#personal honesty

I rung in new year 2002 in Tucson with Helena and our way-cool friend chelle. One of chelle's passions of that moment was Jimmy Eat World, and "The middle" was the current single. Two decades later, it remains a little callback to a dark place in my life, and the goodness and light around us.

Jimmy Eat World, who write their own songs, have become the great survivors of aughts emo. It's introspective and heartfelt rock music, and it connected with people. And it was an introduction to a band who have always been honest to themselves, perhaps an inspiration to be honest to ourselves.

It's the surprise of being taken off guard rather than pure shock. I'm not surprised I still feel pain of past incidents, but more so at their timing.

I have recently found myself really wondering...who the hell am I? Who do I want to be, what do I want to become?...In this mindspace I found myself feeling pretty darn down. After all, I’m 30 years old and still cannot figure out what career I truly want to pursue, what type of schooling am I interested in?...Do I want to follow my dream of going to cosmetology school?...Nursing?...Continue pursuing the opportunity to open a bakery one day?...What’s wrong with me?...Who gets to this age and has 5 children..5 children and doesn’t know what to do? Better yet, who has 5 children and wants to go to “Hair School”, isn’t that something teenagers want to pursue straight out of high school? Or Frankie from Grease? Lol..

In all of these thoughts and so many more, I found myself questioning a lot. As many of you have probably guessed, this is not something that has recently come about, this has been a lingering issue if you will since I was the oh so tender age of 16 years old. Yes, 16 years old, that means I’ve had 14 years of trying to figure out who I want to be and what’s best. The problem is, I’ve been under the impression that figuring out who I want to be means knowing who I want to be forever in the present. Ummm.....I am here to tell you, No!

And how did I come to the conclusion of No?..A simple statement from a sister I have spoken to maybe 3 times in 8 or more years...I had remembered seeing posts of hers on Facebook, times she had experienced similar things...maybe she could convince me I’m not crazy! Through a simple two paragraph conversation, one from me, one from her, the simplest statement of, “You never really figure it all out. You just realize one day that you'll never have it all figured out and you find peace despite that and THAT my dear, is the moment you know who you are: when you realize you may never fully know who you are. There is no "knowing" in permanence, there is just accepting what is. Right now. Who you are right now and what path you need to further your growth and positive healing. ’’

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Would You Like a Promotion?

[Stocks Technical Analysis] TradingReview360.com: We aim to bring you the best articles from around the globe. The post below is useful for those interested in Technical Analysis.

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Think of the new year as a promotion for you.  The exercise is simple in its execution and somewhat more challenging in its implementation. You’ve been promoted and are moving upstairs to Suite #2013 which has an improved view and is much more spacious for all your investment activities.  What makes this move unique and unlike any other is that the relocation requires you to review your 2012 trading journal and make a careful inventory of all your experiences and investing behaviors from last year. 

To quote Eric Zorn, you should think of it as “a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and ultimately reinforces humility.”  No one enjoys revisiting poor trades and bad executions, but remember that these are the building blocks of your growth as an investor.

Once this is done, you decide which achievements and accomplishments you want to bring with you into the next year.  When you’ve completed this list, you then review it and check off only those deeds and behaviors that you want to move with you into the new Suite #2013.  All the others that you’ve deemed to be unnecessary or unworthy can then be jettisoned from your luggage. 

So into the new year you fly – a new investor!  What remains with you is a compilation of only the “good stuff”, a sort of greatest hits from your 2012 trading year.  This transition clearly involves two objectives:  what you consciously leave behind and what you purposefully take with you.  Your move into this new metaphoric Suite #2013 must be executed with deliberateness and finality.  There is no going back to your old ways.

Personally, having done this exercise for years, I have found that a major benefit of this approach is that it forces me to address those instances when my analyses were correct but my execution was off (and vice-versa).  Even then, it’s necessary to unbundle my execution and look at both halves  — the technical execution and the emotional execution.  

It should be crystal clear why your trading journal is such a powerful ally.  Your journal is where you record your past responses, feelings and thoughts – as honestly as your can since these underlie your trading behaviors.  This emotional awareness allows you to dissect the trading process into smaller tasks and helps you track non-productive deviations.  This feedback loop is the secret sauce!

In his book The Successful Investor, William O’Neil wrote:  “I know how bad habits are formed and how hard it is to break them.  But break them you must, so you can develop new habits based on how the market actually works.”  The intention is that you become a modernized version of the investor you know you can become if you would only leave behind those tools and behaviors that will not contribute to this new version of yourself.  You only pack up and retain those elements that you know are the building blocks of this improved investor self.  Think of it as your personal 4R Program.

Reshaping

Realignment

Reprogramming

Refinement

You leave behind your old self – for it was imperfect – and as you let it go, you begin the transformation into the new self.    T. S. Eliot’s verse seems so appropriate: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language, and next year’s words await another voice.”  As an investor, embrace the challenge and possibilities of the coming 12 months.  Next December, you’ll know the effort was well worth it.

Trade well; trade with discipline! – Gatis Roze

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