The Human Element

My son is 11 years old and has been in the “Why?” stage for about 10 years.  Even if you’re not a parent, I know you’ve experienced, or heard of, the “Why?” stage of development.  Children ask “Why?” at everything…when I say everything…I’m NOT speaking in hyperbole…I mean EVER-Y-THING.

“Time for dinner, come eat!!”
“Why?”

“Let’s clean that scrape and get a bandage on it.”
“Why?”

“No, ambulances don’t grow up to be fire trucks.”
“Why?”

My child is simply trying to make sense of his world:  Is what you’re telling me to do a matter of survival?  Or is it a societal expectation?  Is it for my comfort…or yours?

Over the years my son’s “Why?” has morphed and matured into other forms of the same inquiry:  “Why couldn’t you do it this way?”  “What does it mean that someone reacted this way?”  “I thought you said in this situation it was best to do this.”

He’s not being insolent – he’s a VERY literal thinker and because of that he’s constantly categorizing, defining and redefining his life experience.

While the fact that he doesn’t ever take anything for granted and just accept what is can be exhausting, his questions actually serve as an incredible reminder to me to examine my decisions, my habits, my routine….my assumptions.  There have been many, many times that his simple, innocent questions have illuminated better options than just doing what I had always done.

I face a similar examination of my paradigm as a forex teacher.  Every time a student asks me why I take one trade over another or why I choose this support and resistance level over that one…I’m forced to examine my choices.  To be honest, it is very tempting to say, “Because that’s just the way I do it.”  But that’s a cop out.  I need to be able to justify my trading choices (read:  life choices) at every turn.  I owe it to myself to fully understand my motivations and my inspirations.

If you had to justify every trade you take to an inquisitive mind…would you still take each one?

As most of you know by now, I had some computer problems earlier this week and I was forced to recreate my charts and tools as a result.

It was actually a fun reminder of all the neat gadgets and tools available to me in trading.  Oscillators I used to have fun testing, like the RSI popped out at me and nearly begged me to put them on the chart.  The cute little parabolic dots were there, waiting in the wings, wiggling in anticipation, “pick me, pick me!”  It would be disingenuous to say I wasn’t tempted.  I was nearly swayed, in fact!  It occurred to me that having something new on my chart might be just what I needed to liven up my trading.

Pros:

• It would be fun to open up my computer and see something new and fresh on my charts.
• It might inspire more backtesting.
• It could look really pretty.  (I know its lame – but hey, I’m just being honest here.)

Cons:

• I would be tempted to trade off of new, untested signals instead of my tried and true.
• I would likely begin to confuse signals.
• I would abandon the backtesting that has led me to success in search of something younger and sleeker that isn’t likely to last (mid-life crisis anyone?!)
• I would start consistently losing money.

Mind you, these thoughts all came to me in an instant. As my highlighted bar hovered over the anticipatory quaking of those cute little parabolic spots I came to my senses. I clicked outside of the options box and began the search for all the tools that make up my same-old/same-old system.

I’m glad I did.  I want to be able to appreciate that what I have works.  Knowing that I could be tempted to diverge from my hard won system and still stay true after all these years makes me feel safe in my trading choices overall.

Have you ever been tempted to suddenly change your system?  Why were you tempted?  How did you handle it?

I love to read and I love to write.  Lately, I have been toying with a few different ideas for a novel and am bouncing between the protagonists in each in my head to decide which one I’d rather spend all that time with.  That idea got me thinking about life.  First my life…then my family’s and friends’…then, believe it or not, yours.

Fictional protagonists go through a lot.  They persevere, they overcome, they learn and they grow.  A good protagonist is also imperfect.  They make mistakes, they lose their temper, they try to be good, but often screw up from time to time anyway.

I can’t speak for you, but I know that pretty much describes me pretty well.

I’ve been through a lot. I’ve made some mistakes, some major and some minor.  I’ve always made the decision to get back up, even when that was the most painful thing for me to do. And yes, I still get it wrong from time to time.

Thinking about my life as a book, changed my view of my trials, tribulations and triumphs.  Astounding alliteration aside, I enjoyed looking at my life through that lens.  Suddenly, I was able to see the character in myself.  More importantly, I am now able to view my moment to moment decisions with a wider scope.  Will I respect the protagonist who sits in a desk chair and works all day long?  Maybe…that’s a quiet kind of heroism.  How about one who is completely stubborn about certain opinions that they’re difficult to rationalize with (yes, that’s me about Western medicine).  Maybe…maybe not…but whether I respect them [me] or not I’ll be able to relate or empathize with them.

Of course there are many considerations that are running through my mind about my choices, but I’d rather you take a look and ask who the hero is in your own story.  What story are you writing with your life?  Do you like your decisions?  If not, are you changing them or just feeling guilty about them.  If you’re feeling guilty about them, can you now relate and empathize with yourself a little better and let that lead to the changes you want?  If you think seriously about this exercise, the course of thoughts can really run on and I feel that it is a very important discussion to have with yourself.

