You Choose The Outcome
"He was sent to prison. But the observation 'he has suffered evil,' is an addition coming from you."
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.8.5b–6a
Today's meditation is a reminder that we can easily presume what will happen, when we actually don't know what is going to happen!
People assumed Malcolm X, suffered evil by going to prison, but he made his experience a positive one and after serving his time, he was a totally different person; educated, religious and motivated.
When we are trading, we have a good idea of what we expect/think will happen, based on the stats/data that we have at our disposal. This doesn't mean that we will always be right of course!. So once we enter a trade, we adopt our neutral mindset and react to what we are seeing happen, rather than what we expect/think will happen.
This is the difference between trading profitably or gambling on the trade going our way, as we expect it to. Based on the stats/data that we have and it fully meeting the rules/criteria for our strategy too of course, there is a good chance of it going to plan as we expect; but we have to be ready, prepared and "in the zone," if it doesn't pan out that way! Whilst we trust our stats/data and our strategies 100%, we must appreciate that anything can happen when a trade goes live! A horse runs the race of it's life or a shock football score etc.
The trade will go according to plan, many times and we will take our pre-event targeted profit. On an occasion, when a trade starts to go against us, this is where we must react swiftly and manage our trades, so that we are not left hoping and praying that the trade will turn back in our favour. If it gets to that stage, we have left it too late!
So, on reflection we are both choosing and controlling the outcome of our trades, by taking our pre-event targeted profit or our pre-agreed controlled loss. We can't however, choose or control the outcome of the event; if we could, we would all be millionaires!
The thing to remember, is that "you choose the outcome" of your trades. It's all down to you and with practice, you can perfect it!