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Wisdom is knowing the limits of your knowledge

  
Analysis, Education
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What does it mean to be wise? What is Wisdom?

One of the more interesting aspects to wisdom is self-awareness. “Thinking about wisdom,” writes Stephen Hall in his book Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience, “almost inevitably inspires you to think about yourself and your relationship with the larger world.” The book is an investigation into fuzzy questions such as how can it help us shed light on the process by which we deal with big decisions and dilemmas.

He writes:

Wisdom requires an experience-based knowledge of the world (including, especially, the world of human nature). It requires mental focus, reflecting the ability to analyze and discern the most important aspects of acquired knowledge, knowing what to use and what to discard, almost on a case by case basis (put another way, it requires knowing when to follow rules, but also when the usual rules no longer apply). It requires mediating, refereeing, between the frequently conflicting inputs of emotion and reason, of narrow self-interest and broader social interest, of instant rewards or future gains. Moreover, it expresses itself through an insistently social vocabulary of interactive behavior: a fundamental sense of justice (which is sometimes described as an innate form of morality, of knowing right from wrong), a commitment to welfare of social (and, for that matter, genetic) units that extend beyond the self, and the ability to defer immediate self-gratification in order to achieve the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people. (more…)

Wealth Principles

  
  Education
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  • Your income can grow only to the extent you do
  • If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots.  If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.
  • Money is a result, wealth is a result, health is a result, illness is a result, your weight is a result.  We live in a world of cause and effect.
  • Thoughts –> Feelings–>Actions–>Results TFAR
  • When the subconscious mind must choose between deeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions will almost always win
  • If your motivation for acquiring money or success comes from a non-supportive root such as fear, anger, or the need to “prove” yourself, your money will never bring you happiness
  • The only way to permanently change the temperature in the room is to reset the thermostat.  In the same way, the only way to change our level of financial success “permanently” is to reset your financial thermostat.
  • Consciousness is observing your thoughts and actions so that you can live from true choice in the present moment rather than being run by programming from the past.
  • You can choose to think in ways that will support you in your happiness and success instead of ways that don’t.
  • Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t.
  • When you are complaining, you become a living breathing “crap magnet”
  • There is no such thing as a really rich victim!

(more…)

What is a Trader

  
  Education
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What Is A Trader?
 I ask the man.
He looks at me.
A trader is not a bystander, nor a mindless member.
 Neither is he a selfless servant. No,
A trader is an ecosystem,
 Evolving,
 Refusing to be categorized or labeled,
 Branded or defined.
Not one role,
 Not one task,
 Not a tool or production line,
 Not one idea or small man. No,
A trader is an ecosystem,
 Independent,
 Challenging all else
 To survive and thrive, evolve and change, or
 Sink and die. Extinct.
A trader knows existing today is not tomorrow.
 Buttons pushed, research tested, markets predicted.
A trader lives for certainty in self and tomorrow’s unknown.
 Adapting to survive, evolving to advance, competing to learn.
A trader creates a pulse that connects and propels
 An ecosystem he designed to challenge our own.
So the trader returns back to the question,
 What am I and who are we?
Consistent, curious, and connected,
 Accurate, authentic, and adaptable,
 I strive to be.
 I am an ecosystem within this unknown we.
Know Thyself,
 He says to me.

Don’t Let Negative Emotions Control You

  
  Education
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Successful traders do not allow negative emotions to affect their decision-making. Trading is a stressful process, and you will experience many setbacks. Expect them, however, and don’t see losses as indications that you will never succeed. Instead, be prepared to identify your negative reactions and act on them in positive ways.