If you’re able to look at your life by the tale being told with your real-time, right-now decisions you may open the door for new possibilities with the choices you make.  Maybe your story will be something grandiose like creating a foundation that leads to world peace.  Or maybe it will be simple and quiet like a person who fights through illness, depression or fear and still chooses to get up and go to work every day.  That doesn’t save lives or alter the course of history, but it takes a certain kind of inner strength to do it and is a hero nonetheless.

My point is this:  YOU are the hero of your own story.  What kind of hero are you?

I came across this article a while back in Forbes, “The Power of Personal Passion.” It is a list of lessons for the Entrepreneur.  In short, 1)  Do Something You Love, 2)  Don’t be Afraid to Show it, 3)  Hire for Passion and Curiosity and 4)  The Power of Story (namely yours).  It’s a good article and I agree with the general premise.  It got me thinking about how that same entrepreneurial passion applies to trading Foreign Exchange and while there are some nuanced difference the basic idea still applies.

You need to LOVE trading.  Period.

Most people come to Forex as a means to an end (make money).  The people who keep coming back to Forex are after something else…maybe even a fulfillment of some kind.  The people who become profitable with Forex enjoy the process and are grateful for ALL the lessons learned and insights gained, not just those directly related to trading.

I had my own fits and starts with Forex.  To be honest, I’ve never known a successful trader who hasn’t.  But every time I came back to it I learned something new.  I was (am) being fulfilled by Forex in a way that the mundane routine of my life cannot.  I’m constantly challenged.  I’m continually surprised.  I’m always learning.  I compete with myself and drive myself through Forex in a way that nothing else has ever done for me.   I love patterns and the regularity of Fibs.  I’m in awe at how the markets reflect the best and worst of human behavior – especially en masse.

Simply put…I have reason, other than money, to keep coming back.  After a winning streak and after a losing streak I want to be trading.  I feel good when I’m putting my capital to work for me.  I feel even better when I’ve learned a larger life lesson from my own experience through trading.  And I feel honored and privileged that I get to work with other traders, students and teachers alike, from around the world.

I’m not saying that you can’t be good at what you do if you don’t love it, but I do believe that it is a heck of a lot easier if you do have a passion for it.

What do you believe?  What keeps you coming back?

I spend a lot of time talking to you about all the things you can do to plan a trade, execute the plan, record the experience and review your results.  I spend a lot of time writing about the fundamentals that matter to me and my view of the global marketplace.  I spend even more time, directly with students, discussing belief systems, patterns of behavior and working oneself into a viable trading system.

I imagine that you do something similar with your work day.

In between all of that stuff, however, there are moments. These moments have a lot more control over your decisions and your habits than you realize.

Imagine that you’re the perfectly disciplined trader.  You plan every trade.  You flawlessly execute every plan.  You learn something from every execution.  (Written out like that it seems like it should be SO easy, doesn’t it?!)

Now imagine you doing those 3 things on a good day.  You’ve woken up feeling refreshed and positive.  You’re seeing beauty and possibility in the world.  Your mind is at ease and your spirit is peaceful.  In between the plan, execution and learning process you’re unwittingly infusing beauty and possibility into your trading.  Even if there is a loss for the day, you’re able to look at it objectively and see it for exactly what it is…one moment in your entire trading career…and you’re able to glean something from it that helps you (even if that is just letting it go because it was well planned and executed after all).

Now imagine doing those 3 things on bad day.  You’re tired and irritable.  Nothing has gone right.  You even feel a little insolent that you have to still be SO freaking disciplined in your trading to get it right.  Now those spaces in between the doing are filled with negativity and resentment.  At this point, even if you have a winning trade you’ll be feeling like it wasn’t good enough.

How about if you’re feeling doggedly determined (usually in spite of something else going on in your life)?  Try on “lazy but trying not to be”.  Now extrapolate those attitudes and platitudes out over weeks, months even years.  What do you think your trading results are going to look like?

Inevitably they will reflect your underlying Self.  It will be very difficult to create success in your trading, or in life, if you’re filling the gaps with garbage.  On the other hand, if you fill those gaps with the sublime then you’re likely to see the rewards in every part of the process – not just the outcome.

All of those moments in between our decisions hold something for us.  Sadly, most of the time, we’re completely unaware of what we’re infusing into those moments.  Those quiet thoughts, concerns and hopes are rattling around inside our addled minds.  What we don’t realize is that we have more moments in between our deliberate decisions and actions than we have deliberate decisions and actions.

We could be quietly supporting ourselves in those spaces.  We could also be quietly sabotaging ourselves.  ….and our trading.