How often do you find yourself disrespecting your strategy because of your ego?
Many traders suffer from the obstacles of the ego, especially when they need to close a losing position.
In this article, we will explore how a trader can free himself from the temptations of his ego and begin a successful career.
Be aware that this does not mean getting completely rid of the ego — that is not possible as long as you find yourself in a human body.
Being free from the ego means accepting its existence and having enough free will to win over its needs.
The successful trader represents an evolved human with control of himself and his ego and an unconditioned state of mind.
Whenever someone has a sincere aspiration to evolve intrinsically, trading reveals an efficacious path to reach the goal.
The market is an incredible teacher, a benevolent one. It teaches the qualities of a virtuous man, applicable not only in trading but in life as a whole.
What is ego?
To start with the right foot, a short window of “philosophical” anthropology.
The ego is the self in (perceived within) the external environment. It is part of the outer world, therefore subjected to its conditions.
Being subjected to external conditions means depending on and relying on external impulses and resources. Practically speaking, the ego is the conditioned self. Such is why, when you are under the influence of your ego, you respond to external impulses or find it difficult to resist them.
Acknowledge the justness of the fabric of reality.
The highest accomplishment for a trader that wants to be free from his ego is to have a neutral mind.
He must accept that the fabric of reality implies two polarities: negative and positive. They are necessary for each other.
Since the ego is negative, this is the number one step to accepting its existence.
Realizing the fabric of reality permits the trader to welcome healthy losses that are necessary for healthy positive growth. Through acceptance, he recognizes that it is impossible to avoid losses because they are actually part of his process of building wealth.
Such understanding prevents the ego from being triggered when in front of a loss.
The perception of the polarities should be equal: the successful trader considers both positive and negative to have the same value. The fact that his interest is towards gain does not change the neutrality of his perspective.
Our interest to gain (positive) should not distort our perception of reality. From the very first moment we polarize our perception, it has already left the point of neutrality and has become distorted.
We must separate our sympathy from the objective reality of things. Analyzing insights from others to know their perspective can help in the process.
Elevate yourself.
To be free from ego is to elevate our complete being.
Elevating has various meanings. You can interpret it as abandoning mediocrity and gaining higher knowledge, discipline, and control.
After all, what we all are seeking is higher goals, and we must be of an aptly high level to reach them.
Everything described in this article ultimately aims for the utmost purpose of elevating our being. You can consider this the authentic way to be free from the chains of your ego. All the things that you strive for, that you give your effort to: are all meant, consciously or unconsciously, to contribute to your elevation, be it in the material or the abstract reality.
When you’re making your efforts to gain information, you’re dedicating yourself to the abstract environment, then eventually using your internal resources (knowledge) to generate material resources (wealth).
Pleasure and Discomfort
Pleasure and discomfort are matters of the ego.
The ego exists to seek pleasure and avoid discomfort. Since the ego is the conditioned self in the external world, it creates dependency and needs. Needs generate a subjective perception of reality to permit you to distinguish what can provide you pleasure and that which would cause you discomfort.
You don’t close a losing position because it would require being proven wrong, causing discomfort for the ego.
You close a winning position too quickly because it gives instant pleasure to the ego and cancels the possibility of discomfort in case that position turns into a loss.
The purpose of the ego is to guarantee survival. Success as we usually intend it is “out of reach” for the ego: its existence is not supposed for that kind of growth. It is programmed to guarantee passivity and survival.
The ego will always tend to keep the oscillation of growth within the environment of survival and comfort. Therefore, what gives you pleasure is often inconvenient in the long term, and winning discomfort makes you take giant positive steps in the direction of your aspiration.
The ego makes you think that there should be no discomfort, hence that you should incur no loss.
Such is an impossible scenario: the fabric of reality implies that there’s always a positive and negative component. The virtue relies upon accepting reality and optimizing the ratio between the two polarities following one’s interest.
If you also want to deepen into how to accept losses, check out Why A Trader Must NOT Be Attached To His Money.
The successful trader has reached a point where he doesn’t need to sacrifice pleasure or discomfort while trading because he has sufficiently heightened his threshold.
He can keep his ego out of trading. There is no problem for him in sacrificing a little discomfort for the pursuit of a greater purpose. However, this doesn’t mean that the successful trader lives through sterile operations and processes.
The difference between the desire for pleasure and aspiration
The desire for pleasure is an interest of your ego.
