Trading With Faith

Today's post is a bit different. I will still prep for tomorrow.

Let me get today's trade out of the way. Trading MRK was successful, I ended up with a 102% positive return today, which is elite. I could've ended up with 166% instead, but I was greedy. So successful day overall, and lesson on greed yet again.

Moving on to today's actual goal on this post.

A few days ago I touched on trading with faith, and said I'd write about it. I think I might have written about this at the beginning of the year, expressing how I've always been drawn to the stock market. Even when I didn't understand any of it, I wanted the knowledge, and looking back, I wish I would've started then. Nevertheless, I'm in the journey now and it's what matters. I love twitter out of all the social media platforms, but I do go on TikTok as well when I've completed my day for the most part. There have been signs everywhere, but a more common one that I've seen over and over and that is God putting trading in my heart. Now, this is not a religious post, this post is about faith.

Having the ability to understand the stock market and trading is a huge blessing. You do not depend on anyone else, but your own ability to make it happen, to create your own edge and set ups. Not many have the luxury of experiencing this, and for the ones who do, not all take action.

I've reached September learning everything, actually putting my skin in this game by using real money. There are times when I feel doubtful on whether or not this will work. There are other times that I am so completely delusional and know that this is it for me, that I must see it through.

I have the advantage of working with data already and engineering, which has allowed me to develop my own quant tool. This is one of the things that has blown me away the most. Seeing where I started with no clear path and expanding to currently enhancing my own tool, that I'm hoping can be useful to others down the line.

So, where does faith come in?

Trading does in fact expose what you struggle with, I didn't want to succumb to it, but it is true.

• If you struggle with control, you will quickly learn that you must let go of the outcome – while you can have statistical analyses and probabilities, you must let go of the outcome.
• If you struggle with greed, you will learn why you can't be, a clear example for me today, when I could've taken a 166% return, but I wanted more and ended up with less.
• If you struggle with anger or other emotions. The market will make sure you learn how to tame it, by losing. If trading options, and you trade calls then the price will go down... the next day you think you found a put, the price will go up.
• If you are an impatient person, the market will make sure you slow down and you stay still. Yesterday, I was hasty with my entry and was forced to take a loss and exit, when I could've waited and have a 200%+ return on a trade.

So when I say trade with faith, I don't mean you just click on a trade and go by faith. No, what I mean is, you prepare for a trade and you wait for you setup. Before you take your trade, you must check with yourself and with God. You must ask that you are guided through your struggles. You must ask that you do not yield to greed, impatience, control, anger, etc. I did this today, not word for word, but I did ask God to let me see my setup.

If God has given you the curiosity to learn the stock market and trading, you must bring it back to him. You must surrender and give in to what your struggles are, accept them, and ask for guidance.

With that, I will now go prep for tomorrow's trade, and of course, I will trade with faith.