Today I remembered a phrase by Richard Dennis that I’ll never forget—or so the books say: FORGET ABOUT THE MONEY.
And that’s easy when you have an open position in profit, but when you’re in a losing position, forgetting about the money and seeing the drop as just another data point isn’t so SIMPLE
Then I remembered that before I devoted myself entirely to trading, I practiced law, and it was the complete opposite: I had to REMEMBER THE MONEY. In other words, I had to find a way to detach myself when I had to keep working late into the night, through endless days under inhumane conditions...
I remembered that the time was NEVER mine; I always had to work to someone else’s schedule, selling them my energy, health, and youth in exchange for a miserable PAYCHECK
I also remembered that your opinions, even when well grounded in logic and reason, were NOT welcome because you might take the boss’s job, or because someone had a fragile EGO and was ready to throw you out on the street
I remembered those “coworkers”—the ones who’ll gladly trip you up if they can, with a big smile plastered on their faces
And after remembering so many years of WEAR AND TEAR, Richard Dennis’s phrase feels as sweet as it is necessary, because now I understand that FORGETTING ABOUT THE MONEY means there’s a system behind it that supports the decision to leave a losing position open
Because there’s a METHOD behind it, one that justifies that loss with data (which is like knowing your vehicle won’t fall apart just because you’re driving it)
It’s not my clouded judgment waiting for a recovery that will never come, or me holding on to a loss because I’m so bold and gutsy. NO
Quite simply, the rules behind that loss stop me from touching the trade out of panic, from letting my reptilian survival system kick in and tell me that if I don’t get out right now, I’ll DIE
So today, as is so often the case, Richard Dennis was right: if you trade, FORGET ABOUT THE MONEY
A time for reading
And that’s easy when you have an open position in profit, but when you’re in a losing position, forgetting about the money and seeing the drop as just another data point isn’t so SIMPLE
Then I remembered that before I devoted myself entirely to trading, I practiced law, and it was the complete opposite: I had to REMEMBER THE MONEY. In other words, I had to find a way to detach myself when I had to keep working late into the night, through endless days under inhumane conditions...
I remembered that the time was NEVER mine; I always had to work to someone else’s schedule, selling them my energy, health, and youth in exchange for a miserable PAYCHECK
I also remembered that your opinions, even when well grounded in logic and reason, were NOT welcome because you might take the boss’s job, or because someone had a fragile EGO and was ready to throw you out on the street
I remembered those “coworkers”—the ones who’ll gladly trip you up if they can, with a big smile plastered on their faces
And after remembering so many years of WEAR AND TEAR, Richard Dennis’s phrase feels as sweet as it is necessary, because now I understand that FORGETTING ABOUT THE MONEY means there’s a system behind it that supports the decision to leave a losing position open
Because there’s a METHOD behind it, one that justifies that loss with data (which is like knowing your vehicle won’t fall apart just because you’re driving it)
It’s not my clouded judgment waiting for a recovery that will never come, or me holding on to a loss because I’m so bold and gutsy. NO
Quite simply, the rules behind that loss stop me from touching the trade out of panic, from letting my reptilian survival system kick in and tell me that if I don’t get out right now, I’ll DIE
So today, as is so often the case, Richard Dennis was right: if you trade, FORGET ABOUT THE MONEY
A time for reading