The Strong Accept Responsibility
"If we judge as good and evil only the things in the power of our own choice, then there is no room left for blaming gods or being hostile to others."
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 6.41
Today's meditation is very true and the exact same thing, can be said for trading.
"The buck stops here" is something that we should be thinking about as we take ownership of our own trades.
Every trade that we undertake, should be researched and the rules/criteria for our strategy, met fully, 100% of the time.
The last paragraph of today's meditation, really stands out for me and I quote; "As the president of our own lives--and knowing that our powers begin and end with our reasoned choice--we would do well to internalise this same attitude. We don't control things outside that sphere, but we do control our attitudes and our responses to those events--and that's plenty. It's enough that we go into each and every day knowing that there is no one to pass the buck to. It ends with us" This is so true.
Our attitude to each event that we trade, is to adopt a neutral mindset, without prejudice or belief of what is going to happen, as soon as the trade goes in play. By doing this we can respond accordingly if the trade is going against us, by taking a controlled and manageable loss, at our pre-agreed exit point. If the trade is going our way of course, then we let it run to achieve our pre-planned targeted profit.
You should know, at what point you will be exiting the trade; regardless of profit or loss.
If our trades don't go to plan and we fail to manage them swiftly and without hesitation, then we only have ourselves to blame of course. This is why it is imperative to be "in the zone" with zero distractions and the correct trading mindset, every time that we enter a trade.
As soon as you accept full responsibility for your trades and repetitively follow your rules and execute each and every trade according to your trading plan, you will become more consistent, confident and profitable over the long term.