Circumstances Have No Care For Our Feelings
"You shouldn't give circumstances the power to rouse anger, for they don't care at all."
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Again this meditation can be compared to trading because the markets do not care in the slightest how we are feeling! Odds will go up and down in reaction to what is actually happening and this will happen very fast in a horse race for example, where we have a very short time frame once a race goes in running. We have to adapt to our circumstances accordingly. There is no point getting mad because a trade is going against us; we need to use that moment to control our loss and move on to our next opportunity. Getting mad will only make it more difficult to stick to the plan because we will not be fully focused on executing our trade correctly. Remember, being "in the zone" is vital to enable us to manage our trades correctly and becoming angry won't change the outcome and will cause a distraction by getting in the way of our thought process and clouding our judgement. We need to have a neutral thought process so that we don't get emotionally attached to our trades. This means we can trade as we intend to, taking our profits when they go to plan and acting swiftly and without hesitation to manage and control our loss if a trade is going against us.
This is something that we need to practice every time that we trade. The more we do it, sticking to the process of executing our trades correctly, the more confident we will become.
As traders we need to act and think rationally. We can't do this if we allow anger to take over. If you feel yourself getting angry or frustrated, stop and take a break. It is imperative that we don't trade while we are angry or frustrated. Bank protection is essential so that we can live to fight another day!
Be patient and stay disciplined, because your trading journey is a long and arduous one and there will be plenty of bumps in the road, along the way!