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The Artist and the Trader

  
  Education
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Art is for the Artist. Words must be written, Songs must be sung. Visions must be seen. Not because they are valued; but because they are Ideas. The Artist understands that wealth, true wealth as opposed to simply being rich, stems from Ideas. Great Art is valued, if valued properly, because they express an Idea well. Not always because they express a grand idea.

There is the modern myth that the Artist must not be materialist or wealthy. Whereas the Trader, as an Artist, knows that all Artists are wealthy, but all are not rich. It would seem that a great Trader and the Artist share a similar soul.

For they both :

Take a loss. The modern myth largely stems from the Artist producing their best Ideas to bounce back from a loss. They both believe they can replace their losses with better Ideas.

Respect everyone. An Idea can come from anyone. Every trader has been on the wrong side of a trade against someone of much more limited means, brains and circumstances.

Generous souls. For if wealth comes from Ideas, Ideas can always flow. An Artist never will admit he is out of Ideas. Many only have one grand idea, but die thinking the next grand idea is around the corner.

There is never enough. If Ideas are wealth, Life is to be lived to its fullest. The trader that gives up simply to be rich and preserve their riches has given up on their Ideas. Like the Artist that has sold out, simply producing copies of his once great work. Their admitting that it was either great timing or luck; not skill and belief that their Ideas still matter.

Free souls. Comes from the empowerment of wealth coming from your thoughts.

Drawn to excess. Because Ideas are regenerative, its tempting to believe everything is. Like the young that are blind to time. Or the athlete that believes there is always another game, tomorrow.

Responsible Choice for Traders

  
  Education
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Responsibility as a trader means a lot of different things. As a psychologist, I like to talk about being “responsible” for ones’ owns emotions – identifying and accepting them, and being responsible for our decisions. Too many traders blame the market or some unseen force that manipulates the market and causes their loss. Whether or not such unseen forces exist isn’t really the issue, or even the reason that keeps traders from making money. It’s a convenient excuse, but not much else.

A useful concept for traders is a concept known as Responsible Choice, defined as choices that create consequences for which you are willing to assume full responsibility. The phrase, “responsible choice” comes from Gary Zukav, a man who has covered a lot of ground in his life; former Special Forces officer in Vietnam, Harvard grad, wrote the best selling physics book, “The Dancing Wu Li Masters”, and now a consciousness expert.  A friend of mine is very good friends with him.

Fully accepting whatever happens in a well-planned trade is the hallmark of a successful trader. A trader with a mind-set that operates with the concept of responsible choice will see loss simply as an unproductive trade, not as a personal attack.  Moreover, they will see the loss as a learning opportunity, gathering market information from the loss and possibly adjusting their perspective on the market.

Using the framework of responsible choice, a trading loss is actually empowering.  If a trader has difficulty accepting losses, or accepting whatever happens (e.g. not reaching target or overshooting target after the trade is closed) the psychological experience of empowerment is elusive and the trader will usually swing to the other side of the spectrum and become frustrated. Obviously, there is a lot more to be said about losses, I just wanted to point out the concept of responsible choice as a framework to be considered.

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