The Banquet Of Life
"Remember to conduct yourself in life as if at a banquet. As something being passed around comes to you, reach out your hand and take a moderate helping. Does it pass you by? Don't stop it. It hasn't yet come? Don't burn in desire for it, but wait until it arrives in front of you. Act this way with children, a spouse, toward position, with wealth — one day it will make you worthy of a banquet with the gods."
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
A tough one to try and compare today's meditation to trading! We can find ourselves excited about the prospect of getting more and more profitable when we find and stick to strategies that work well for us. The problems that can arise from this exciting prospect is over trading or forcing trades that don't fully meet our criteria, to try to make more and more profit in a much shorter time frame! This of course is a huge mistake because our strategies only work as well as they do when we stick to our rules/criteria 100% of the time. This should be at the forefront of your mind EVERY time that you start a trading session. Over confidence or feeling invincible because you're on a good run of winning trades will make you careless, cut corners and not stick fully to your rules! This will lead to uncontrolled losses and then the desire to get back what you've lost burns deep inside and before you know it, you are jumping on any old trade just to get back what you've lost and you are out of control and revenge trading! DON'T DO IT!!! You will be filled with regret and remorse for not sticking to your rules and you will have paid the ultimate penalty of it hitting your bank balance! Patience and discipline and staying in the correct mindset, are vital ingredients to successful trading.
So to recap;
1) Be thankful and feel lucky that you have found strategies that work long term (gratitude).
2) Take your time and take the trades that fully meet your criteria and are on offer (enjoying the present moment).
3) Over trading and/or revenge trading serves no purpose, least of all our mental health (gluttony is a deadly sin).
This is the way to sample "the banquet of life" on a regular basis as a trader.