Don't close your eyes!

Long ago (I remember, it was 1989)

one day I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop of Sector 10 in Chandigarh

to go back home after attending my lectures at DAV College.

My friend Ashish was with me.

We saw 2 girls coming from our left on the busy Madhya Marg on a scooty at rather decent speed.

Suddenly a truck appeared from nowhere from the T-slip road into the Madhya Marg!

The truck was right in front of the scooty of the girls, though around 50 meters away.

50 meters is reasonable distance to apply brakes at whatsoever speed.

But to our jaw-dropping shock

the girl at the control of the scooty didn't apply the brakes!

Rather she got confused!

As the scooty approached the truck, which had entered the Madhya Marg the wrong way,

the girl's face turned pale!

but she didn't apply the brakes!

She had got unnerved!

Perhaps she was a new driver and was experiencing that nasty situation for the first time.

She didn't knew what to do?

All this was happening at super speed.

All eyes of the shocked onlookers were on the unfortunate girls.

The girl at the controls still didn't apply the brakes.

Rather to our shock

She closed her eyes!

And banged her scooty in the side of the truck!

Everyone ran towards them.

Fortunately, the survived.

The scooty was badly damaged, legs of the girl in the front got fractured badly.

That incident got etched in our memories forever.

I can still replay that video in my mind as if I was watching it on You-tube!

I can't still believe the girl didn't apply the brakes despite seeing the danger

Perhaps the danger had unnerved her

Perhaps, petrified by the sudden situation, she was no more in control of the controls!

Brain stops working when it is needed the most.

This is precisely what happens in stock market also.

This is the reason why people don't use stop loss brakes despite seeing the danger,

despite knowing that consequences.

They close their eyes!

Like an ostrich.

Same thing happened to me many times!

Till I saw the fact

and said to myself

"Enough is enough"!!

Till I decided that

instead of worrying about loss in such a situation

instead of worrying about why it was happening

I would start thinking about how to strike back

how to win my money back

how to recover!

I still remember once I was caught on the wrong side of an evalanche in stock market.

I was long and the market started falling.

I was leveraged!

God helped me by not switching off my brain when I needed it most.

My courage was in my pocket.

I just booked loss and shorted in the downward stampede.

I recovered my loss in a flash and earned handsome profit.

Had I closed my eyes, I would perhaps been out of the market that day

and not writing this article.

That was a watershed defining moment in my trading "career".

Attack, they say, is the best form of defence.

When in trouble

instead of spending energy on negative thoughts

pool all reserve energies and focus on positive thoughts

not wishful thinking but combat mode

to strike back!

Kick start the treacherous brain

and remember

never close your eyes!