Adversity Reveals
"How does it help, my husband, to make misfortune heavier by complaining about it? This is more fit for a king — to seize your adversities head on. The more precarious his situation, the more imminent his fall from power, the more firmly he should be resolved to stand and fight. It isn't manly to retreat from fortune."
— Seneca, Oedipus
Today's meditation is another reminder of how me must not get angry or upset, when things don't go to plan.
The exact same can be said of course for when we are trading.
If we cannot control our emotions after taking a bigger loss than we had planned, we are in danger of going full tilt and losing a whole lot more and decimating our bank! When we are angry and desperate to get back what we've lost straight away, we are staking at levels way too high to get our money back and more than likely forcing trades that don't even meet our rules/criteria! All logic has gone out of the window and we are revenge trading and desperate.
If you get angry after taking an uncontrolled loss, step away from the pc or laptop etc. Take a walk to clear your head and have a think about what went wrong. Was it that you hesitated instead of exiting when you had the chance? Did your pc freeze or maybe you lost your internet connection, just at the point when you needed it most?
Hesitation is within your control; technical issues are not of course and back up systems are also something to think about having in place, in case of such emergencies.
If something happened that was in your control, then it can be worked on, instead of carrying on trading when angry and/or upset! You will only dig yourself a much bigger hole to get out of, if you try to fight fire with fire and go on the desperate path of revenge trading!
We must not respond to adversity and let it reveal a darker side to our trading that can cost us very dearly!