As traders we spend a lot of time researching on economics, technical indicators or price action but I would like to know how many of you spend time working on their souls. I recently read a book from an Indian guy in which he immplies that human beings can get rid of fear and greed through meditaion, due to the fact that is through meditation how people can recover their lost intelligence, understanding as an intelligent man that who is not greedy or fearful and that can think through himself and that can separate his mind from himself. Does anyone have experience with mediation?
All understand that fear and greed adversely affect some, but your suggestion is horsesh*t. First and foremost you have to get down to doing the work and study. Learning to understand and know in detail the market you trade in is the initial overriding requirement. You are not going to win in the market just on some special brain setting through mediation, superstition or some other dumb mind fix.
I practice some form of Transcendental Meditation without the recent org. political bs involving flying, politics etc. All/any meditation is positive. I am a Buddhist in my core belief system. 1) I belive in the Transcendental God NOT in a personal God who knows you or gives a shit about you individually and can be prayed to. 2) believe in Karma 3) believe in reincarnation 4) believe in meditation 5) believe in doing good and keeping calm....etc etc etc 6) believe in attaining Higher Consciousness I strongly urge you to heed this guys advice and look into this your trading will not suffer but it will only get better! PM for some specifics if you want.
I lift every day - heavy and used to train for WSM. When I'm "in the groove", I do feel a bit of separation. And there is an element of meditation -- everything is blocked except the weight and muscle. All the wife-beater wearing teenage dinks chatting on their cell phones, the 80's Barry Manilow blaring from the gym speakers, the hot chick doing sit-ups in front of me...etc I definitely use that skill throughout the day to block out disruptions -- not just external ones, but it also includes ones from myself such as fear and doubt.
wrong as usual, cheese. Why do you think it is that the majority of traders lose? Do you think it's anything other than problems in mindset? Don't you think that there were traders at LTCM who knew what they should do but couldn't pull the trigger? Don't you think that trading mistakes all the way down the chain from there to the retail guy holding on to a loser too long are about mental errors? Trading is primarily a test of mental strength, in my opinion. Sure, money has been lost by newbs who don't learn the fundamentals, as you said, but a lot more has been lost because of pure mental error by traders whose fundamental approaches were sound, by guys who knew what they should do but couldn't do it. Anything that can help you get a better mindset, get better control over your behaviour, can help your trading. I used to smoke, for many years. I was doing something dumb, and I couldn't stop. Once I stopped, I had a better mindset and was able to apply that newfound thinking to other areas of my life. Smoking is a behaviour. Holding on too long is a behaviour. Posting crap is a behaviour that you indulge in. Not every behaviour can be changed (some are virtually hard wired) but many can, and for some people, meditation and other approaches that seem to you to be superstition can help. Who gives a f**k what your label for it is? If something helps someone change their behaviour in a way that is optimal for them, what does your opinion matter? Not at all. One poster here said the gym is his meditation. For me it is golf. Being out there recharges me, and lets me focus completely on the task at hand and I find it helps my state of mind. So what if someone else uses a book by an Indian guru and finds something in it?
No pal, you've got it wrong, yet again. You need to get over or get pass your bias, TraderNik. No one is saying anything against relaxation and pastimes away from trading. Thats normal. The fantasy that there is a passport to success through some sort of trained mindset or lalaland mind preparation will actually defeat anyone if he doesn't sufficiently know what he is doing and has not learned to know back to front the market he plays in. The overwhelming mistake for the new player and also in the experience of existing players is that they play before they have the necessary learning and knowledge for trading in a chosen market which they need to study, know and fully understand first. It is not a test of mental strength if you don't know sufficiently what you are doing. Its a display of impatience and stupidity. No one can be expected to press the button and trade in a highly successful way unless he can master and command his chosen market. Mental error is the product of not knowing enough. It is always right to point to the real remedy and the way ahead.