The Stock Market’s Hidden Lesson in Plain Sight

Raise your hand if you have been personally victimized by the stock market.

The stock market is an emotional rollercoaster.

With the Dow and S&P off -15% and -20% respectively through the first six months of 2022, this year is no exception to the ride.

Last week I got an email from a financial advisor with the subject line, “It’s Easy to Let Emotions Get in the Way.”

As a life coach surrounded by the energy of emotions, I started thinking about the correlation between everyday circumstances which trigger emotions, and the emotional decision of buying or selling a stock.

As a former leveraged finance capital markets and syndicate banker, I had to keep my pulse on the equity, bond, and commodity markets, as well as macroeconomic news, the geopolitical landscape, and broader investor sentiment – every single day.

Every morning at 6am, I would recap the overnight and future “flows” (underlying patterns of buying/selling) of what was moving markets. I would then make a judgment to determine if our multi-billion dollar corporate client should launch a high yield bond deal that day or not (“go” or “no-go”).

While some data was certainly objective (such as equity futures down -400 points), most days the meaningful decision to “go” or “no-go” would come down to market sentiment. Market sentiment is just a fancy way of saying it depends on how the investors FEEL that day.

Emotions dictate feelings and are the data inputs which helps us determine how we want to respond following certain triggers or events.

Emotions also dictate a lot of our knee-jerk reactions. One example is selling a stock when it continues to drop day after day, only to rebound after you sell. Another instance is a heated argument with a loved one – that has been blown out of proportion because of heated emotions, and you end up saying something you don’t mean.

Prolific American value investor Warren Buffett is cited with the quote, “If you cannot control your emotions, you cannot control your money.”

Emotional mastery is one of the most crucial doorways to unlocking greater awareness of your energy – and not falling prey to buying the top or selling the bottom.

Once you begin to separate from the intensely felt affiliation of your emotions, you can begin to regulate your own energy and live with greater inner calmness and balance.

How does inner calmness and balance relate to making money in the stock market?

Well, when you master your emotions, you’re not reacting to the external stimuli of seeing lots of red and selling on the screen. You are able to pull yourself back into a decision of letting your Intelligent Intuition shine through.

Intelligent Intuition is a process I’ve created and cultivated for myself. As oxymoronic as it sounds, there’s a method to the madness – and from personal experience, it works.

Simply put, it’s the ability to:

Let the intense emotion subside (down to the “soft” state of the emotion)
Come back to a place of centeredness
Use both your faculties of intelligent and logical discernment (left brain) intertwined with your intuitive “gut feelings” and felt senses (right brain) to come to an intelligent intuitively derived decision.

Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor, author of My Stroke Of Insight, describes our ability to regulate the emotional neurological process, which she calls the 90-second rule: “When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens; any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop.”

Said differently, intense emotional reactions only stick around for 90 seconds. Everything beyond that becomes a narrative we choose to create for ourselves. This narrative is based on previous experiences to “protect” us from future outcomes which may or may not ever occur.

Psychologist Alyson Stone describes feelings as ocean waves. She says, “they rise, crest and recede, all day long.”

If you let your emotions dictate your immediate actions, you are running through life in a short-sighted sprint of putting out fires. Not to mention, some of your emotional decisions will likely conflict with how you truly feel.

Everything is energy and energy doesn’t lie. When you can begin to understand and master your emotions, new ways of perceiving the world, making decisions, and releasing anxiety into trust become available to you.

Late Vanguard founder Jack Bogle once said, “The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing.”

Through energetic and emotional mastery, you see the forest through the trees. You become focused on the long-term objectives. You see the proactive marathon of life as opposed to the reactive high-strung sprint.

You learn from the short-term hiccups, but don’t allow yourself to be consumed by them for any longer than is necessary to learn and grow.

The stock market is an emotional rollercoaster. If you feel caught in reactionary feedback loops, uncertainty, indecision, or overwhelm, reach out to me to schedule a free discovery call. Together we’ll create the roadmap towards your emotional mastery.

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