The Market As Uncertain Possibility -- an Ocean of Possibility

[Rande Howell 10]

Imagine the market as the totality of possibility. Unlimited in potential in any direction at any time. Potential for profit. Potential for loss. Potential beyond your capacity to ever comprehend. What you know is that the market goes up and down. Rarely does it stay unchanged for any length of time. Then imagine you as an observer watching the market. The market is an ocean of possibility, while you, the observer, represent someone in a small boat navigating in this infinite sea of possibility. What do you, as a buyer or seller, see? The tide goes in, the tide goes out. Storms come and go. There is no telling what this ocean of possibility is really going to do at any given time.

 

Yet, depending on the skill of the navigator of the boat in this ocean of infinite possibility, he either harvests what the ocean is willing to give him or he keeps looking for what he wants from the ocean. If his vision is locked on finding what he is looking for, he becomes blind to other possibility that the ocean presents. The ocean, as well as the market, does not know the fisherman is there. It is incapable of wanting to help or hurt the fisherman. Possibility opens and possibility closes irrelevant to the fisherman. The ocean simply is.

 

Opportunity and disaster both exist as possibility to the navigator of the boat in the sea of possibility. It is the discernment of the navigator, beyond fear, that opens or closes possibility in the market. Until fear is taken off-line, the fisherman of possibility sees through the eyes of fear and can not see the potential of a long term beneficial relationship with the ocean of possibility called the market.

 

The ocean of possibility does not know that the fisherman is using a structure (the boat) to navigate through this sea of possibility. In the same way, the market is obvious to the structure (methodology) a trader will use to help make sense out of the market. That structure helps the trader (the navigator and fisherman) of the market to make short term predictions about what the market might bring forth at any particular time. What the trader and the fisherman know though is that they have to be prepared for what ever the market (as an ocean of possibility) might do. He does not control the market, but he does control what he will do based on what the market does.

 

A fisherman in a boat must bring skills to the dance between the ocean of possibility and him. He has trained himself to “follow” the lead of the ocean. By learning to respect and have reverence for the ocean, he is able to bring forth a bounty from the sea. He becomes attuned to the market. On the other hand, if he does not become an astute observer of the ocean and his beliefs about the ocean, he can easily get hurt. He can crash his boat and himself. The market, nor the ocean, would ever know. It just is. It is the trader, or the fisherman, who has to learn to stay calm and develop an observer of the market who can successfully read the signs of the market. This is attunement.

 

Staying calm is the first stage into the journey of attuning yourself to the market as a trader. This is what we are going to examine now. We will first learn the fundamental skills of emotional regulation by managing our breathing and by generating a sense of calm. Without these valuable skills, you will not be able to stabilize your emotions so that you can develop the mindset of attunement.

 

In that new construction of the self beyond fear, you will be developing the qualities of discipline, patience, impartiality, and courage. It is these qualities that allow you to claim the bounty that the market (as a sea of possibility) offers you. It is through these eyes a skilled trader sees.

 

Rande Howell