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This newsletter continues with some small grabs from my upcoming book the Zen Trader. It also contains a free 15 minute meditation I designed specifically for traders - although anyone will find it useful.

 
 

With the markets challenging us at the moment with uncertainty, volatility and for many probably equity drawdown, there is no better time to evaluate your thinking. Clarity of thinking is the key to discovering what  may be holding you back, or helpful in improving your performance at work and quality of life. The Zen Trader was written not just for enhancing performance and life - but also for times as we are experiencing now.

One of the biggest problems for traders is being attached, chapter 5 goes into detail about how that mindset is detrimental to your performance as a trader and more importantly to your happiness.

Here is a sample from Chapter 5 of the Zen Trader

 Correct understanding of attachment produces clarity of thought.

 “In this example, attachment to losses of the past  – becomes the obstacle in the trader’s mind. It prevents them from thinking calmly and rationally about the markets as they are now, rather than how they were then. An interesting side note here is the experience of Edwin Coppock, inventor of the Coppock Curve indicator. Edwin had been asked by the Episcopal Church of the USA to identify buying opportunities for long-term investors. He considered that market downturns were like bereavements, which required a period of mourning from loss. With this comparison in mind, he asked the church bishops how long it normally took for people to recover from grief. Their answer was 11 to 14 months. He then used those periods in his calculations. It is interesting to note that when the market downtrend started at the beginning of the GFC in 2008, it bottomed 14 months later (late February 2009), before starting an uptrend in March 2009. My own personal experience as a Zen priest, talking to practitioners suffering traumatic loss, is similar to that of the Episcopal Church bishops. This discussion about grief, emotion and relationships is very important, as something traders forget or don’t even realise is the relationship they enter into when they trade. Some may think they are forming a relationship with the market, but they are actually having a relationship with themselves. The market exposes the real you, the one full of attachments that create all your pain. Zen believes relationships can be one of our greatest teachers. Eventually the realisation occurs that it is not the actions of others that create the discomfort being felt, but rather the ideas and perceptions one has about a situation. Attachment obstacles, close your mind and cause losing trades.”

Chapter 5 is a very challenging topic. However, it is important to understand it well because it is a huge issue for most traders. Zen is not asking you to be robotic and non feeling, quite the opposite - it is asking you to understand your emotions and turn them into the asset they can be.

A reminder that if you are interested in my weekly market comments also the 52 week closing highs for the ASX, then click on the link below where I post them every weekend.

https://www.easysharetradingsystems.com.au/how-to-trade/52-week-highs 

I will follow up this email with another ASAP - containing a small example from the next chapter, until then live and trade well - and click on the link below for more info about the book.  You can also buy the book from Amazon, Booktopia and Audible. The link below also contains the free meditation, just scroll down the page.

https://www.easysharetradingsystems.com.au/products-and-services/e-books/zen-trader

A Zen saying

Learning to detach opens your mind to see the boundaries and limitations that your mind creates.

Peter

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