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#Post#: 324--------------------------------------------------
Mindful Meditation for Better Trading - Logbook
DIR By: fxvictory
Date: March 7, 2015, 4:57 am
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In the winter of 1999 I found myself among a group of almost 800
people at a ten-day Silent Mindfulness Meditation course on a
serene hillock in Igatpuri, a three hours drive from Mumbai.
These people had gathered to learn the ancient technique of
Vipassana, as taught by the Buddha three-thousand years ago.
After a four-year grueling journey as an outwardly brilliant
academic success but internally full of conflict for not having
the guts to chose the career path I really wanted to go down,
and almost on the verge of giving up my top laureates by willful
self-sabotage, someone recommended Vipassana which means seeing
things like they really are. Little did I know how invaluable
this technique would be in my trading.
Understanding the technique was simple and seemed superficial in
application. This was a technique of expanding breath awareness
and body awareness, and needed a dedicated ten days at a center.
You needed to be in complete silence for all of the period - the
days were completely filled with mindful practice. Each day
starts at 4 AM and the only activity you do is sitting still in
observation of breath and sensations - this goes on for full ten
hours broken only by breakfast and lunch, followed by a video
sermon that puts the day's practice in context. The student was
expected to go without dinner for ten days, but that paled in
comparison to maintaining the silence, apart from no luxuries of
life - no books, no music, no contact with the outer world.
However, an account of those ten days can be reserved for
another time - this is about the continuing practice and its
application to trading - by posting this here I wish to share
and reinforce my commitment to this technique before I go into
the combine, and essentially stay accountable so that I end up
doing the exercise every day to improve my trading.
Here I am posting the basics of this simple technique that has
helped me - I will add in details as I go along for the next 30
days.
The Technique:
The technique can be summarized in a few words - the goal is to
restore the mind's focus to the breath. Every time the mind
wanders away from breath, which means it has enveloped the
stray, random, important thoughts that remove its attention from
breath, gently guide it back to breath.
This is called the technique of Anapana and is the first step.
It sounds simple, but recognizing that the mind is actually
wandering is the key. By the time you realize that you have
strayed away, the mind is wide off the mark of the breath, and
refocusing is done - this happens over and over.
This is where the realm of successful trading lies, and not
conquering this realization of wandering is why a trader stays
mediocre, never achieving the goals he had started of with.
These are the 'voices' that a trader identifies as 'me' and
these are the voices, on the fringes of awareness, that blow up
our trading. Becoming mindful of these hidden conversations that
keep playing inside is the 'holy grail' - becoming first aware
of the structure inside you - the deeper fears, the internal
self-talk that trading really exposes.
This leads to the technique of Vipassana which is simply
observing the sensations created by the breath as it travels in
and out of the nostrils. These bodily sensations are, in simple
terms, the patterns of the mind that we condition, and which
precede the thought processes.
The sensations are of two types: 'Desire' type of sensations and
'avoidance' type of sensations - and as we observe them we
realize that thse sensations themselves are impermanent and
dissolve quickly, but they leave behind a layer that keeps
adding up over life as a residual repository leading to a life
of addiction, compulsion, obsession etc. all of which directly
affect trading.
The real effectiveness for a trader then is to actually come to
terms with the impermanence of each of these feelings - trading
can then be tackled effectively by letting go of the past,
breaking free of the self-imposed limitations and keep the
consciousness on a positive workable level - eventually a trader
has to realize that loss and change are a part of trading and
life but more than impulsive behavior and self-destruction don't
have to be! Looking mindfully we come to terms with our
emotional beings that cling to our insecurities and allow us to
propel ourselves to balance and peace while trading.
This then is the exercise in short.
I will post here my exercise details each day and will highlight
the sensations, negativity and losses that I was able to
overcome - always remembering that trading is a process and by
setting myself free I can tackle the real issues without habits
and negativity interfering at an unconscious level.
The true benefits I have found have been self-evident in
scalping where a moment of hesitation becomes the hurdle between
red and green, however trading is an activity where timeframe,
once aligned with personality, is secondary to trading success -
but only once the irrational fears and negativity comes out of
hiding and is managed to a mere ripple where it no longer
affects our trading. The same challenges are faced by scalpers
and long term investors alike.
Continued practice heightens my trading where I can truly
separate myself from the market and observe its waves without my
inner hurdles limiting me from the infinite opportunities
presented to me.
Once I realize that though all of us have internal dialog due to
daily challenges life presents as a unavoidable side-effect,
uncovering the netherworld instead of avoiding it became a
powerful tool in my trading.
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