The Dark Art of.....Discipline

Faceless Bureaucrat:  I have, in a very dedicated fashion, been working my way through these DVDs to master the dark art of trading and I confess to enjoying every minute.  It really is fascinating stuff.  I find I am learning not to invest but to trade (there's a difference) and it's actually called spreadbetting.  Now this sounds dodgy to me, I'm not a gambler and I don't like the concept of betting.  But as I work my way through the seminars on the DVDs and refer back to my notes from the free seminar it becomes clear that this spreadbetting malarky is just the tool that traders use to make their money.  And it's completely tax free (no taxes!).

They also go on a bit about leverage, the technicalities of which are, to be honest, a bit beyond me right now but I get the general gist (it seems to allow you to make money with relatively little in your account) and the important message they keep harping on about is that you never trade to risk more than 1% of your account.  This is partly because the downside of leverage is that you can also lose more. 

So with an account of £10,000 you never risk more than £100 on any one trade, or with £5,000 account the max on the table is £50.  However promising and seductive a particular trade may seem.  The word Discipline keeps recurring, apparently it is a crucial quality for traders if they are to succeed.

Now Faceless Bureaucrat perks up at this point. Discipline! Aha!  We know all about that in the public service, like keeping our mouths shut in the run up to elections when we'd love to spill the beans on why certain policies are crap and promises hollow.  We've grown good - too good - at obeying orders from the high command in recent years and forcibly disengaging our brains in order to do so.  I reckon I can handle a bit of discipline....

I learn that we must always "trade with the trend" and to determine the trend we follow the Two Year Old Rule.  This means if you ask a Two Year Old which way that line is going and they are able to say "up" then the trend is up. This beats hands down something called "analysis paralysis" where you mull over the lines for ages before coming to the same conclusion.  Sounds good to me.

And these chaps have the right attitude.  They say that the market is like a woman, always right.  And it's not our job to fight her but to learn how to make her happy.  We mustn't get paranoid if she seems to be contrary and we mustn't take it personally, it's just the way she is.  Emotions must be kept in check.  Once again Bureaucrat feels this may play to our well honed strengths - we faceless types don't do emotions. 

And another nugget from the lessons - to succeed I must make a plan and stick to it, with every single trade.   Well!  As a Faceless Bureaucrat why would I want to do anything else?  We are simply born to develop and deliver plans, it's what we do best.  Suddenly, trading seems the obvious next step in my career and I just can't wait. Another romp through these DVDs before embarking on this 2 day course imminently to properly learn to trade and to Do Discipline.  Big time.