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Strong emotions and successful trading do not mix. I have often made the point that trading needs to be boring. Let’s look at the effect of anger in one’s life and one’s trading.
Imagine this: it is 5:30AM. I am doing my morning exercise in the city. I come to a pedestrian crossing. The pedestrian light is red. I have a look around it seems safe. I start to cross the street. I then notice a car in the lonely streets speeding to the intersection with the indicator on. I make an assessment and decide to play it safe and back away to the sidewalk. After all, the car has right of way. While it is early in the morning and the streets are empty, I choose to play it safe.
The car speeds through the empty street into the intersection. The driver slams on the horn as he approaches the intersection, beeps all the way through the turn, sticks his head out the window and screams abuse at me for attempting to cross the street when the light is red. I am amazed by the intensity of his anger.
Who is right? He is. I tried to cross the street when the pedestrian light was red. It was 5:30AM and the streets were empty, but nevertheless, I was wrong. I started thinking about how angry he was, the intensity was over the top. My guess is: he was carrying a fair bit of anger with him before the incident, during it and many hours and days after it. Is his anger justified? Maybe! Let’s look at it from another viewpoint. What is the anger doing to him day in day out?
Buddha said: “Holding on to anger is like holding on to a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
Are you an angry person? Are you an angry trader? Are you angry at the markets? Are you angry at the broker, the advisor, the fund manager, the software developer? Are you angry because the markets fell for twelve months? Are you angry at your husband, wife, brother, sister, children, dog, cat, the president, the prime minister? Even if your anger is 100% justified, is that anger helping you or getting in your way? Do you want to hang on to your anger? If there was a lot of trading profits as a reward, would you be willing to let go of your anger? Are you willing to let go of it? Can you let go of wanting to get even?
Each change starts with a decision. There are many tools and techniques to manage and reduce your anger which is beyond the scope of this article. Counselors, self help books, workshops and help phone lines are some thoughts that come to mind.
Remember, it starts with a decision.
Believe, achieve
Sinan Koray
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