Successful traders turn fear into gain. They realize that losses are a part of their business, and they expect them. But while they know that some trades will cost them money, they let those same trades become a gain in knowledge. Remember that each time you have a loss, this gives you some guidelines on how to alter your strategy. Perhaps your stop loss needs to be set higher, perhaps you need to alter how you identify trends, or perhaps you need to use new indicators. (more…)

7 -Market Wisdom

  
  Education
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  1. First Things First
    You sure you really want to trade ? It is common for people who think they want to trade to discover that they really don’t.
  2. Examine Your Motives
    Why do you really want to trade ? Did you say excitement ? Then don’t waste your money in market, you might be better off riding a roller coaster or taking up hand gliding.
    The market is a stern master. You need to do almost everything right to win. If parts of you are pulling in opposite directions, the game is lost before you start.
  3. Match The Trading Method To Your Personality
    It is critical to choose a method that is consistent with your your own personality and conflict level.
  4. It Is Absolutely Necessary To Have An Edge
    You cant win without an edge, even with the world’s greatest discipline and money management skills. If you don’t have an edge, all that money management and discipline will do for you is to guarantee that you will gradually bleed to death. Incidentally, if you don’t know what your edge is, you don’t have one.
  5. Derive A Method
    To have an edge, you must have a method. The type of method is not important, but having one is critical-and, of course, the method must have an edge.
  6. Developing A Method Is Hard Work
    Shortcuts rarely lead to trading success. Developing your own approach requires research, observation, and thought. Expect the process to take lots of time and hard work. Expect many dead ends and multiple failures before you find a successful trading approach that is right for you. Remember that you are playing against tens of thousands of professionals. Why should you be any better ? If it were that easy, there would be a lot more millionaire traders.
  7. Skill Versus Hard Work
    The general rule is that exceptional performance requires both natural talent and hard work to realize its potential. If the innate skill is lacking, hard work may provide proficiency, but not excellence.
    Virtually anyone can become a net profitable trader, but only a few have the inborn talent to become supertraders ! For this reason, it may be possible to teach trading success, but only upto a point. Be realistic in your goals.

SIX Ways to Improve Your Self-Discipline Today

  
  Education
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1. Acknowledge Your Weaknesses – Whether cookies are the downfall to your diet, or you can’t resist checking your social media accounts every two minutes, acknowledge your pitfalls. Too often people either try to pretend their weaknesses don’t exist or they try to minimize the negative impact their bad habits have on their lives. For example, many smokers think, “I could quit if I wanted to,” because they don’t want to admit they’re hooked.

2. Establish a Clear Plan – No one wakes up one day suddenly blessed with self-discipline. Instead, you need a strategy. Whether you want to increase good habits like exercising more often, or you want to eliminate bad habits like watching too much TV, develop a plan that outlines the action steps you’re going to take to reach your goals.

3. Remove the Temptations When Necessary – Although we’d all like to believe we have enough willpower to resist even the most alluring enticement, it only takes one moment of weakness to convince ourselves to cave to temptation. Making it difficult to access those temptations can be pivotal to increasing self-discipline. If your weakness is Facebook, turn off the internet while you’re working. If you can’t resist overspending when you go to the mall, leave the credit card at home and only take a small amount of cash.

4. Practice Tolerating Emotional Discomfort – It’s normal to want to avoid pain and discomfort, but trying to eliminate all discomfort will only reinforce to yourself that you can’t handle distress. We can usually stand a lot more discomfort than we think we can. Practice allowing yourself to experience uncomfortable emotions like boredom, frustration, sadness, or loneliness and increase your tolerance to the negative emotions that you may experience as you increase your self-discipline. (more…)

Examine Your Beliefs

  
  Education
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There is lot of talk of trading psychology , but what exactly are the 3 or 5 things you can do to improve your psychology.
If you want to increase your muscles you go and lift weight
If you want to improve your stamina, you go and run daily
If you want to reduce weight you eat less and exercise more
What exactly do you need to do to improve your psychology.
First starting point if you want to improve your psychology is by examining your beliefs
You can only trade what you believe in.
Your beliefs drive your behavior. (more…)

