Take Charge And End Your Troubles
"You've endured countless troubles — all from not letting your ruling reason do the work it was made for — enough already!"
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Today's meditation is an interesting read and is something that we can compare to trading.
Here are a couple of questions you are asked from the meditation and I quote;
1) "How many times has anxiety driven you to behave in a way you later regret?"
2) "How many times have you let jealousy or frustration or greed lead you down a bad road?"
In trading terms, you won't be anxious or driven to jump on a trade that doesn't fully meet the rules/criteria for your strategies and later regret it, if it goes spectacularly wrong!
You also won't get frustrated or greedy, if you are sticking to the rules/criteria for your strategies.
By sticking to your trading rules, you are eliminating all of the above. This is because you know your rules and you patiently and consistently stick to them 100% of the time; with no exceptions.
Because of this, you avoid any anxiety and you stick to the plan. You also become less inclined to become frustrated at the lack of opportunities or get greedy. Again this is because your rules are simple and straight forward. You take your pre-event targeted profit, or you take your controlled loss at your pre-determined exit point, if a trade is going against you; to protect your trading bank.
A great statement also in today's meditation, backs up our trading theory and I quote; "Letting our reason rule the day might seem like more work, but it saves us quite a bit of trouble." As Ben Franklin's proverb put it "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
So the message is loud and clear; "Take charge (of your trading) and end your troubles"