Archives of “January 2019” month

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What is the Purpose of Trading?

  
  Education
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What is the purpose of trading?purpose-driven-life

It seems clear, doesn’t it? The purpose of trading is to make money. The trade is planned, entered, and exited with the goal of increasing the size of one’s trading account. What other purpose would there be?

The dictionary says this about purpose:

“something set up as an object or end to be attained : intention b: resolution, determination”

What about:

The purpose of trading is to not lose money.
The purpose of trading is to practice discipline.
The purpose of trading is to use my talents.
The purpose of trading is to grow.

Or how about:

The purpose of trading is to express my true nature. I was meant to be a trader.

Maybe the purpose of trading is simply to trade. Because that is what you have been called to do, or what you are meant to do, or it’s the highest expression of your nature as a producer rather than a consumer. When you trade successfully, you are disciplined, you are growing, you are using and developing your talents, you are making money, and you are creating wealth from scratch. But most of all, you are trading because it’s the right thing to do for you.

Happiness and Quality of Life

  
  Education
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1) Inner Abundance – This relates to self-care and maximizing one’s energy and internal resources;
2) Quality Time – Time spent by oneself, for oneself;
3) Finding Meaning – Having goals that give purpose and significance to life.
The key idea here is that happiness is not just something that happens to people. It is the result of one’s relationship to oneself. 
I encounter many traders who lack a sense of abundance–they are forever fearing that they will miss market moves and opportunity. I find many traders that lack quality time: they are slaves to the screen and experience more frustration than joy in their efforts. I also see many traders who derive little sense of meaning and purpose in their work. If they’re not making money, they are not happy. (more…)

3 Questions For Traders

  
  Education

1)  What, specifically, are the talents, skills, and strengths that will fuel your success? – A very successful business needs a distinctive competitive advantage.  What is yours?  What do you have that others don’t that will make you succeed where others fail?  What are you superlatively good at, and how is that concretely and consistently expressed in your trading?  In your life?
2)  Where in your life, specifically and consistently, are you making super efforts?  – We don’t grow by staying in our comfort zones.  Growth, whether in the gym or in life, requires a conscious, directed push outside our comfort zones so that we exercise fresh competencies.  What are the super efforts we’re making here and now to be more tomorrow than we are today?
3)  Who brings out the best in you? – It is human nature to adapt to our environment.  If we’re in an enriched social environment, we rise to the occasion; we absorb positive role modeling.  A challenging and stimulating work environment inspires us to rise to ever higher levels.
If we want a successful life, a meaningful life, a happy life, our days must be populated with experiences that yield success, meaning, and joy.  We can live comfortably and we can live well.  Or we can make super efforts and live to our fullest.  Each day, the choices we make shape our future and who we will be.

1+11 Reasons Why Traders Fail

  
  Education
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  1. They have inadequate capitalization.
  2. They are using someone else’s system.
  3. They lack knowledge of the system’s performance.
  4. They are unable to sit through flat periods or drawdowns.
  5. They are unable to handle stress.
  6. They lack commitment.
  7. They experience drawdowns that are greater than their hypothetical testing.
  8. They override the system’s signals.
  9. Their ego prevails.
  10. Their system is overoptimized; they make additional rules to take out losing trades.
  11. They lack parameters for spike performance in markets.
  12. They lack diversification between systems and/or markets.
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