Less Is More
"Don't act grudgingly, selfishly, without due diligence, or to be a contrarian. Don't overdress your thought in fine language. Don't be a person of too many words and too many deeds. . . . Be cheerful, not wanting outside help or the relief others might bring. A person needs to stand on their own, not be propped up."
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
The title of today's meditation is one of my favourite quotes that I use a lot when it comes to trading!
By having rules/criteria that we stick to for our strategies, this means that we are not trading every horse race, greyhound race, football match etc. that comes up; we are cherry picking those that fully meet our criteria 100%, no exceptions, no cutting corners. Our rules are there for a reason!
Because we are selective and sticking to our rules, this also means that we will have plenty of downtime away from the screen, and we are not overdoing it. So when we do jump on a trade that fully meets the rules/criteria for our strategies, we are sharp, fully focused, prepared and ready to pounce!
Staying refreshed is vitally important, so that we are in the correct mindset to deal with whatever a trade throws at us and to be able to react accordingly without hesitation!
You must be ready to expect that anything can happen during every trade that you enter and you must act swiftly, in a heartbeat if they are going against you, to protect your bank and stay in the game for the next battle!
This is imperative, to maintain long term profitability, as the regular profits will far outweigh the occasional controlled loss.
Trading is a mental game, so if you want to keep yourself refreshed, sharp, fully focused and ready to fire; "less is more" without a shadow of a doubt!