The ego makes you do things for returns of pleasure. It makes you act to obtain a conclusive pleasant return. You start to concentrate on waiting for it, losing interest in the action itself. You forget how to love doing things.
When you stop enjoying your trading, you start focusing on a conclusive return of your single trade, causing you to lose interest both in the process and in the aspiration, or more frequently, they are confused with seeking pleasure.
You live trade by trade, waiting for that single pleasure. You don’t do it to enjoy trading anymore but to make that single profit, over and over.
The ego makes you forget that corrective losses permit the growth to continue healthy.
Have you ever seen a chart without red bars?
All of this happens because you transformed your enjoyment and aspiration into a need for return.
Aspiration is the sincere desire you want to achieve in your spirit. For the love of it, you sacrifice your ego and proceed in doing the right thing.
Deep down, you know stopping that loss is the right thing to do. Winning the temporary discomfort will make you stronger and teach you to worry less; most importantly, it will increase your willpower.
What is the wrong approach for a trader?
The wrong approach for a trader is to take action by his ego.
Such a trader depends on the need to gain pleasure and avoid discomfort; as a result, he does not control his will, rather he is induced to take action by external conditions. Therefore, that action is, de facto, a reaction.
When a trader can’t control his will to stick to his plans and strategies, he will suffer both in his trading and inside himself.
He may have gratified his ego by submitting himself to that temptation, but his actions will eventually lead to the suffering of his spirit and the nonfulfillment of his aspirations.
The successful trader is the owner of his mind.
The successful trader has complete control over his psyche: he can choose if and how to polarize his mind and exercise his free will with dexterity.
In other words, he is self-conscious: he recognizes what he truly wants in his spirit and what his ego wants as his flesh. He knows that his ego doesn’t help his aspirations, only his material needs.
He understands that the ego is not supposed to attain goals and aspirations, whether these are material or immaterial. Its purpose is to satisfy the needs of his persona. Using it for pursuing a dream is counterproductive, as using the wrong instrument.
He knows that his aspirations reside in his spirit. By following it, the successful trader can see the convenient outcome and accepts to sacrifice instant pleasure or discomfort, needs of the ego, to stay in tune with his aspirations.
He is conscious that the mind is the instrument to create ideas. By having an unconditioned and neutral mind, he can use it in conjunction with his spirit, which is the source of his free will, and bring his ideas into reality.
The successful trader separates his interests from his perception of reality. He tries to see other people’s perspectives with the intent of verifying the justness of his view.
On the other hand, the average trader is very biased:
His mind is unwillingly polarized. External impulses dictate the polarity of his mind. It becomes uncontrollable by its owner and controllable by the outer environment.
What is the approach of the successful trader?
The successful trader applies his free will.
When trading, he forgets about his ego. He doesn’t need it. He can be free because he enjoys his trading, he loves what he does. This permits him to have no reason to seek temporary pleasures, avoid discomforts, or live in his head waiting for returns. His “pleasure” is enjoyment.
His enjoyment of trading is higher than a single trade return.
And when he looks behind him and sees all the things that he has accomplished through the ups and downs of his trading, he is filled with joy because his actions have created something good.
By trading without ego, he gets no emotional impact, therefore he can see unconditionally and make the right decisions.
The key of the successful trader
The successful trader sees not his accomplishments as a return for his love for trading. Otherwise, that would not be love, but need.
He sees his accomplishments as a joyful and natural consequence of the fulfillment of his purpose, the attainment of his aspiration. The successful trader strives to make it useful for collectivity.
In conclusion
We analyzed the nature of the ego and how it interacts with such a complex activity as trading.
We understood that the first step to being free from the ego is to acknowledge the fabric of reality and accept both positives and negatives, thus agreeing with the existence of the ego.
However, accepting does not mean indulging. We can consciously choose what part of ourselves to feed.
When we aspire for something, we don’t want to use the ego to reach it, because it is not its purpose, and it would be counterproductive.
The just road towards our aspirations is full of enjoyment, love for the process, and sacrifice of the ego to do the right thing and aim for a higher purpose.
The successful trader is the owner of his mind, independently from external conditions — when he decides that it’s time to make progress, he makes progress.
Everything described in this article has the sole purpose of being informative and providing general information. The author has no intention of providing any financial advice, legal advice, or tax advice. Do not rely on this article to make investment decisions. Seek professional help before making any such decision. The author does not take any responsibility for loss or damage of any nature. The use you make of the information contained in this article is your sole responsibility.