1 Introduction

Let’s Get Acquainted

My name is Yvan Byeajee and I am the creator of this course. Before we start, I’d
like to tell you a little bit more about me. I sincerely think it helps in building the
foundations for trust, because only with an attitude of trust can you fully open
yourself to that which I’m about to teach you.

Given my skin color, facial characteristics, and exotic little accent, people are often
compelled to ask me about my origins. When I get such questions, I always think to
myself, “So, where does he/she want me to start the clock?” I think of that because
people are often unsatisfied with the answer I tend to give.

You see, I grew up in the small town of Bagnolet in the suburbs of Paris, France, and
I lived there until my mid-20s after which I decided to change horizon and move to
North America. So to the question “where are you from?”, I naturally
say "France" because that is where I grew up -- I'm a french national. But, the
response I often get is this: “No really, where are you from? You don’t look french”.

Then, I have to go back through time and explain why I don’t “look french.” I was
born on Mauritius island, a tiny patch of land on the east coast of Madagascar....

But then I get this: “ It’s funny, you don’t look African.”

Again, I have to roll back the clock… "Mauritius has been both a French and British
Colony in the past, and at that time its economy mainly revolved around sugarcane
plantations. After the abolition of slavery, the African slaves brought to the island
(both by the French and the British) didn't feel like working anymore (and
understandably), so my ancestors came to the island as free indentured laborers
from northern India, to keep the Mauritian economy running."

Long story short, if I keep rolling back the clock like that, and long enough, we’re all a
bunch of apes hanging on trees in the African savannas, right? (-_-)

Anyways… as a child I felt isolated and uncomfortable in my own skin as a result of

evolving in a difficult environment -- I express this very clearly in my book, Zero To
Hero. So needless to say, I grew up with a plethora of dysfunctional beliefs about
myself and the world. As a way to cope, I turned my attention to money as I thought
money would solve all my earthly problems, erase all my sufferings, and fill all the
voids in my heart. And so early on, I eagerly began seeking a way to bring an
abundant amount of money into my life.

As I turned 17, I discovered trading and the potential there for financial success was
glaring. Over the next years, I cultivated a deep interest in the markets and though I
didn't start trading right off the bat, I took several jobs, more often than not working
overtime in order to save enough for my trading account. By the end of 2006, I
decided to quit my job, and soon after, I immediately began trading all the while
thinking that I would make it as a consistently profitable trader.
Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out the way I thought they would. I experienced a
near total decimation of my account -- nearly 100, 000 dollars of life savings eaten by
the markets within a 5-year span. And coming from a poor family, that money meant
the world to me.

Naturally, within that 5-year span, I began seeing the nature of my hindrances, so I
turned to the usual trading psychology literature in order to find an antidote to
my problems.

Mark Douglas’ The Disciplined trader was a breakthrough

(intellectually). Unfortunately, my deeply ingrained detrimental qualities, which
made consistency in the markets impossible for me, were not being addressed
by the sheer reading of a book. And so, on the verge of blowing up my account,
and because of the mediocrity of my life at this moment, I was such in a bad place
physically and mentally that I was contemplating suicide. Keep in mind, this was a
very dark moment of my life and it's very hard to convey in an in-depth way how I felt
back then, but I try not to be ashamed to open up and talk about it. This is a reality
for many people so it should be discussed openly. And if my story can help and
maybe inspire others, then it's serving its purpose.

Thankfully, before I was able to do anything regrettable, I had an incredible

opportunity to head on an extended meditation retreat in the south of France. I
was offered to stay at the retreat for approximately 2 months, and this was the
absolute turning point for me. In the midst of vicissitude and despair, I was
introduced to the art of looking into myself; into my inner landscape, in a way that
completely blew me away. I was shown a radical way of looking at life and reality as
a whole, free from prejudice or preconceived notions. I saw (through my own
experience) the nature of my mind, its discursive habits, and I began observing the
nature of my discomforts.

