Keep the vibe up!
Table of Contents
Hi 🙂,
it can become much more clear to me how much of trading the stock market is
really about your personality.
Sure, “personality leads, money follows”, but how is that supposed to work?
- Fear and pain, hope and greed interfere with my decision-making and my ability to execute my strategy.
- I need to be able to wait paitiently and withstand the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen.
- Ego and fear stop me from seeing things for what they are.
If you are interestested in reading more, I highly recommend: Best Loser Wins1.
Becoming a better human being will make you a better trader.2
I am thinking about dedicating myself to becoming a day trader. This to me, was the most curious development. I had strongly objected the depiction of that lifestyle in the past. After all, my aim is financial independence, not another job. What got me was this quote:
Perhaps it is time to acknowledge trading for what it is? It is a great way to expose all your flaws. It is a great way to highlight your strengths. Through my trading and my research, I have uncovered weaknesses in my character. – Tom Hougaard1
Day trading does not interest me because it is easy, but because it is hard. My intention going in would be to grow as a person. Profits would be nice, but secondary.
What I’m working on #
For context, see /now.
- apply internal analysis
Spend a certain amount of trading time on analysing my emotional reactions - create trading records system
Implemented in emacs, it is well underway: script to create a trade, insert a chart screenshot - read Best loser wins1
- use short put strategy
Have been putting these trades on all week in paper. Going well so far.
Commitments #
My ongoing commitments are:
- Focus challenge until December 19th
- No buying sweets and such until the end of the year
- Publishing this newsletter every Sunday (2x streak😎)
Challenges #
Applying a specific learning or philosophy for a week (see project.)
Last one #
Last weeks challenge was: Don’t react. Create!
Despite seeing it multiple times per day, I did not use it. Only in retrospect I would “apply” this to my behavior. Because “what I want to create” needs to be translated in the moment, I could not apply this as an automatic rule3. Nice story, but doesn’t work (for me.)
Next one #
The next challenge is similar and easy to apply automatically3:
Keep the vibe up!
Halte Deinen Vibe oben. Reg Dich nicht auf, wenn Du die Emotionen runter marschierst. Wenn Du schlecht drauf wirst, ist es Deine oberste Pflicht, deinen Vibe zu reparieren, denn Du bist sonst eine wandelnde Dreckschleuder. – Alex Fischer4
English translation
Keep up the vibe. Don’t get upset, as you’re going down through the emotions. If you are in a sour mood, it is your chief priority to reapir your vibe. Otherwise you are a walking polluter.4
An example where I noticed this: During some code review I was pissed: “So much copy-pasted ChatGPT crap that I will have to clean up😠” I noticed my negative vibe, left the review and later the code looked mostly fine!
New articles #
Nothing to see here folks.
See you next week,
Jonathan
PS: Please let me know if you have any comments, feedback or criticism.
Best Loser Wins - Tom Hougaard: A book about the mental attitudes required to be a successful trader. It’s the best book on the stock market I’ve engaged with so far. The author is a real one. He knows what he’s talking about, is genuine and he lives what teaches. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
From a talk by Tom Hougaard: The ideal trading mindset ↩︎
I mean the automatic application of a rule in the sense that there is a clear trigger in my head (if this then apply that). What is executed could be an automatic reaction (notice my water bottle is empty and I go to refill it, notice time-tracking is in the wrong category and I fix it) or a phrase that pops into my head (like I’m not present, I’m want to interrupt this person.) ↩︎ ↩︎