Control And Choice
"The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own . . ."
— Epictetus, Discourses
So we start the new year, with a reminder to try not to stress about the things that we can't change in our lives and also our trading too of course.. How many times have we sat hoping and praying for a goal to come or not come (depending on the trade we are on) or hoping a horse will drift out or steam in to turn a losing trade into a winning one? I'm sure we've all been there at some point and some more than others!! But we can't change the outcome of course.. We are trading based on probabilities due to history, stats, data etc. Even in play stats of football too of course. What we can control though is our ability to take a more controlled smaller red when things appear to be going against us, instead of ending up in the land of hope, praying that the trade will turn around as the red is growing! I always have an amount I'm prepared to lose in a trade and if it hits that point I will hedge for a controlled red. It's not what we want to achieve of course, but bank protection is key so you can live to fight the next battle. So in a nutshell, don't get hung up about things that we can't control and remember we are in control as long as we react to what we are seeing, BEFORE we are in a much worse position. If you are hoping that things will turn around in your trade, you have waited too long!! Let's aim this year to avoid being in the land of hoping and take more control over our trades.