Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later.

She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi’s “drink now, pay later” marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers’ freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi’s gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then bundled and traded on international security markets. Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics.

Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar. He so informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Since, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the various BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds. Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the Government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers.

Now, do you understand

Most everyone who has a passion for trading would like to experience exceptional results consistently. Very few, however, will do what is necessary to reach this level of success. Excellence requires a high level of trust in a strategy and in yourself and then goes one step beyond that. I think of it as the “Let go, let God” method. You see many examples of this in champion levels of sports, the performing arts and in science. While the prize of greatness is tempting, it is not for everyone. Those who not only want to conquer their technique but also are willing to conquer themselves are few.

A Diamond in the Rough

Ray came from a neighborhood on the Chicago south side where if you graduated from high school it was considered a major achievement. His parents were both factory workers who had a strong work ethic, which they passed on to their son. While this was an admirable inheritance, they also believed that you should not expect too much out of life. This protected them from disappointment.

Ray was saved from a life of being in a gang because his parents encouraged him to be active in their church. He was at a meeting with another church group from the better side of town when he met Matt. They instantly became buddies. Matt’s father was a floor trader and took both his son and Ray under his wing to teach them the trading business. Ray’s work ethic was good for Matt and Matt’s mantra that the sky was the limit was good for Ray. Eventually, they both became good floor traders. While Ray was happy with his new station in life, there was a part of him that knew that he wanted to be like the best traders.

I spoke at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where both Matt and Ray attended. Matt made fun of what I had to say and wanted to leave, but Ray encouraged him to stay and listen. My workshop led to Ray purchasing my course and taking my Trader’s Evaluation. What we discovered was that while Ray had many attributes that would sustain good trading practices, he limited his success by some of the beliefs he inherited from his parents. I worked with Ray privately without Matt knowing about it. Ray began to show extraordinary results, which he tried to keep undercover from Matt. Several of Ray’s colleagues noticed that Ray was taking larger positions that became winners and wanted to know what the reason was for his good results. These were traders who were too busy with happy hour to come to my workshop. Ray just said that he was becoming more comfortable taking larger risk.

After taking all I had to offer, Ray called me and said that he wanted to kick it up a notch because he was still leaving money on the table. In my twenty-one year career, I have had less than twenty people who wanted to take trading to the highest level. For the next three years we worked one to two days each year. Now Ray is one of those elite traders who lives on the edge between excellence and mastery.

The Superconscious Mind

When I work with a trader privately for the first time, my main focus is on eliminating the self-sabotage that comes from past issues. If and when I see a person privately a second time, we work on any residual self-sabotage issues that come between them and their next level of success. If they are ready and willing, we take it to the next performance level by working on the superconscious mind. Part of this can entail reprogramming core values of the past such as how they see themselves as traders who are willing to accept mastery in their lives. Now, it is important to note that this is not for everyone, because this can dramatically change every part of a person’s life.
For Ray going for a state of mastery was not an issue. He did not have a wife and children and other members of his family were on board for any changes for the better he wanted to make. It did, however, affect his relationship with his friend Matt. While Matt would claim that he believed that the sky was the limit, he did not believe it for himself and he was uncomfortable that Matt had achieved it without him.

Conclusion

If trading mastery is your goal, realize that it is not a path for everyone. It takes not only being an exceptional trader but also mastering yourself.

For Adrienne’s Calendar of Events go to www.TradingOnTarget.com

ADRIENNE is considered an expert by her peers in the financial community for coaching traders, brokers, and investors to their next level of success. Her 11books on the psychology of trading have been highly praised by financial magazines.  Adrienne’s public seminars and private counseling have achieved a wide levelof recognition and popularity, as well as her television appearances and keynote addresses at major industry conferences.

Adrienne has coached some of the most successful people in the world.  What makes these great people unique?  What makes them so successful? The answers to these and other questions are explored in her seminars, books, CDs, and DVDs, which form the core of Adrienne’s Modeling Excellence work with professionals who want to reach higher levels of success.