The Definition Of Insanity
"If you are defeated once and tell yourself you will overcome, but carry on as before, know in the end you'll be so ill and weakened that eventually you won't even notice your mistake and will begin to rationalize your behavior."
— Epictetus, Discourses
Today's meditation is very interesting and certainly got me thinking!
The difference here is that we are using the same strategy over and over again, but expecting the same result, rather than a different result, which is how they define insanity in the meditation. Hope is not a strategy is also said and this is very true. Rather than hope, what we are relying on is the historical stats/data, to give us our edge and ensure that we are right many more times than we are wrong. As long as we can control the losses to a manageable level, at our pre-defined exit point when we are wrong, we will retain profitability over the long term. This is because our profitable trades will far outweigh the occasional controlled loss.
Today's meditation also says and I quote; "We have to choose to learn. We must consciously opt to do things differently--to tweak and change until we actually get the result we are after"
This is exactly what we do when we develop/build a strategy of our own. We will make minor changes and tweaks along the way through trial and error, until we come up with something more concrete that works well for us and we actually get the results that we are satisfied with. Then it is a case of practising again and again and managing every trade until completion.
We are not sticking with the same unsuccessful thing, over and over again but expecting a different result; because as we know that is "the definition of insanity."