Working Hard Or Hardly Working?
"I can't call a person a hard worker just because I hear they read and write, even if working at it all night. Until I know what a person is working for, I can't deem them industrious. . . . I can if the end they work for is their own ruling principle, having it be and remain in constant harmony with Nature."
— Epictetus, Discourses
Today's meditation can also be similar for trading.
Are those people that are trying to trade every horse race, every day, being productive? No, because they will become tired, lethargic and lose concentration, because they are trying to do too much!
When we have a set of rules/criteria to follow for our strategies, it will generally mean that we are not trading as often and therefore we will have time away from the screen and have regular breaks for refreshments, to keep us more alert, fully focused and ready to pounce when something fully meets our criteria. "Less is more" is something that I have touched on a few times over the last 5 months of writing these "daily journals" and it is something that you should consider seriously.
Like the last paragraph of today's meditation says and I quote; "Evaluate what you are doing, why you are doing it and where accomplishing it will take you. If you don't have a good answer then stop"
So in trading terms we are:
1) Evaluating what we are doing by following the rules/criteria for our strategies 100% of the time.
2) The reason why we are doing this, is to be able to get to know our strategies inside out and back to front.
3) Accomplishing this will enable us to become confidently more consistent in our trading and take us to a level of long term profitability; as long as we fully manage every trade that we undertake to completion.
I think this means that we have a good answer, in response to today's meditation; don't you?