A couple of weeks ago I hit a losing streak. A mix of stubbornness, probably improper timing and maybe a little improper position sizing left me a few days down in the hole and feeling so frustrated. Why was I not sticking to the plan? Or maybe why was I willing to let myself be positioned for a bit more pain than I was willing to handle. Why was I willing to let myself be in pain at all?
It took about four days until I was talking to a friend who is starting to learn technical analysis before I discovered the problem. I was in full on self-sabotage mode. Looking back at the timeline, I discovered that the exact minute I went on a losing streak, to the second, was the exact minute I received excellent news about something I’m really nervous and excited for. It was as if the news that was going to take me out of my comfort zone into something great, caused me to immediately start spiraling in other areas.
After this discovery, my losing streak immediately ended. The next day it reversed completely. Even the markets seemed to reverse for me. I do believe in coincidence, but I believe even more that we often don’t pay attention to the many issues we struggle with. While it’s a topic I have studied a lot, I love the psychology of trading also because it is a forever journey in helping myself as well. I believe very strongly that the surface issues we look to address, an entry, an exit, simple patience act only to teach us deeper lessons in our lives. They look to unearth things we are ignoring and suppressing. In willing to dig deeper, to talk things through, to feel uncomfortable, we can continue to grow, transform and ultimately feel we are on the path to being the best version of ourselves.
