After listening to the Huberman Lab episode 6 (How to focus to change your brain) and correlating that with my earlier preconceptions that 'epic' failure in trading while embracing the risk within this business early on, are directly correlated with learning the rules of the game and subsequently major success. Reading the Market wizards books that was a key identifier between a lot of the traders, huge early failure or losses. The Huberman Lab podcast in my opinion almost scientifically confirms this due to the chemicals released in the brain when we experience these, at the time, traumatic situations. The specific chemical is apparently Acetylcholine released from the Nucleus basalis combined with epinephrine can cause dramatic functional shifts in the brain. I believe this is why we see a correlation between success in this endeavor and often severe early failure/losses. Even if that is not the case, I feel it correlates to a certain type of character who is willing to throw themselves into this business with less fear which then enables them to go through this transitional process. Like everything in this game it is a very intangible line, there has to be, I feel, some reckless abandon at certain times but this has to then be coupled with strong self reflection and personal adaptation. Obviously a continued display of recklessness will lead to ultimate failure and essentially an uncontrolled gambling mentality.

The amount of traders that I know of that have gone through what I have outlined above and are now successful certainly supports this case. From people who lost big early to people who experienced huge early success gaining staggering amounts of money and then lost it all. The impact this would have caused I imagine, due to some of these chemical processes coupled with personal attributes were key to them becoming very successful.

I'd highly recommend these podcasts, certainly plenty to gleam from as a trader.

I really enjoyed the video. Very deep science going on here in our brains. Also, encouraging as I have had a few catastrophic losses early on in my trading.