Pleasure Can Become Punishment
"Whenever you get an impression of some pleasure, as with any impression, guard yourself from being carried away by it, let it await your action, give yourself a pause. After that, bring to mind both times, first when you have enjoyed the pleasure and later when you will regret it and hate yourself. Then compare to those the joy and satisfaction you'd feel for abstaining altogether. However, if a seemingly appropriate time arises to act on it, don't be overcome by its comfort, pleasantness, and allure — but against all of this, how much better the consciousness of conquering it."
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
Today's meditation can easily be relevant to traders, as it's all about self control.
If we don't control our trades, we will lose money for certain! Can we have a "cheat day" in trading like some diets have? No of course we can't, because if we jump on trades out of sheer impulse because we fancy the look of it or somebody else has said they are getting on it, then this means we haven't done our research and it probably hasn't met the full criteria for our strategy.
We know that we have to stick to our trading rules 100% and if something doesn't meet our criteria, we leave it alone and wait for the next opportunity. Staying patient and disciplined will become a habit, once you can get past not worrying about the trades that don't fit your criteria, whether they would've been successful or not. They are of no significance to us, because we concentrate on our qualifying trades only and then execute them as per our rules. This means that we have to act swiftly and decisively at times as not every trade will go our way of course and we must take controlled reds along the way as part and parcel of trading. Any trader who can't do this will soon become a losing trader, because nobody will win every trade every day! Yes there is a temptation to stay in a trade, hoping and praying that it turns back in your favour, but if you don't hedge your losses before they become unmanageable, it will be a much bigger loss that will set you back and knock your confidence! Once you see the rewards for this hard work you are putting in and the odd controlled red means that you are still profitable long term, the urge to let the losing trades run loses it's appeal, because of the consequences!
So as it says in the last sentence of today's meditation; "Self-control becomes the real pleasure and the temptation (to stay in a losing trade) becomes a regret."
This is once again a timely reminder, to stick to your rules 100% of the time.