The Unwillingness To Create Rules

Most traders would subscribe to the view that creating trading rules makes sense on the one hand yet resist doing so on the other. This resistance is not always overt in fact it is often quite subtle, is often intense and has a rational source.  

Most of the structure in our minds was given to us as a result of our social upbringing and is premised  on choices made by other people. It was instilled in our minds but it did not originate here.  

This distinction is extremely important. During the process of instilling this mental structure many of  our natural instincts to move, express and learn about the nature of our existence through our own  direct experience were refused (consider the many times a day a child is told not to do something  even if it is for their own good). Many of these denied instincts were never reconciled and they still exist inside us in the form  frustration, anger, disappointment, or guilt, for instance. These amassed negative feelings act as a force inside our mental environment causing us to resist anything that refutes us the freedom to do and be whatever we want when we want.  

Thus, the very reason we are attracted to trading, the limitless freedom of creative expression, is  the same reason we feel resistance to creating the rules & boundaries that can appropriately  guide our behavior.  

Creating and abiding by your trading rules stipulates a lot of effort and focus to build the mental  structure necessary to compensate for the negative denied instincts. Often, this motivation shall  come at the expense of your trading account and after a great deal of pain & suffering to break  down any resistance to designing and following a set of trading rules.