Months after that retreat, I went on to study with various well-respected spiritually
enlightened teachers, from Thích Nhất Hạnh in France, to Peter Levitt in Canada,
and many others, with renewed focus on mindfulness and present moment
awareness. I also went on many solo wilderness expedition programs in Canada
and the U.S, all in a quest to better understand my mind, and to some extend the
true nature of reality beyond the mental conditioning that had predisposed me for a
life of failure and full of suffering.

Through my study and experiential practice, I began experiencing a deeply

transformative awakening that has led to the falling away of deep mental
complexes that have been the cause of my inability to engineer any kind of
durable success in trading, but also in many other areas of my life.

I now have an unprecedented knowledge of what drives my behavior. I have a clear

perception of my personality, including my strengths and weaknesses, thoughts,
beliefs, values, motivation, and emotions. At any moment, I’m able to tune into a
place of inner stillness and disengage any compulsion that birth trading errors
of all sorts. So, my trading results are consistent (finally); I run a successful trading
business, and my daily meditation practice continues to deepen my experience
of living peacefully in the present moment.

I am the founder of Trading Composure, a blog about trading psychology. I am also

a writer during my spare time and I am slowly trying to build myself a reputation as a
speaker. In 2010, I began coaching other traders with the meditation techniques I
have learned over the years – technique which I have refined to fit the realities of
trading. I have worked with a couple of investment firms in Asia and Africa, but also
individuals all around the world. Unfortunately, given the kind of requests I began
receiving, coaching for individuals became nonviable. So, I decided to stop it for a
while and the idea came to me to create this home study course as a way to respond
more efficiently to the ever growing requests I receive.

The Trading Psychology Mastery Course is a complete program for change. At

least, I have designed it to be that way. Now, time (and hopefully your reviews and
feedback) will tell whether or not I have succeeded in this endeavor. In it, you’ll get
everything that I would usually talk about in the seminars and workshops I did for
firms. I will be guiding you through the process of change step by step. I will reflect
certain things back to you that may be outside of your own perspective, and I will
help you see a better version of yourself. That’s what mentors do, and I’ve been very
lucky to have some of those people enter my life when I was at my lowest, and I
hope I can be one to you.

The course has been devised to be simple and straight to the point. I could have
made it more thorough and technical by talking about the brain and how the
concepts I present make sense in terms of neuroscience, because the
evidence is clearly there. But I spell that out ad nauseam in my books, so I
voluntarily skip all of that in this course. This is just intellectual understanding
anyways, and it’s not that this kind of info is irrelevant, but, I have designed this
course to provide you with experiential understanding. Knowing and doing are
two completely different things, and it’s only through your own practical
experience that you’ll change your results.

If after the course, you want to further your understanding of what you've already
understood experientially here, then I invite you to check my books if you haven't
already:

Paradigm Shift: How to cultivate equanimity in the face of market uncertainty

Zero to Hero: I went I went from being a losing trader to a consistently profitable one
The Essence of Trading Psychology in one skill

Alternatively, if you're adventurous, try to head on a retreat. There's no doubt, it's a

real challenge, but a well-worth one!

Now that you know a little bit more about me, feel free to proceed with the course at
your own pace. Make sure you grab a pen and a journal, and take as many
notes as you wish. The journal should also be used as a way to inquire more
about your feelings and thoughts at any given moment (except during the
practical exercises).
I hope that you find within this course concrete answers to your problem behaviors in
the markets. And, through your own hard work, I hope it helps you develop into
the kind of person you need to become in order to build the trading career you want
and deserve.
2 Before We Start
Exercise
Introspection and reflection are all about getting to know yourself at the core,
uncovering your values and beliefs, and then deciding for yourself which ones to
keep, which ones to discard; what’s the best action to take. By doing so, you take
the power away from the way you’ve been conditioned, away from the beliefs,
thoughts and emotions that try to hold you in a box, and you bring your focus
back to where it belongs: within you, in the present.

