Seeing Our Addictions
"We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of soul will be lost, which can't stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable."
— Seneca, Moral Letters
I actually must admit that I do need to start the day with a coffee and it's easy to let things become addictive!!
Being addicted purely to trading, can mean that you can end up in a lot of trades you shouldn't have entered in the first place! But being addicted to your strategies, so that you know them inside out and know exactly what to do in the blink of an eye, if it's not going to plan, is what I always concentrate on. This means we are staying in control and only trading what specifically meets our criteria 100% of the time. With a decent strategy that you can trust, you know you will be right many more times than you are wrong. We can abstain from the potential trades that don't meet our criteria, because we are not addicted to trading, we are actually addicted to using our strategies that gives us our edge to trade when certain scenarios meet our criteria. It's a simple process when you give it some thought. If nothing meets our criteria, we don't trade. However when something meets our criteria we take full advantage. So if you are over trading, you must reclaim the ability to abstain on those trades that deep down you know you shouldn't be getting involved in. This will give you the clarity and self control to be able to resist, when something doesn't meet your criteria. Good trading is less about how much you make and more about how much you keep!
Bank protection is paramount.