During difficult times, people (including me) often turn to spiritual things to help them deal with pain, sorrow, grief, uncertainty, etc....and in my particular belief system, trust in the Higher Power is considered an essential component of that system. Trust being defined as relying on the Higher Power to provide that which is needed in the current situation and how that trust requires relinquishing control of the situation and having an understanding that things will work out. Instead, in our (my) frustration, impatience, anger, lack of trust, etc, we (I) often times spend unnecessary hours, days, weeks and months worrying about something or trying to force the situation to conform to our (my) pre-determined idea of what the ideal should look like.

Essentially this requires us to do what we know to do, and nothing more. Leave the rest up to the Universe, Higher Power or God, whatever your label is.

And again, this reminded me of how as traders, we do what we know to do, find an entry that conforms with what we know to represent an opportunity and then leave the rest up to the market. But instead we (I mean me!!) spend an inordinate amount of unnecessary worry, stress, thoughts and efforts to make our trade conform to how we (I) want it to look.

For instance, I like instant gratification.....this applies to all areas of life and not just trading although I am learning to have patience!!!....but in trading, instant gratification is rarely available if at all. There are those rare instances that produce 100 ticks in a few minutes but most of the time, you (I) must wait for the payoff.

Instead, I try to force the trade to be profitable by moving stops to soon.....I want the trade to run right to my target and give me my profit without waiting to long....and I get impatient. And it starts to come back and I start thinking about how it might move against me 100 ticks just like that.....(this never happens of course, I'm usually on the right side of things) and so I "manage" the trade thereby cutting off a very profitable opportunity. What's going on here? I submit its a lack of trust the market is going to give me what my otherwise rational system tells me that on average, it will give me.

So to use a loose analogy, the market is the "Higher Power" and once we do our (my) part, then the only thing left to do is trust. Which is a bit harder to do than to say. Both in life and in trading.

Perhaps I'm waxing philosophical because of the situation with my dad, but its during these times that a person gets the free time to think.....and often times my mind drifts toward the spiritual and the philosophical. And of course to trading. Hard to separate "real life" from trading as trading seems to have implications in nearly every area of life.

And now I'm done for the day....hopefully this will sound as profound tomorrow as it does today....

Sorry to hear about your dad, Brian

Sent from my phone

Biopsy results today....malignant cancer....very early stages though....doc says he can get all of it.......very good long term prognosis....we are grateful.

Biopsy results today....malignant cancer....very early stages though....doc says he can get all of it.......very good long term prognosis....we are grateful.

Biopsy results today....malignant cancer....very early stages though....doc says he can get all of it.......very good long term prognosis....we are grateful.

Biopsy results today....malignant cancer....very early stages though....doc says he can get all of it.......very good long term prognosis....we are grateful.