now, getting back to you, no, it's how you occupy your mind when you are waiting to see if you won an Oscar (if for some reason that is a big deal to you.)
I hope that did not come across sarcastic. It was not my intention. Thanks for replying. Is it the positive attitude in a higher power something in itself that can drive you to better performance ?
well, that's what I don't know. Like most rational people I don't believe in God, but I know people who do. So the original thread title was There is a God and He is Good and all I was wondering is if you started with that belief, how would you then design your trading system or strategy or your general method of approaching the markets? I only ask because I have been so successful this month that I'm beginning to question if there is a god and he loves me. And also because I know that after the good times come the bad times and I am wondering if I could find any comfort there, because I have this distinct feeling that I am going to need it. Now I don't even know what the issue is, at first it was belief in God, now I guess it is what is wrong with her?
The way i do it is i distinguish between a world i call *Reality* and a world i call imagination. The laws that govern these two worlds are incompatible. What may work in imagination may not work in Reality. Markets, all markets, are part of a world built on *imagination* with it's own laws. The scientific approach is probably the best way to leverage the laws of imagination. All you are doing, in the scientific approach is you are building things based on tendencies. For example, 2 + 2 = 4 is a tendency. It's fairly reliable so you go with it...until you find out it doesn't work in some circumstances, perhaps at the subatomic level. At some level, all the laws of imagination break down, especially when they come face to face with the laws of Reality. Meanwhile, the closest thing to Reality in an imaginary world are the laws that pass as inviolate. Reality, to me, is the domain of what you may call a "Good God". Imagination also has a kind of god that is both "good" AND "evil". That's the god that both giveth AND taketh away. A Good God would not do that. A Good God would only give, give, and give some more till it was not possible to give any more. I call such a god "GOOD". All others types of gods are missing an "o", one brick short of a full load if you know what i mean. I insist that GOOD exists, and has long since shared maximal power with any other BEING it has created. A world where power is distributed up and down a hierarchy along a continuum is a clue that you are experiencing a world of imagination. An imaginative world is where a BEING having maximal powers uses some of it to consider alternatives. That's why a world of imagination is one where there are inequalities of power. Believing that you are loved and are worthy is probably an excellent trading strategy. Believing you are guilty is probably the worst trading strategy because it involves subconscious self-sabotage. In really bad cases, people are just using the markets to punish themselves. If they weren't losing money, they would be punishing themselves some other way...maybe even a worse way. So the markets represent a merciful way of punishing yourself. High self-esteem is needed to succeed in the markets, or at anything else. To raise your self-esteem, i recommend to start identifying with the so-called "higher power". In Reality, there isn't a power that is either higher or lower. All power is maximal, possessed by all. So i recommend anyone to think of themselves as the highest power. If absolute power is not your experience, it's because you are using maximal power to have an experience that involves alternatives to maximal power. This is the genesis of limitations and loss. Till then, beware the god that both giveth AND taketh away. Such a god presides over a world of BOTH of everything imaginable. It combines BOTH extremes in every which way possible. Anything goes. So should you be worried about giving back what you've gained? If you stick to the scientific method, you have the best chance of holding on to it longer. But eventually, everybody gives back what the god of imagination gave. That's actually good news because if it gives you limitation, then it's your destiny to return to a state of unlimited Being.
Simple, you would believe that your trading plan was an inspiration from God, as such, you follow it to the letter. On every trade.
now I'm really starting to worry, because that actually makes sense. what was that guys name who was on a mission from God? I think it was John Brown, What ever happened to him? oh well, at least they wrote a song about him, which is probably more than they will ever do for me.
Good one! This thread does belong in psychology because the issue really comes down to high self-esteem vs. low self-esteem, and how that plays out. Another good trading strategy is self-honesty. I recently sat down with three traders the other day to discuss robotic trading vs discretionary (me, the market and my mouse). There were flaws in their logic that did not stand up to scrutiny. Part of their motive seems to have been that they were not robots, but rather, human beings...and therefor better. But if they were more self-honest, they'd accept the fact that human beings are a lot like robots, if not entirely. That one human being is seemingly "blessed" with a lot more of this or that is largely due to fate. So it's difficult to really tell why one person/trader is better off financially than another. Is it because of how hard they have worked or is it because of fate? For people, i'd say it's because of fate...because of the god that both giveth and witholdeth. I suggest that the best way to change fate is to invite more self-honesty and higher self-esteem. Then, a scientific method of trading has it's best chance of putting a few more coins in your purse. Each of us needs to work on what it is that self-sabotages our efforts...on why it is that we seek to punish ourselves by not using robots! Being better than a robot seems like high-self esteem, but it's not. I don't think people are understanding what self-esteem means until they are willing to identify with the highest power. Till then, people will support relative power, which is the basis of hierarchy; the realm of egomaniacs.
so if you are tuning in late, the discussion is between the imaginary God which if you are bad (which for most men means screwing around with whores or cheating on your wife) may take it away from you, but if you are good (which for most ET posters means you bought at the bottom) He may give to you, but you never know, because He may just be setting you up because you are an egotistical prick. And there is a real God who has no choice in the matter. All he can do is give to the ones He loves, no matter how bad they are and what they do with that love. It gets kind of deep when the scientists discuss if this is eternal or will eventually dry up. so how does this affect your trading? well, that is what we are talking about. one poster suggested you should just stick with your plan if you believe God is on your side.
John Brown changed the course of national if not world history, and all he had to do was die, which was what he was going to do anyway. Oooooo what a lucky man, he was. I use this higher power thing myself. I go out do something good for somebody, which brings a feeling of euphoria for me. I think about my trading plan and how to tweak, and often, I have a revelation of something I had not seen before. So yeah, it makes sense. About those writing songs for you and all that, I tell people often that historical figures do not plan it that way usually. Washington was not trying to make history at Valley Forge, he was trying to save his ass. King had plans to go quietly back to Atlanta and one day take over his fathers church. Gandhi was just sick of the British. Mother Theresa was just doing her job, as was Patton, and Robert Oppenheimer. While you breathe, you can make history.