Shock, abstention, and the decision handoff

Shock disables ordinary judgment

After a traumatic market or life event, immediate choices are to be deferred and transferred to a pre-identified trusted person rather than made by the trader in shock.

A sudden trading-account collapse is treated as the same uncontrolled disaster as a physical accident. Both produce shock that becomes costly if no plan exists for who decides next.

Unprocessed shock from trading or non-trading events is said to impair later trading. The standing rule is to stay out of the market until that state is addressed.

Decision-handoff and the abstention-window

A decision-handoff is a preselected trusted person authorized to make immediate choices while the trader is unfit to decide. People in shock cannot make complex decisions.

During shock, self-assessment of decision quality fails. Capacity-feedback from outside observation is required to show that capacity is reduced before authority is taken back.

The abstention-window is the interval after shock or grief during which new trades are not permitted. Psychological damage after a major loss may be underestimated at first and later appear as fear that blocks later trades even when those trades appear conservative.

First recovery steps

Shock is described as leaving the body exhausted, infection-prone, sleepless, poorly concentrated, and irritable. Food, mineral replenishment, and vigorous exercise are presented as first-line recovery steps.

Early recovery is described as talking the event through until it is exhausted, then occupying attention with ordinary activity so the episode is released rather than replayed.

Telling a person in shock only to sit still can lock attention onto a repeating mental loop of the event. A short sequential task list is presented as restoring control.

The return-checklist

Resuming after a crisis is framed as completing an ordered task list that begins with simple non-trading chores. Later steps are allowed only if those tasks are finished without strain.

The return-checklist is that ordered list of simple tasks. It is used to test whether routine capacity has returned before risk-taking resumes.

Grief after shock recedes

Grief after a death is treated as a non-trading interval that begins only after shock recedes. Looping through anger, denial, and bargaining is a reason to remain offline.

That grief-loop keeps a trader offline until the loop is deliberately broken. Until it is, the abstention-window remains in force.