If you have the feeling that the market has a split personality, one day out to shower you with peace and blessings and the other to punish mercilessly, it can only mean that on some level you are still taking it personally. Think of it this way – there are too many players with too many conflicting ideas about market direction for it to ever form one cohesive personality. The only exception I have witnessed to this rule is when fear clearly dominates the scene, and ironically these are times that are the easiest to trade. The highest attainment for a traders developing psychology is to achieve what has been called “intellectual purity” – that is the state free from emotional reactiveness to market behavior; the ability to accept both reward and punishment with equanimity and understanding. That said, we know that big players perform ‘market sweeps’ to take out stops at sitting duck levels, so we can at least attempt to protect against that. The main point though is to struggle against any dimly forming impression of the market being a single entity with a personality. That is an illusion.
Archives of “peace” tag
rssFind peace in the market
The market has to be your sanctuary, the thing you love, and you can’t be afraid of making mistakes. Yes, you’ll experience both good and bad times, but you must enjoy and revel in the challenge.
Don't Mess With Women
Bottle of Wine(Women will LOVE this one!)
A woman and a man are involved in a car accident on a snowy, cold Monday morning; it’s a bad one. Both of their cars are totally demolished, but amazingly neither of them is hurt. God works in mysterious ways. After they crawl out of their cars, the man is yelling about women drivers. The woman says, ‘So, you’re a man. That’s interesting. I’m a woman. Wow, just look at our cars! There’s nothing left, but we’re unhurt. This must be a sign from God that we should be friends and live in peace for the rest of our days.’
Flattered, the man replies, ‘Oh yes, I agree completely, this must be a sign from God! But you’re still at fault…women shouldn’t be allowed to drive..’
The woman continues, ‘And look at this, here’s another miracle. My car is completely demolished but this bottle of wine didn’t break. Surely God wants us to drink this wine and celebrate our good fortune.’
She hands the bottle to the man. The man nods his head in agreement, opens it and drinks half the bottle and then hands it back to the woman.
The woman takes the bottle, puts the cap back on and hands it back to the man.
The man asks, ‘Aren’t you having any?’
The woman replies, ‘No. I think I’ll just wait for the police…’
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Don’t mess with women.
Sun Tzu’s Art Of War For Traders And Investors
Nice passage I just came across going through various trading books this weekend. The following quote is from Dean Lundell: “Sun Tzu’s Art Of War For Traders And Investors”. It is an important reminder to pay attention when to deploy capital, when to be aggressive and when it is best to do nothing. Enjoy.
Sun Tzu finishes this lesson by reminding us to act only when it is to our benefit. A kingdom once destroyed cannot be brought back, nor can the dead be restored to life. This is the way to keep a country at peace and an army intact.
It is often said that the business of a trader is to stay in business. If you are frivolous in your methods, your equity will soon be gone and you will be out of business. So act when you see an opportunity and be content to stand aside when you do not.
3 Alexander Elder’s Words of Wisdom
You can be free. You can live and work anywhere in the world. You can be independent from routine and not answer to anybody. This is the life of a successful trader. Many aspire to this but few succeed. An amateur looks at a quote screen and sees millions of dollars sparkle in front of his face. He reaches for the money – and loses. He reaches again – and loses more. Traders lose because the game is hard, or out of ignorance, or lack of discipline or because of both. – ALEXANDER ELDER
Every winner needs to master three essential components of trading; a sound individual psychology, a logical trading system and good money management. These essentials are like three legs of a stool – remove one and the stool will fall, together with the person who sits on it. Losers try to build a stool with only one leg, or two at the most. They usually focus exclusively on trading systems. Your trades must be based on clearly defined rules. You have to analyze your feelings as you trade, to make sure that your decisions are intellectually sound. You have to structure your money management so that no string of losses can kick you out of the game. – ALEXANDER ELDER
Markets offer unlimited opportunities for self-sabotage, as well as for self-fulfillment. Acting out your internal conflicts in the marketplace is an expensive proposition. Traders who are not at peace with themselves often try to fulfill their contradictory wishes in their market. If you do not know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere you never wanted to be. You can succeed in trading only if you can handle it as a serious intellectual pursuit. Emotional trading is lethal. To help ensure success, practice defensive money management. A good trader watches his or her capital as successfully as a professional scuba-diver watches his or her air supply. – ALEXANDER ELDER
For peace sake!
Two Palestinians boarded a flight out of London. One took a window seat and the other sat next to him in the middle seat.. Just before takeoff, a rabbi sat down in the aisle seat. After takeoff the rabbi kicked his shoes off, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the Palestinian in the window seat said, ‘I need to get up and get a coke. ”Don’t get up,’ said the rabbi, ‘I’m in the aisle seat, I’ll get it for you.’ As soon as he left, one of the Palestinians picked up the rabbi’s shoe and spat in it.. When the Rabbi returned with the coke, the other Palestinian said, ‘That looks good I’d really like one, too.’ Again, the rabbi obligingly went to fetch it. While he was gone the other Palestinian picked up the rabbi’s other shoe and spat in it. When the rabbi returned, they all sat back and enjoyed the flight. As the plane was landing, the rabbi slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened. He leaned over and asked his Palestinian neighbors: ‘Why does it have to be this way? How long must this go on? This fighting between our nations? This hatred? This animosity? This spitting in shoes and pissing in cokes?’
Madame Market
If you have the feeling that the market has a split personality, one day out to shower you with peace and blessings and the other to punish mercilessly, it can only mean that on some level you are still taking it personally.
Think of it this way – there are too many players with too many conflicting ideas about market direction for it to ever form one cohesive personality. The only exception I have witnessed to this rule is when fear clearly dominates the scene, and ironically these are times that are the easiest to trade.
The highest attainment for a traders developing psychology is to achieve what has been called “intellectual purity” – that is the state free from emotional reactiveness to market behavior; the ability to accept both reward and punishment with equanimity and understanding.
That said, we know that big players perform ‘market sweeps’ to take out stops at sitting duck levels, so we can at least attempt to protect against that. The main point though is to struggle against any dimly forming impression of the market being a single entity with a personality.
That is an illusion.