Wealth Principles

  
  Education
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  • Your income can grow only to the extent you do
  • If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots.  If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.
  • Money is a result, wealth is a result, health is a result, illness is a result, your weight is a result.  We live in a world of cause and effect.
  • Thoughts –> Feelings–>Actions–>Results TFAR
  • When the subconscious mind must choose between deeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions will almost always win
  • If your motivation for acquiring money or success comes from a non-supportive root such as fear, anger, or the need to “prove” yourself, your money will never bring you happiness
  • The only way to permanently change the temperature in the room is to reset the thermostat.  In the same way, the only way to change our level of financial success “permanently” is to reset your financial thermostat.
  • Consciousness is observing your thoughts and actions so that you can live from true choice in the present moment rather than being run by programming from the past.
  • You can choose to think in ways that will support you in your happiness and success instead of ways that don’t.
  • Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t.
  • When you are complaining, you become a living breathing “crap magnet”
  • There is no such thing as a really rich victim!
  • If your goal is to be comfortable, chances are you’ll never get rich.  But if your goal is to be rich, chances are you’ll end up mighty comfortable.
  • The number one reason most people don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want.
  • If you are not fully, totally, and truly committed to creating wealth, chances are you won’t.
  • The Law of Income:  You will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver according to the marketplace.
  • “Bless that which you want.”  -Huna philosophy
  • The secret to success is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than any problem.
  • Money will only make you more of what you already are.
  • The true measure of wealth is net worth, not working income.
  • The habit of managing your money is more important that the amount
  • Either you control money, or it will control you.
  • The Rich see every dollar as a “seed” that can be planted to earn a hundred more dollars, which can then be replanted to earn a thousand more dollars
  • Action is the “bridge” between the inner world and the outer world
  • It is not necessary to try to get rid of fear in order to succeed
  • If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard.  But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy
  • The only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable
  • Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success

26 Points For Traders

  
  Education
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  1. First things first
    • Do you really want to trade?
  2. Examine your motives
    • Why do you want to trade?
    • Don’t trade for excitement.
  3. Match the trading method to your personality
    • Choose a method congruent with your personality and comfort
  4. It is absolutely necessary to have an edgeDerive a method
    • MUST HAVE
  6. Developing a method is hard work
  7. Skill versus hard work
  8. Good trading should be effortless
    • Be in sync with market
  9. Money Management and risk control
    • 1-2% AUM
  10. The trading planDiscipline
    • Draw up trading blueprint/business plan
  12. Understand that you are responsibleThe need for independence
    • your choices led to your results
  14. Confidence
  15. Losing is part of the game
  16. Lack of confidence and time-outs
  17. The urge to seek adviceThe virtue of patience
    • Get out of trade if you need an opinion
  19. The importance of sittingDeveloping a low risk idea
    • “Be right and sit tight”
  21. The importance of varying bet size
  22. Scaling in and out of trades
  23. Being right is more important that being a genius
    • Go for consistency trade-to-trade, not perfection
  24. Don’t worry about looking stupidSometimes action is more important that prudence
    • Don’t talk about your position
  26. Catching part of the move is just fine

The Power of Habit-Book Review

  
  Education
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A new year is right around the corner, and with it will come the usual host of resolutions—sadly, rarely kept. To be more precise, more than 40% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions and just 8% achieve their goals. Sometimes the goals they set are too daunting, sometimes too vague. And, perhaps the biggest problem with the whole resolution business is that people focus on goals rather than processes.
In 2012 Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times, wrote The Power of Habit, which spent 62 weeks on the paper’s best seller lists and was named one of the best books of the year by The Wall Street Journal and theFinancial Times. It is now being reissued with an afterword by the author.
I reviewed the book when it first came out and thought I would write a new post now that I have the reissued edition. But then I reread my original piece and decided that I probably couldn’t improve on it. So instead I’ll republish it here.
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“All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits,” William James wrote in 1892. Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement: a researcher in 2006 knocked that “mass” down to “over 40 percent.” Whatever the percentage, we are creatures of habit. In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change It (Random House, 2012) Charles Duhigg explores the work that neurologists, psychologists, sociologists, and marketers have done over the past two decades to figure out how habits work and how they change. It’s a fascinating tale. (more…)

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