Ok I know you’re probably saying “What’s up with this guy?  Salsa Dancing, NYC Bus System, and Whack-A-Mole…now Tattoos’ and trading”. Well if you have been trading for any period of time you have most likely been tattooed at one point or another. Once you get tattooed for real it is there to stay it doesn’t just wash off. You are now the proud owner of a tattoo on your trading psyche.

Tattoos’ are sometimes famous for the circumstances that surround their birth in to existence. Was it a conscious well thought out decision or the result of a night or series of nights in which conscious well thought out decisions were not remotely within the realm of possibility?  It matters. A tattoo that was planned and picked with you knowing exactly what one was doing is usually worn with pride. Whereas the less thought out, spur of the moment alcohol or love induced tattoo may not be something one is anxious to show the world.

In trading being tattooed is much the same. Did you get tattooed in a trade that wasn’t well thought out in a moment of revenge trading or the classic “get back what was taken from me” trade? Did you opt to only think about that moment and not what this moment may imprint on the future?  Or was it a well thought out planned trade that just happened to encounter the law of probabilities and it was your turn for a tattooing?  One type of tattooing reminds you of loss of discipline and pain. The other although painful reminds you of why you keep your discipline so this happens less frequently.

What types of tattoos’ are you inked with? If you are tattooed from trading on tilt, revenge trading and a host of other brain seized strokes of undisciplined behavior, you need to be heading to the closet and finding a long sleeved turtleneck. The tattoos’ are there but you have to find a way to put them out of sight. Cover them up and move on. Vow to not make decisions that are going to harm your trading. When you sit down to trade wearing that turtleneck wear it with pride! Let it be a reminder that you have moved past the days of unplanned tattooing.

 

Jeff Davis      @Shaq48_Trading    [email protected]

Comments »