The Fear of Flying

The classes started on the 2^nd of May 2016. Along with The Purge, a trading ban has been implemented. Save for the Three Musketeers challenge, we were not allowed to trade. It was unclear how long the ban will be in place. Week by week, we watched as some stocks gained ground and took off, other times, we watched as they lost momentum and tumbled back to the ground.

It conditions your mind to be immune to the fear of missing out, Zee said when asked why the trading ban was necessary. Opportunities will always be there, the market will always be there even if you die in your old age, he added.

Like all the things in the ZFT system, it made perfect sense. I lost the most money on trades where I chased the prices because I had this fear. I look at the day’s top gainers and I have this impulse, this need to ride at every moving stock. More often than not, I find my port suffering the consequences. Meanwhile, the House of Z has proven that the system they use is versatile. Bear, bull, sideways, it has little regard to the overall market condition. The profits rush in as long as the system is followed. The fear of missing out has no place in a market where you never run out of plays.

A week ago, on Monday, almost two months since the start of classes, the trading ban has been lifted.

And then there were a series of wows and whoas.

I did not know how to feel. I could not wait to apply the lessons. But there was also more apprehension than I would like. I guess now that we're more equipped, there was an even greater pressure to do better.

That night, I made trading plans for the stocks that I thought were ripe for the picking. There were six stocks on my list and on each them, I plotted the entry point, the cut point, the size of the position, the buy below price and the nearest resistance. The following morning, I watched as three of the stocks from my list flew and went according to my bias. I watched, I watched and I watched. I could not press the Buy button even if I knew I should, even if I made post-its and Excel files about it. My eyes were glued to the ticker, my hands were frozen on my desk, my trading plan was shoved in the deepest recesses of my anxieties. It was a classic case of analysis paralysis.

It turns out though that I wasn’t alone. Most of my classmates experienced the same thing. How are your trades doing? Kap asked one afternoon.

"Hirap ako sa entry."

"Nakikita but di maka-commit."

"Same. Nakatulala rin ako."

"Undecided to execute."

It seemed like everybody suddenly turned into a wuss.

And of course, Kap was right. There was no action because there was zero conviction. We were like birds whose cages were finally opened. But instead of spreading wings, we stayed behind bars afraid of flying, afraid of falling. The fear of missing out has been replaced by the fear of trying.

I have cut three positions since then. They didn’t go according to my bias. But it was okay. I was putting into action what I have learned. I was sticking to the rules. I was learning by doing.