Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Be water, wait, and then take action like this guy!

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless - like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
Bruce Lee
Most are very familiar with with Bruce Lee quote about "be water, my friend."  It has been the subject of countless discussions in various fields, including brokerage commercials, and yes, trading.  It's still as powerful and meaningful today as it was when he spoke about it over 40 years ago.


I ran across this interpretation -- from the fighting perspective
"If you practise wing chun, you know exactly what he means. Do not use force to fight force, just be like water and flow your punch into the opponent."

My interpretation -- from the trading perspective
Be patient and wait for market to come to you.  In other words, don't force your trades.  Go with the flow of the market and only when the markets evolve into the shape that plays to your strengths, take swift and definitive action.

Speaking of swift and decisive action...
Imagine having a small pellet shot from a BB gun approaching you at 200 mph.  This person is able to draw his samurai sword and cut the small pellet as it approached him.  Makes you wonder how much focus and concentration it takes to do something like this.  And I just wonder how many takes it took to get this shot...I'd be very impressed if this was the first take!


* * * * *
After a solid trading day yesterday, I participated in a big chopfest today and got cut up bad.  Recovered about half my losses, but still, it's obvious I didn't read the memo above regarding waiting for your setup.  All in all, between yesterday and today, my absolute losses this week is not that bad.

But that's not the point.

This is clear evidence that after a good trading day, I let my discipline down.  I got sloppy.  And this is unacceptable.  This will require further evaluation to determine how I'm going to avoid this type of behavior in the future.

1 comment:

Grove Under said...

If you want to see more of that Samurai dude's skills, check out this video:

http://youtu.be/nj1Jytiw8e0

Very amazing.

I will one day slice up the markets with the level of execution and precision he uses to slice up a green bean...lengthwise!