Mike,
When I read One Good Trade and asked you some questions a while back, I didn’t put the pieces together. Am I correct in saying you expect all 66 traders to treat the trading as a job? Though one that can be quite exciting and nerve-racking to say the least. Your comments reminded me of my insurance days when I worked for an insurance concern. You work all day, period.
Even with my cancer treatments that I have been going through I have kept my business running and traded (I am not of the day trade temperament).
Your main point that I see is you can’t trade stocks unless you are in front of a screen.
Thank you for listening.
Daniel
@mikebellafiore
I would hope our traders do not treat trading as a job. I would define job, as doing what is required to earn a living and pay the bills. Said another way, a means to and end: money. I would hope they consider it a calling. Meaning for some reason, the challenge of trading propels them to a state of “flow”. The state of flow, termed by Prof. Csikszentmihalvi (I think going forward I will refer to him as Dr. C), former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experienced, so they are pursuing their life passion.
In a Wired magazine interview, Csíkszentmihályi described flow this way:
“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
Sitting in front of a screen for 10 hours a day would seem to most a grueling and perhaps boring endeavor. For the trader, intrigued by markets, price movement, and the craft of trading this is hours of play. And the getting better before and after market hours is their pursuit of mastery to that which is important to them.
Having said this and inferring perhaps your real question to me, if while trading you recognize you are on tilt, you should get up and take a timeout (Do You Need to Take a Walk (Trader)). Pull yourself out of the game if you are not playing well. This is why there are coaches. This is why coaches pull star players to the bench. This is not uncommitted trading, being lazy, or a failure to grind it out for the day. This is responsible, self-actualized, battery recharging, growth up to better trading.
You can be better tomorrow than you are today.
Mike Bellafiore
no relevant positions
