner feelings. Any behavior, inner or outer, has a beginning and an ending. This key feature of behavior has been called a behavior cycle. To define a behavior, one needs