Thoughts

One of my AHA moments came a few months back, when one of my friends asked me this question:

"Does swing trading frustrate you every now and then?"

I casually wrote the reply with whatever instantaneously came to mind. But when I re-read it later, I just couldn't stop myself from thinking about it for days. This was the answer:

"No, swing trading doesn't frustrate me 'every now & then'. rather it 'satisfies' me every now & then; most other times it keeps me in a constant state of frustration."

Since then, I've been sitting in cash, having realized that the least I can do is to not perform an inherently frustrating activity in a frustrating market environment.

It's like playing chess against a monkey in a hurricane.

Swing traders can be broadly divided into two groups based on their approach to the markets.

• High-frequency Hunters. These traders will try to seize every opportunity and strive to maximize it. Traders who log 3R, 5R, 10R trades even in bad markets just by making use of even a 1- to 3-day big move in any stock belong to this group. They are adjusting their positions to grow their accounts quickly and not letting their capital sit idle.
• Low-frequency Snipers. These traders (like me) will sit out until the market conditions improve and let go of these 1- to 3-day or 3- to 5-day moves. This is because whenever I have tried high-frequency cash swing trading in the past, I've found myself letting go of all discipline & trading whatever comes to my sight. Besides this, I lack the time required to spot & execute such fast moves.

Neither approach holds a monopoly on profitability. The "correct" approach is the one that aligns strategy with temperament. It is less about the trades you take and more about knowing which trades you are built to take.

As for me, I will only trade clean setups in liquid names in a good market environment. I want them to give me sustainable moves that I can hold & trail, even if this means that I've to sit out for prolonged periods.

Some of my random thoughts about time & money:

• We value what we lack.
• Young people value money; as they get older, they start valuing time more.
• You know your bank balance, but not how much time you've got left.
• Time is a depreciating asset. Once this moment passes, it joins everything else that no longer exists.
• People spend time as carelessly as pocket change.
• You can create money from money, but not time from time.
• The purpose of money is to reclaim the time we have in our lives.
• The wealthy people buy time with money; the poor earn money with their time.
• Beyond a limit, happiness ceases to increase proportionately with the money that we have.
• "Paisa chahe khatam ho na ho, time ek din zaroor khatam ho jayega".

There are 3 reasons why you experience FOMO (fear of missing out) in trading.

1. You don't have a well-defined process.

Your process should answer 3 questions for you with utmost clarity:

• What is to be traded? (stock selection)
• When is it to be traded? (market conditions + low-risk entry point)
• How is it to be traded? (fast or slow trailing, selling in strength or weakness)

If you don't have a pre-defined answer to these questions, you don't have a process. It's going to be a long, hard journey for you from here.

2. You believe in your "let's-do-this-and-see-what-happens" approach more than the rules of the actual process themselves.

This is a problem of acting on idiosyncratic practices rather than a well-tested system. This is a reckless, trigger-happy, indisciplined approach, with no respect for a probabilistic mindset. You need to develop more trust in your system so that you no longer act as an emotional trader. You're halfway there.

3. You actually became lazy & missed out on a trade that you should have executed with your rules.

This is the only condition where you are genuinely allowed to feel FOMO. Happens sometimes. It's ok as long as you don't make it a habit.

Stay alone. Get bored. Talk to yourself. Write. Discover what you really think when you are the only audience. Constant connectivity is the biggest enemy of original thought. Disconnect. Disappear.

Treat ideas like clothes. Try them. See if they fit. Discard them when they no longer serve the purpose. Separate the ideas from the person. Strip ideas to their core. Reject processed ideas. Consume them raw. Test. Observe. Unlearn. Update.

Let go of biases. Let go of attachments. Let go of the fear of being proven incorrect, being proven stupid, getting isolated. Welcome being wrong. The level of criticism you can take without defending yourself is the degree of your maturity.

Sit with uncertainty. Thinking starts at discomfort. Think. Read. Speak your heart. If you can't say it, you don't understand it. Teaching others is an even better way of learning.

Don't assume conclusions. Don't borrow convictions. Step outside the scene to understand it. Free yourself of concepts that bind you. Separate yourself from the labels that society uses to define you. Do not let your opinions become your identity.

You are not your profession. You are not your money, not your country, not your religion, not your family name. You are neither the story you keep telling yourself nor the version of you that society wants you to be.

Strip it all away. Your beliefs. Your past. Your trauma. Your achievements.

Strip it all away and ask what remains.

That. That remainder. That which quietly watches all of it come and go without becoming any of it.

That's worth knowing.

But it's highly unlikely that you'll ever get there. Not because it's hidden. But because the stripping away is uncomfortable. And society keeps handing you new things to wear.

Kabhi kabhi mujhe lagta hai ki sar par ek junoon sawaar ho, only then can one live his life to the fullest.

Everything becomes easy then, from waking up early to showing up daily & putting in that extra effort to create what once seemed impossible. Then everything else in life seems like a distraction; friends, family, profession, even health. The mind is consumed by one purpose, one mission, one focus. Jaise wo Arjun jise keval machhli ki aankh dikhai deti thi.

Ultimately, there seems to be no meaning or purpose of anything in life. But such phases of passionate creation are what produce the greatest achievements of one's inconsequential life; the student who came first, the athlete who won gold, the author who wrote the bestseller.

Every moment, every day, every year that passed unnoticed was when you were not consumed by the desire to create, to achieve, to excel. I agree that you cannot operate at 100% capacity all your life, but there come times when you do, & those are the times to look back upon, smile, & close your eyes. You did well.

Jab zindagi ki worthlessness ko aap truly accept karte hain, then only can you make some parts of it truly worthy.

So get up, sit straight, sprint if you have to.

Abhi time hai aapke paas.

An ant was walking through a forest when it started to rain heavily.

The ant exclaimed, "Oh God! Please save me from this rain."

The ant was unaware of an elephant approaching gently from behind. Compared to the ant, it was so huge that neither the ant nor the elephant was aware of the other's existence.

As the elephant moved forward, its enormous body shielded the ant from the rain. The ant, filled with gratitude, said, "Thank you, God, for saving me from the rain."

The next moment, as the elephant moved further forward, its foot accidentally stepped on the ant, flattening it to a pulp.

End of story.

'Higher' entities (markets, gods, governments, nature) are like elephants, while you are the ant that goes unrecognized, existing only in anonymity and risk. These impersonal forces that can shape (and crush) your lives remain oblivious to your existence, and most are quite capable of cutting you out.

So there's no need to be thankful to, pray to, or fear them. Don't expect the elephant to know you're there; it doesn't. All the credit and all the criticism are solely yours. Do what you need to do and get out of there safely.

Just don't get squished!