Every once in a while we are afforded the opportunity to start again. A chance to let go of all the things that hold us back, and to pursue a destiny of our choosing. A new year has begun and with it comes new opportunities.
You may be of the view that the market will end in the red, or perhaps you are of the view that the market will end in the green this year. I guess your own conviction depends on your own frame of reference and how optimistic or pessimistic you are. The way in which the year ahead unfolds is actually almost irrelevant. The fact is that the market will provide a whole new series of opportunities which you can use to enrich yourself and improve your trading skills.
You need to look back at the past year and analyse what you have done, how you can do better and what lessons you have learned. But you also need to let go of last year. My dad always says that you can’t unscramble the egg. What this means to me is that we cannot change the past or the decisions that we have made, you need to accept last year for what it was. For me it was a tale of two halves; the first was very good and I traded really well, the second half was incredibly challenging and I made a lot of mistakes that could have been avoided. I cannot undo anything that I have done or take back any of the experiences, although I can learn the lessons that they have to teach.
Instead of beating myself up and reveling in the mistakes that I have made, the opportunities that I let slip, or the things that I lost, I need to accept the outcome and allow myself to let go of those things. This is the only way that I will be able to approach the new year with a fresh mind and a strong will to improve. Sometimes people have tough years, but surviving them and learning from them is what makes us great traders.
I don’t want to say “new year, new me” because that is definitely not the case, nor is it ever really true. It’s more like “new year, same old me, but I’ve worked hard to let go of last year so that I can start this one without the things that hold me down”.
This year has started off very well for me and I feel excited and ready for the new opportunities that lie ahead. I should not get too caught up in the airy-fairy stuff though, because there is work to be done and focus is required. I am letting go of the past and allowing myself to focus completely on the now.
Seasons greetings and happy trading! Here’s to a profitable 2016.
