It’s been a while since I put my pen to paper. It’s 2.17 am, I sit at my desk at home, my eyes fixated on my pen. We have this bond, one that is bound by honor and service. And tonight, it’s my turn to pay for the bargain. That sounds like too much of an affair between me and my pen right? Well, only we know. Let’s engage. Let’s indulge today’s topic, Shall we?
I love thinking differently. I question most, if not all societal norms. In trading they say, ‘the path of the masses often leads to misery.’ Let’s take the unexplored route. The world has already preached too much about success and achieving one’s goals, which is fine, essentially. But today I invite you to take a ‘not so much explored path,’ that of facing and managing losses in life and in trading. So let’s take a short trip to my mind.
Until you’re bold enough to face your fears of failure, and the manifestation of failure in its realest form, you’ll never be ready for meaningful success in life. Even if success comes early, you might not possess the resilience to see it fly high without getting lost in the hardships encountered therein. This is the quality of possessing the right mindset and discipline. It is the same reason why most athletes and lottery players win millions of dollars only to end up broke in a few years.
Beware to cultivate a space that allows for acceptance and moving on from your losses, both in life and in trading, but not conforming and settling with what’s gone. See the difference? Quit complaining about the things you have no control over. In trading especially, you cannot control the price movements, or the trading volumes/volatility. It adds no value to being too attached to your trades, or trying to ‘predict’ the next trend or price rejection. Our job as traders is to master how patterns form (price action), and to trade them off when they do appear on the charts; but never to trade in their anticipation. One thing that is ultimately in your power is your risk exposure. Every day you get to choose how much you risk on every trade. The masterly of proper risk management is the ultimate power of successful traders. This of course makes sense for those who approach, or looking to approach Forex as a business in all its disciplines.
Most often than not, we don’t give failure and loss so much thought when we set out for a project, career, business or the onset of a new relationship. In most cases, we presume for the best outcome, (total optimism) and fend out the thoughts of any chance of failure and losses whenever they creep into our minds. Don’t get me wrong, it’s unhealthy to entertain the idea of failure when pursuing our life missions, whether it’s in business or relationships. This ideal of course presumes that you took time to evaluate your goals and compatibility. But it’s a different sphere of mental strength to be aware of its possibility, and do everything in your ability to improve yourself and to minimize the chances of failure and losses actually occurring. This is how we define intelligence.
Unfortunately for traders, losses are PART OF OUR DAILY BUSINESS. Losses in trading are our ‘cost of doing business.’ Usually, this is the toughest ideal that most people venturing into the world of trading don’t recognize, accept, and work on their management rather than avoidance. Not so different with life and business, right? Additionally, it is the very reason why most people don’t stick around to make consistent returns in trading, and criticize how much trading is similar to ‘gambling.’
The biggest hedge funds of the world today and the greatest trading legends encounter losses in trading, the same way with any business out there. They don’t run on profits every other week. Paul Tudor Jones, founder of Tudor Investments Corporation, who also adds as one of the world’s greatest traders of our times says it right, “At the end of the day, the most important thing is how good are you at risk control.” What sets him and other successful traders apart is their ability to recognize and the accept losses as an integral part of their trading careers. This is how they have endeavored to reach the peak of their game. Most of the mastery of learning and trading the markets successfully has a lot to do with cultivating the right psychology and expectations.
Therefore, as traders we must accept and channel our energy and focus towards ‘MANAGING LOSSES’ as opposed to ‘AVOIDING LOSSES’ to ensure we keep our losses minimal, and our profits optimal. This is our only chance of achieving a sustainable career out of trading. The best part is that there are parameters available for traders to manage and limit their losses. What’s more exciting is that you don’t need to stay on your screens all day monitoring and ‘controlling’ your losses, everything is set up for you to input the level and the little amount of capital that you are willing to risk in every trade, and leave everything to the markets to work, i.e. after doing your due diligence and analysis. As you walk away after setting up your trades, it’s usually clear on your mind exactly how much dollars you stand to lose should your trade go against your analysis/direction, and how much you stand to gain if it’s a win. In any case, the market does what it wants, and no one trader in the world can control its actions. We call it ‘over-the-counter’ business transactions.
Beware of anyone out there who purports that they don’t make any losses, that their language is that of ‘enormous profits’ as a total scam that you should keep off.
At Fourthstreet Consultants, we are driven by a common approach as we continuously train and mentor traders to achieve consistent returns by trading their own capital, as others add to their resume in securing trading and Financial market consultants job positions in the fast-growing money market industry.
Our Forex Course further takes you through live recorded trading sessions whereby you experience first-hand how to take losses trading real money on live markets. At the end of the day, with all trades and all small losses factored in, we make considerable profits, which is the nature and essence of any legitimate business. Everything is well laid out and demonstrated for you throughout the four Modules of the course. From well-articulated notes that have filtered the ‘noise’ from the internet, to trading videos with rich content demonstrating the various trading strategies, and how to apply them on live markets. Those looking to add another stream of income can sign up for our Trading Course Here to learn and earn from trading the Forex markets.
As I wind up, let us all strive to be people of value. We live in a society that is ‘result-oriented’. It cares less about your journey, or your struggles and failures along the way, but only for the end results. Embrace your own journey, pat yourself at the back with a ‘well done’ for those small achievements along the way because in most cases, No one will.
A. C. Bension said it right, “The Worst Sorrows in Life are not in its Losses and Misfortunes, but its Fears.”
