You know you are a daytrader when you go to the movies with loved ones and a line in the movie becomes you next daytrading blog post.

The movie was 2012. A movie about the end of the world and the preservation of the human race. the entire movie is filled with moments of natural disasters, crashing buildings, people meeting their end, and people who are trying to survive and perserve the human race.

Amongst the mass destruction where the south pole becomes located someplace in Wisconsin, it is not surprising that religion comes into play. Once scene includes a wise old monk speaking with a young monk who obviously has not attained the wisdom of the old man. As they are speaking the wise old man pours a cup of brown tea until it is overflowing. The young monk tells him to stop as the cup is overflowing. The old man stops pouring and explains,

 ”like this cup a man’s mind is overflowing with opinions and speculation.

You must empty  the cup in order to fill it with wisdom”

and the old man turned the cup over and emptied it. What, might you ask does this have to do with trading?

One great challenge that I believe developing traders struggle with is having opinions and allowing their minds to speculate concerning market behavior. In successful trading, there is NO….room…..NONE for opinions and specualtion. This came to my mind becasue I realized that many times I fall into thisn trap without even realizing it. It leads to frustration, disappointmentm and and overall feeling of failure.

What are some of the things that we say and do that show our lack of wisdom concerning market behavior.

1. We say things like, ” I am of the opinion”, “I think that”, “I believe that”….”It should do ..”.

2. We try to guess where the pull back will end instead of watching it, being in tune with it, and shutting out the signals that will show us it has ended.

3. We can’t adjust to changing conditions.

The bottom line is the market always does what it will. In order for us to exploit opportunities that unfold in market price action, we need to empty our minds of all opinions and speculations and gain the wisdom to see what is unfolding in front of us on the screen in this moment at this particular time.

Profitable trading all!