I lived and trained as a full time cloistered celibate monk for ten years in a yoga ashram during my twenties, curiously picking up a few tips along the way regarding the best strategy for becoming a profitable trader. Ironically, the monk mindset is conducive to that of the trader, as well as successfully walking the path of life in general. Let me share with you some insights that I learned which will help anyone make a success of their life, including as a trader and a seeker of liberation.
Learn how to accept loss
Life is going to come with its fair share of gain as well as loss, none more so than the life of the trader. You put your money on the line with every buy or sell as you speculate which side will be more profitable. And with each choice, no matter how informed or measured and calculated, there is the chance that the trade will go contrary to your prediction, even if only for a while. A frustrating trade set-up is one where you go long, only to see price dip and stop you out. But even more frustrating is the trade where you go long, price dips and hits your stop-loss, and then pumps back to the upside, just as you foresaw, but now you are out of the trade and you lost not only some cash but also the obvious long trade and profit.
This is enough to hugely increase your frustration as a trader. You set your stop loss too tight, or perhaps the stop-loss hunters were one step ahead of you because you thought like the herd, which is quite natural. This can crush a new trader’s spirit and determination to forge on. Being blinded by the loss and its effect upon our resolve, is something we need to avoid because life is going to throw these losses at you sometimes. Particularly as a trader, who is someone that willingly walks the path of more risk than most.
If you want to succeed at the game of life, then you need to develop a metaphorical thick skin. You need to become detached. The monk prepares himself from the start, knowing that the path is going to bring loss as well as gain, and he knows that possessions do not determine ones value as a person. Life has three sorts of misery – that caused by other living entities (adhibhautika), that caused by material nature (adhidaivika), and that caused by your own body and mind (adhyatmika).
You cannot escape these. For example, there will be miseries from other creatures, like mosquitoes that bite. There will be miseries from other people too. And there will be miseries from nature, like too much heat or cold. These one can learn to tolerate. But the hardest miseries to overcome are the one’s caused by our own mind. You do it to yourself. Such suffering comes from attachment and the resultant feeling of loss it can incur. By learning that loss is part of the package, the monk prepares himself by becoming resistant to loss. It’s a battlefield when you enter such a high risk zone like the trading floor, with you battling against the market, buyers versus sellers. Sometimes there will be casualties.
Having the detachment of a monk is key to surviving as a trader. And that detachment comes from faith in a higher goal or power, in the method, in the teachings and ultimately in yourself. With knowledge one can see the bigger picture and tolerate any loss along the way. If you are not able to see yourself as different from your assets, whatever they are, then you will feel crushed when they are crushed. It’s like a motorist whose car is hit in an accident and then cries out “you hit me!” Obviously the driver is not the car and was not hit, but still he or she identifies with the car and claims to be hit. Similarly, you are not your trading stack and you remain complete, despite its depletion.
Ignore FUD
Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) will come from all sides in life and particularly in the trading sector. The masses will always deride the monk for walking away from material life. I know this first hand. As soon as you set yourself apart, or take a contrarian stance to the herd, you will be attacked and laughed at. By taking your stance, you are indirectly criticizing their stance, finding fault with it, and nobody likes to be called out for their choices.
Even by becoming a cryptocurrency trader or bitcoin enthusiast, you are moving into a field unknown to most and therefore shunned by them. You are calling out the mainstream legacy finance world of fiat currency as a sham and a losing bid. And your faith in your choice will be tested and ridiculed by those who cannot see the light as you have done. You will be in such a minority, that unless you are fixed in your faith, which is built upon education, your ego will feel crushed and you will doubt yourself.
You need to be able to ignore this FUD and keep the faith. If you have done your research, then you have nothing to fear. Walk that long road to freedom, if I may borrow a phrase from my president Nelson Mandela, the liberator of the oppressed, at least from a political perspective. The path of a trader is long and there is no easy money. Loss and doubt in yourself and your strategy will plague you, particularly in the beginning. Yet you will learn to remain undisturbed as you forge on, one trade at a time and one profit after the other. You learn to play the long game, keeping the goal in mind. That is the way of the trader and the monk, based upon my experience in both.
Stay cool and avoid FOMO
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is another trap that pulls the mind into chasing profit. It tests your greed. You may see others making profit as the green candles pump. The opportunity to make gains is right before you. Perhaps you have already gained and your trading stack or portfolio has grown exponentially. You can see this especially in the cryptocurrency market where gains are tenfold what they can be in normal investing, like the stock market, real estate or gold. Yet you need to keep a cool head even during gain and profit.
The path of the monk is similar, in that you are taught to give up chasing profit, or in fact chasing any of the allures of the material energy. Gain and loss will come of its own accord, primarily based upon your karma. You can choose to make your destiny by personal effort if you wish, but the wise know that sometimes all your efforts to accumulate or protect your wealth can be thwarted by circumstance. Conversely, profit can come to those who do very little, like the “hodler” or investor who buys bitcoin and forgets about it, only to come back months later to see that their investment is now worth 500% more, simply because they unknowingly bought at the right time in the four year cycle. Such is the nature of karma or destiny. You might call it chance if you wish.
And easy gains can lead one to become frivolous or careless too. Such an overreaction to gain can also be a pitfall, which is why the monk learns to take not only loss but also gain in their stride by keeping cool and detached. A candle may be pumping and others may appear to be making huge gains, yet the monk keeps to the strategy, not throwing away the rulebook because of lust in the heat of the moment or the sight of a pretty green candle passing before your eyes. These are the symptoms of a steady mind, which qualifies one to be called a sage or a wise person.
