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Mark Douglas’s “Trading in the Zone” never once tells you to “control your emotions.” Today I will explain the core of this book, which so many traders have read but so few truly understand. Few books have been read by as many traders, and truly understood by as few, as “Trading in the Zone.” Social media is full of copy-and-paste lines like “Emotional control is the key.” And the same people say that “Trading in the Zone” is a great book. But in that very book, Mark Douglas states clearly that the best traders are not controlling their emotions. Even though he writes it this directly, many traders skim right past this important part. This is a book about trading with probabilistic thinking. Most traders see trading as a “game of winning and losing,” and with that fixed idea, they cannot read it accurately. Because the book lets you touch the surface of probabilistic thinking, many traders who used to see trading as a “game of winning and losing” are deeply moved by it, but because of that mistaken belief, few of them grasp what it truly means. He makes it clear that the difference between the best traders and everyone else is not a better system or better chart analysis, and that he can find no difference other than this, that they are not afraid. “The best traders aren’t afraid.” Great traders are simply not afraid in the first place. They are not using some brilliant emotional control. They are not afraid from the start. The theme of this book is how to create a state of mind that is free of fear. Great traders do not take market information as something painful in the first place. To them, market information is just information. What creates pain out of that information is each trader’s own beliefs and thought process. By unconsciously labeling that information as “good” or “bad,” you trigger the emotional reactions that match those labels. Great traders have built a different way of seeing the information the market gives them. Great traders do not control their emotions, and since they have no fear in the first place, they have nothing to deal with. They do not believe they can predict the market. They understand, without a shred of doubt, that each individual outcome is random. You cannot be wrong about something you never claimed to know or predict. Because they are not playing a game of predicting the future in the first place, the results of their trades do not affect them, and they carry no fear of results. With no fear, there is nothing to deal with from the start. Most traders assume that the best traders fear mistakes, losses, missed opportunities, and failed profit-taking just as they do. And they assume that the best traders somehow resolve their fear through great courage, mental strength, and self-control. But that is not the case. Great traders do not overcome fear by training their self-control or their ability to control emotions. Just because you have not yet overcome your emotional problems, do not assume everyone else is the same. Great traders tackle these problems with a completely different approach. Their beliefs and thought processes are different from those of traders who feel so much fear, so they simply see the same information as something else. It is the same as how someone who is afraid of flying would not look at someone who flies without fear and think, “That person must be a master of emotional control.” Douglas also writes this. “Consistency is a state of mind that, once achieved, won’t allow you to ‘be’ any other way.” Once you are there, you no longer need to try to stay consistent. Consistency is not something you force yourself to keep doing. Gaining consistency includes every right understanding and thought process a trader should have, such as a deep understanding of trading, an understanding of probabilistic thinking, and trust in your system. Beliefs change not through knowledge, but through deep understanding gained by experience. Because of this, once you gain consistency, you can no longer act any other way. That is because once the mistaken belief that “winning and losing matter” has changed into a belief rooted in probabilistic thinking, the emotions that arise in you change, you come to feel a strong aversion to breaking your rules, and you can no longer stray from them easily. Breaking your rules becomes as hard as following them is for you now, and you can no longer take any action that stops you from using probability. In other words, people who break their rules, or who have emotional problems over the win or loss in front of them, have not yet truly gained the understanding of trading they need. You still hold the belief that “the win or loss in front of you has value,” more than your rules or probabilistic thinking. As you can see, Mark Douglas states again and again in the book that the best traders do not control their emotions, and that they do not need to in the first place. Even so, many traders skim past these direct words because of the fixed idea that “emotional control is necessary.” I have also said many times that I do not control my emotions, and many times that this does not mean becoming a robot-like person. No emotions arise in me when I trade, but in daily life I am as emotional as ever. It is simply a difference in perception, brought about by a change in beliefs and thought process. And I also share here the importance of practice to change your beliefs every day. I have been deeply influenced by his book. As he once said, I now have no fear of trading at all. I simply keep repeating what needs to be done, when it needs to be done. Many people see Mark Douglas’s book as a “psychology book,” read it, understand it, and stop there. But this is a book for changing your beliefs through experience and truly making probabilistic thinking your own, a book that pushes you to practice. And what I share every day is also meant to push you to practice. Understand your knowledge deeply through experience, and “embody” probabilistic thinking. That is what it means to become a trader.