Spendthrifts Of Time
"Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay; yet we easily let others encroach on our lives — worse, we often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We're tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers."
— Seneca, On The Brevity of Life
When I read today's meditation, it immediately made me think of when I first started out on my trading journey and how I would jump on trade after trade! My thought process was that if I trade lots of trades, I can make lots of money! How wrong I was! Trading too many markets will take up too much of your time and it will be difficult to stay focused and concentrated, for a long period of time. You need down time away from the screen and quality over quantity wins hands down for sure, meaning less is more!
Having strategies with rules/criteria that you stick to rigidly, will greatly reduce the number of trades that you enter and you won't be randomly jumping on trades, without having done your due diligence first. This also ensures that you will have the down time that you need, with frequent regular breaks, to refresh, replenish and stay sharp and focused.
It is important to look after your mind and treat it kindly with regular maintenance and attention. I find that a short meditation each day, is a great way to prepare for my trading session. I also benefit from a pre-trading walk, where I can clear my mind and I find that it helps me focus on ensuring that I am mentally in the right place, to operate at my ultimate level of focus and concentration, for the session ahead. There may only be two or three opportunities that fully meet the rules/criteria for my strategies. That is absolutely fine and it is important not to force trades that would break your rules, due to impatience or boredom. You must be disciplined to be able to wait for the right trades and pounce when they appear.
By reducing the number of trades, you are only trading the quality opportunities, which means that you are utilising your edge, from researching with the stats/data that you have available and using it to your advantage.
This also means that you are not wasting your precious time and you become more relaxed and confident in what you are achieving, which is long term profitability of course.
If you are not already doing this, why not give it a try and see the difference it can make to your daily trading experience?
You may just be pleasantly surprised!