Being Grateful As Traders

[analyst75 12]

“Education is incredibly important for traders. Traders should look to educate themselves as much as they can along their trading journey.” – James Hughes

 

In USA, Thanksgiving Day is around the corner. Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. It is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States and on the second Monday of October in Canada (definition source: Wikipedia.org). This year, Canada celebrated their Thanksgiving Day on October 13, 2014; the US will celebrate theirs on November 27, 2014.

 

The essence of this holiday is to give thanks. In trading also there are many things we can give thanks for. We tend to complain and fret over the disadvantages we think we face, without thinking of the advantages we enjoy. When we ponder the blessings we enjoy in our trading career (as well as in life), those seeming disadvantages pale into insignificance.

 

During my quite time, many reasons to be thankful as a trader came to my mind. Obviously, traders now enjoy great tools and services that were not available to those who were speculating just a few decades ago. Here are some of the reasons to be thankful. There are many more reasons than these. Could you think of additional reasons?

 

1. We’re grateful for the opportunity to trade and invest our money.

 

2. We’re grateful for good brokers out there who treat their clients fairly.

 

3. We’re grateful for funds managers who help us make profits by managing our funds. We’re grateful for great opportunities like copy trading/social trading, winning signals services, etc. which help us make money.

 

4. We’re grateful for regulatory bodies that regulate brokers, financial institutions, etc. They make financial markets safer for us to trade.

 

5. We’re grateful for cutting-edge trading platforms, data feeds and other tools that are available to us.

 

6. We’re grateful for free and paid education materials that are available to us. We enjoy trading education through various means, including books, DVDs, trading rooms, webinars, etc.

 

7. We’re thankful for many career opportunities that are available in the world of trading.

 

8. We’re grateful for winning trading systems and software – manual, semi-automated and automated strategies that are at our disposal. There are many strategies out there that work.

 

9. We’re thankful for those analytical tools and indicators that are available to us. These things help us to analyze the markets objectively.

 

10. We’re thankful for the fact that trading is a fantastic life-style. We can trade anywhere in the world as long as we have access to a good Internet connection.

 

11. We’re thankful that the markets don’t discriminate on the basis of nationality, gender, religion, education background, race, tribe, color, etc. The markets are a level playing ground, offering anyone an equal opportunity to be successful irrespective of the aforementioned factors.

 

12. We’re grateful that there are many good trading coaches the world over. They help us master various aspects of trading psychology, risk management, positions sizing, trading systems, chart patterns, trend cycles, etc. These coaches are selfless and altruistic individuals who love to help struggling traders. As for me, when the going was tough and I wanted to quit, I was inspired by successful coaches who made me realize that there are people who’re making consistent profits and that I can be successful too.

 

13. We’re thankful for the riches and financial freedom the markets proffer. Many people have made billions of dollars as traders and some of them are among the richest individuals on this planet. You mayn’t become a billionaire (or even a millionaire), but you can become financially free and live a fulfilled life. I define financial freedom as being able to meet your basic needs and still save money for future use.

 

14. We’re grateful for the availability of positive expectancy – which makes us make money regardless of occasional losses. If there were someone who can’t lose in the markets, that person would soon have all the money in the world. We do the right things to get the right results. The secret to trading success is in controlling your losses and adding to your winners.

 

15. We’re grateful that the markets don’t offer short-cuts to lasting success. More haste in trading is equal to less speed. Short-cuts are very dangerous. Those who take short-cuts are trying to dodge realities, but realities will face them eventually.

 

16. We’re grateful for the movement and liquidity present in the markets. Super rich individuals don’t seek to double their portfolios overnight. Instead, they seek slow and steady returns (which translate into great wealth over time). Retracements in the markets can be played by any trader, since they reflect smoothing of positions by large financial establishments. The smoothing of positions by large financial establishments sometimes cause contrarian movements in the markets, which are sometimes called significant rallies or dips.

 

17. We’re thankful that we’re free moral agents who can choose what our fate will be. Being active in the markets is a matter of interest and choice. When you’re interested in something, no-one needs to beg you or persuade you constantly before you do it. You’d even be willing to spend your time, resources and energy in order to master what you’re interested in. But if you aren’t interested in something, you won’t do it no matter how much noise is made about it, even if you’re persuaded again and again.

 

The list can go on… The tools and services we enjoy as traders ought not to be taken for granted. Can you think of any other reasons we should be grateful as traders?

 

Conclusion: We wish Americans a peaceful, blissful and rewarding Thanksgiving Day celebration. At the same time, we are grateful for wonderful opportunities the markets offer us. Yes, there are many reasons to be grateful as traders. When you taste success in your trading career, you’ll be hooked, and as such, you’d do well to strive for permanent success, not temporary success. May you become a successful trader.

 

I end this article with the quote below:

 

“Remember, trading from your highest and best self is all that matters to getting your desired trading results.” – Dr. Woody Johnson

 

Copyright: Tallinex.com

[MightyMouse 12]

Each thanksgiving I thank God that I wasn't an Indian at the original meal since the Indians who attended the feast were subsequently slaughtered. The dinner is believed to be the model used by many crime organizations since.

[jpennybags 11]

Each thanksgiving I thank God that I wasn't an Indian at the original meal since the Indians who attended the feast were subsequently slaughtered. The dinner is believed to be the model used by many crime organizations since.

 

That's "Native American" to you paleface...

 

I'm grateful that someone has a sense of humor after reading that drivel.

[MightyMouse 12]

That's "Native American" to you paleface...

 

I'm grateful that someone has a sense of humor after reading that drivel.

 

They were indians up until recently.

Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

 

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

 

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

 

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

 

Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.

 

Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.

 

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

 

This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

 

Our Thanks to Hill & Holler Column by Susan Bates susanbates@webtv.net

 

I completely embellished the part about the criminal organizations using it as a model.

[jpennybags 11]

Hopefully.... someone does still have a sense of humor about things...

 

The "Native American" thing has been a fixture in this society for the past 20 years (at least). What fucking good it does... well, I doubt it changes much.

 

What trading is: putting yourself on the profitable side of the argument (you will notice that I didn't say "right side"). Don't give thanks when you are profitable.... don't piss about it if you're not. None of these things matter, as none of it is "right" or "wrong" (even as your brain wants to categorize things).

 

There is nothing to give thanks for... either you are profitable, or you are not. Anything outside of that is not "trading"... it's farming, hope, and faith (not bad things at all,,, but it's not trading).

[MightyMouse 12]

Hopefully.... someone does still have a sense of humor about things...

 

The "Native American" thing has been a fixture in this society for the past 20 years (at least). What fucking good it does... well, I doubt it changes much.

 

What trading is: putting yourself on the profitable side of the argument (you will notice that I didn't say "right side"). Don't give thanks when you are profitable.... don't piss about it if you're not. None of these things matter, as none of it is "right" or "wrong" (even as your brain wants to categorize things).

 

There is nothing to give thanks for... either you are profitable, or you are not. Anything outside of that is not "trading"... it's farming, hope, and faith (not bad things at all,,, but it's not trading).

 

I have my father's disease: he still refers to Mohammad Ali as Cassius Clay. It's the apple and tree thing. I do find it funny how they came to be referred to as indians whether it is true or not.

 

I agree with your basis that hope and faith should not be a part of trading. To include them is to suspend the rational for the irrational.

[engulf 10]

I like the concept of being grateful, its what I was taught by my trading mentor. Being positive in hard when you are being creamed some days, but controlling emotions is what keeps us going, able to jump back in the next trade. I thank God for the opportunity to even be here