Today we’re so engulfed in a culture of "always doing" that we rarely ever sit
and reflect. This never-ending cycle of doing even plagues us in our sleep. The
moment one opens one's eyes in the morning, one's mind starts racing and the cycle
perpetuates itself again and again (and again). Rarely, if ever, are we able to take a
moment for ourselves, away from our thoughts and the distractions of the modern
world. Even when you try to sit still you can’t help but fidget. It’s either your body or
your mind pulling you in a new direction.

If you don't take the time to work with yourself, you might as well stop with this dream
of trading for a living now, because it will be a losing game for you over the long
haul. You will never actually (and consistently)be acting for yourself... quite the
opposite, you will be acting against yourself because you will simply be doing things
out of a conditioned response of clinging and aversion. It's slavery my friends... but
it's possible to break the spell.

That is what we are working on in this course. What you need to start doing is to
create a little more space in your mind. This has already started with the "No
trading for 2 weeks" precept. Now, for the next day, spend some time on self-
reflection and soul digging and soon you’ll be on your way towards building a wealth
of understanding about yourself.

Lao Tzu said it best:

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is
strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

The path isn’t treacherous or anything, but it does take work. Especially, if you’ve
spent your entire life wrapped up in clinging, aversion, and ego. A little more space
is all you need to start laying the foundation for equanimity and self-mastery.
Self-reflection can come in many forms. For some, it may be taking a quiet walk
through the woods. For others, it might be grabbing a cup of tea and sitting at the
table. For some others, it might be sitting on a bench in a park (that's what I like
doing). The crucial element is to make sure no one is going to interrupt you. This
has to be some serious time you're allocating to yourself!

I’ve found it really helpful to have a journal handy, but it's really up to you. For me,
writing down everything that comes to my mind without censor or concerns for the
aesthetics of my handwriting has been instrumental. But whatever you do: Start
questioning yourselves!

Here are a couple of deep open-ended questions you could be asking yourselves:

• Am I letting matters that are out of my control stress me out?

• Am I holding on to beliefs, thoughts, emotions I need to let go of?
• If not now, then when?
• What am I doing about the things that matter most in my life?
• When did I last push the boundaries of my comfort zone?
• How shall I trade (or live for that matter), knowing that I will die? (and you
don't even know when it's going to happen.. really you don't)
• What do I need to change about myself to make it as a consistently profitable
trader?
• Is it really that important to make money in the markets? What is money,
really? And how come money doesn't make everyone happy?
 • Which is worse: failing or never trying?
• If I try to fail, and succeed, which have I done? (tricky)
• What’s the one thing I’d like others to remember about me at the end of my
life?
• If I really believed I didn’t have control over something, I’d accept it as matter-
of-fact. Why do I struggle to accept that I cannot control the markets? What
part of me makes me think or hope otherwise?
• Does it really matter what I need from the markets? Do markets even care?
Why do I care?
• To what degree have I actually controlled the course my life has taken?
• When it’s all said and done, will I have said more than I’ve done?
• Am I more worried about being right, or doing the right things?
• Why am I, me?
• If I haven’t achieved market success yet, then why aren't I letting myself get it.
What do I have to lose?
• When was the last time I noticed the sound of my own breathing?
• Decisions are being made continuously, even right now. The question is: Am I
making the right ones?
• Based on my current habits, where do I think I will be in five years? Ten?
Twenty?
• Where do I want to be, emotionally, physically, mentally, ten years from now?
How can I get there?
• What bad habits do I need to stop?
• What mistakes do I continuously make, and why can't I stop them?
• What stories do I continuously tell myself?
• If life is so short, why do I do so many things I don’t like, and like so many
things I don’t do?
• If we learn from our mistakes, why am I always so afraid to make a mistake?
• How much am I ready to sacrifice for my dream to come true?

Some of these questions might make you uncomfortable at times, but it’s important
to remember that they give you valuable insights into the reality of your trading
results (and on a broader level, your lives), but they also guide you in your quest for
change. Now, if you're adventurous, try setting a little bit of time every day (or every
2-3 days) for this exercise.