Paradoxically, as I near the end of a long and spectacularly mediocre career as a trading therapist, I been privileged to discover an entirely new syndrome: the Serene Trader. This has not been altogether without pain, however, as I stumbled upon it while inquiring of lapsed clients why they had not sought my bumbling counsel lately. I heard many excuses: "I find myself unexpectedly unemployed (the wife prefers that I say I'm retired)." "I finally looked at the estimated retirements benefits the Social Security Administration sends me every year, and thought, fuck it!" "My grown children sent me an annotated actuarial table as a gentle hint, accompanied by pitiful scrawled pleas from my grandchildren." "I recently completed a 95 column spreadsheet with every imaginable aspect of retirement cash flow carried down to an unreasonably optimistic life expectancy, and found that my wife is going to be able to party down long after I am gone." But I am wise to patients' clever evasions. So I dug deeper. "How is your trading going?", I asked: "I cut down from three screens to one." "I took off my chart anything that averaged anything." "I ditched all those exotic volume studies." "I started remotely mentoring aspiring female traders in exchange for lewd photos, and found that I had to sharpen my trading game to keep up the bluff." "No matter how hard I look, I haven't seen any new phenomena in the past few months." "I automated all my decision making so all that thinking doesn't hurt my head." "I had to put audible alerts on my trade calls because I found myself micronapping." "My eyesight isn't so good as it once was, so I took all the wiggly lines off my chart, and Eureka!" "I have a lot of time on my hands, so I went back to the first trading book I ever read (Elder), and suddenly it made sense!" "I quit reading ET, and stick exclusively to porn surfing when I get pissy." "I set my IB screen up for one trade only, spend it wisely, and I am done for the day." So in composite, there you have him: The Serene Trader. Does he make money? Yes, but probably only because he doesn't give a shit any more.
I thought this thread was going to be about Frank Costanza. Anyways, since it is not, I will offer a "Serenity Now" chant for any other reader who was expecting some Frank Costanza schtick.
But that's the thing. Giving too much shit is counterproductive, while giving no shit whatsoever gets us nowhere. Somewhere along the spectrum, there is a point of inflection. Is this possibly why we learned differential calculus in school? Perhaps as a result of the teacher who taught it, I always assumed it had something to do with shit.
Too deep for me. I will merely note that when I stopped seeking the new I found the old. I must be the only person in the world who never before saw a Seinfeld video. I'll remember you for that.
Nice post, unfortunately you're only 'preaching to a very small choir' here on ET. Once you reach your own form of serenity trading it really starts to sink in what a sad place this is and you have no choice but to distance yourself from ET. Great place for a trading therapist such as yourself though!
Thank you for your kind remarks. I agree, but there a few posters whom you would miss if you left. For example, how much work would you have to do to find those fascinating econ links ASusilovic posts? I would miss the sly humor and slam-dunk putdowns of Thunderdog. And the rabid rants of Trader666. Not to mention the smug and richly deserved superiority of Fearless9. Where else can you be perfectly assured that if you need to vent some rage, that Jack Hershey has posted somewhere unbidden today to aggravate you? I have an opening in my schedule, should you find yourself in need of my help, my son.
You have a point. We all get we want/need out of ET, I'm sure some couch time will be needed to finally let it go 100%.