Beware rage or revenge trading
When the market dumps you and you fall victim to the pitfalls mentioned above, there is the tendency to want revenge. In the heat of the moment, pulled by attachment and greed, one can come under mental self-imposed suffering, based upon attachment. At this time, a weak minded trader may be tempted to dive into a trade recklessly, like a person riled by an enemy or spurned by a lover. They may act brashly and push harder, when they should actually wait or walk away. This severe attachment to gain, and fear of loss, will tempt you to give up your strategy and risk it all, usually with the result of greater loss.
This is a big test of your fear and greed, as well as your ability to keep a cool head. The temptations of the market and its gains is always present, especially when you enter a highly liquid cryptocurrency exchange, where possible profit awaits you 24 hours a day. Sometimes due to too much association with others who chase profit, one can become addicted to the dopamine rush from even just the allure of potential profit, what to speak of actually making gains, a few percentage at a time. The monk knows how to walk away from these allures, thanks to an iron resolve built upon education and training in real values, as well as self-worth beyond that of any external requirements.
To conclude, a steady mind is what you are aiming for. Learning to be equipoised will help the trader as much as it helps the monk. Curiously, I have approached this path first as a monk then later as a trader, to my benefit. However, you could do it the other way around. If you are able to learn the skills of a trader, without becoming overwhelmed by the allures of wealth accumulation, then you could perhaps apply your trading insights to your spiritual journey too. It’s one big road called the path of life, whether as a monk or a trader.
The goal is to know yourself, your psychology and furthermore to know yourself as consciousness beyond even the body, mind and material world. The wisdom gained from trading can be helpful on the path of consciousness too, so play the game, learn the lessons and apply them to your life. You may just be able to succeed at both your material and your spiritual journey, as you move from the relative to the absolute. Much is possible when you apply yourself with practice.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:56
दुःखेष्वनुद्विग्नमनाः सुखेषु विगतस्पृहः ।
वीतरागभयक्रोधः स्थिधीर्मुनिरुच्यते ॥ ५६ ॥
duḥkheṣv anudvigna-manāḥ
sukheṣu vigata-spṛhaḥ
vīta-rāga-bhaya-krodhaḥ
sthita-dhīr munir ucyate
duḥkheṣu—in the threefold miseries; anudvigna-manāḥ—without being agitated in mind; sukheṣu—in happiness; vigata-spṛhaḥ—without being too interested; vīta—free from; rāga—attachment; bhaya—fear; krodhaḥ—anger; sthita-dhīḥ—one who is steady; muniḥ—sage; ucyate—is called
TRANSLATION
One who is not disturbed in spite of the threefold miseries, who is not elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.
COMMENTARY
The word muni means one who can agitate his mind in various ways for mental speculation without coming to a factual conclusion. It is said that every muni has a different angle of vision, and unless a muni differs from other munis, he cannot be called a muni in the strict sense of the term. Nāsau munir yasya mataṁ na binnam. But a sthita-dhī-muni as mentioned herein by the Lord, is different from an ordinary muni The sthita-dhī-muni is always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, for he has exhausted all his business of creative speculation. He has surpassed the stage of mental speculations and has come to the conclusion that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, or Vāsudeva, is everything. He is called a muni fixed in mind. Such a fully Kṛṣṇa conscious person is not at all disturbed by the onslaughts of the threefold miseries, for he accepts all miseries as the mercy of the Lord, thinking himself only worthy of more trouble due to his past misdeeds; and he sees that his miseries, by the grace of the Lord, are minimized to the lowest. Similarly, when he is happy he gives credit to the Lord, thinking himself unworthy of the happiness; he realizes that it is due only to the Lord's grace that he is in such a comfortable condition and able to render better service to the Lord. And, for the service of the Lord, he is always daring and active and is not influenced by attachment or aversion. Attachment means accepting things for one's own sense gratification, and detachment is the absence of such sensual attachment. But one fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness has neither attachment nor detachment because his life is dedicated in the service of the Lord. Consequently he is not at all angry even when his attempts are unsuccessful. A Kṛṣṇa conscious person is always steady in his determination.
Bhagavad Gita ch2:57
यः सर्वत्रानभिस्नेहस्तत्तत्प्राप्य शुभाशुभम् ।
नाभिनन्दति न द्वेष्टि तस्य प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठिता ॥ ५७ ॥
yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas
tat tat prāpya śubhāśubham
nābhinandati na dveṣṭi
tasya prajnā pratiṣṭhitā
yaḥ—one who; sarvatra—everywhere; anabhisnehaḥ—without affection; tat—that; tat—that; prāpya—achieving; śubha—good; aśubham—evil; na—never; abhinandati—prays; na—never; dveṣṭi—envies; tasya—his; prajnā—perfect knowledge; pratiṣṭhita—fixed
TRANSLATION
He who is without attachment, who does not rejoice when he obtains good, nor lament when he obtains evil, is firmly fixed in perfect knowledge.
COMMENTARY
There is always some upheaval in the material world which may be good or evil. One who is not agitated by such material upheavals, who is unaffected by good and evil, is to be understood to be fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As long as one is in the material world there is always the possibility of good and evil because this world is full of duality. But one who is fixed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not affected by good and evil because he is simply concerned with Kṛṣṇa, who is all good absolute. Such consciousness in Kṛṣṇa situates one in a perfect transcendental position called, technically, samādhi.
Reference: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, translation and commentary by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta, original 1972 Macmillan edition (www.prabhupadabooks.com)
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