A Trader Journal

Change yourself, change your trading.

Meditation and Trading - Part 2

Learning to Meditate:
Learning to meditate is a process that involves at least four distinct stages:
  • Right Attitude
  • Right Technique
  • Developing Focus
  • Cultivating Awareness

Right attitude - Is a mind set or mental stance that we bring to meditation. Such an attitude takes time and commitment to develop. Fortunately practice of meditation itself helps us to learn right attitude. Interestingly trading also requires the same attitudes (covered in later part of series) and more so if the trading methodology involves charts and playing trends. 

Right Technique - This involves learning specific methods of sitting and focusing your awareness that facilitate meditation. It then involves being disciplined and following same technique day in day out. Can you see parallel to trading and following trading plan? 

Developing Focus - This involves practicing additional techniques to reduce the inevitable distraction that all of us confront. Would this help a day trader when a market is slow or a position trader with longer term positions?

Cultivating Awareness - The culmination of above three stages is "mindfulness". Cultivating this is the process of making a fundamental shift in our relationship to our own inner experience. It is to develop an "inner observer" within our self that enables us to bear witness rather than react to the ups and downs. Would this skill help a trader in dealing with losses, draw downs, missed/mismanaged opportunities?

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Note: I am not an expert on meditation. So the contents of this series is a summary of my readings and understanding. Part of the reason I am writing this series is for myself to learn better the concepts and improve my own practice. This post is NOT an advice or recommendation. 

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