Indentured (adj.)
“Bound by contract, especially one that requires a person to work for another over a fixed period of time, often under restrictive or demanding conditions.”
— Oxford English Dictionary
What are you thinking now?
“I have decided to trade for a living, I will commit wholeheartedly by resigning my position at work, and get started Monday morning .”
Have you actually given any serious thought to it, or will you emulate so many others before you that trod that very same trading path of self destruction? As I myself did.
What expectations do you have, are they realistic? How would you know if they were or not?
Without any thought or consideration, you sign up on a platform you know zero about, fund it with no idea of how much except some arbitrary amount. No clue what you will trade, so you try trading everything,
Does this sound familiar? If so, likelihood is you have just blown your first account, walked the same exact path as thousands, probably tens of thousands before you, as I did.
You are experiencing the pain of losing your first deposit. (DO NOT forget the pain of losing this money, it will serve you well further down your trading journey!) You consider the groceries it would have purchased, the rent it would have paid, the credit card bill you didn’t pay but should have. It stings, but you don’t quit quite yet, you dig your heels in, vowing to show the market who’s boss, so, you reset, throw another deposit in and convince yourself it will be different this time around. So it goes, on and on until you reach breaking point, and you are broke, dejected, to say the least, and calling your old employer to see if they have filled your former position yet.
I sincerely hope you are getting the picture here, there is so much to learn and do, before making that first trade. The preparation you do now, whilst you keep your full time job, will save you much down the road and stand you in good stead to become that profitable trader, a coveted member of the five percent that make it.
If it hasn’t occurred to you yet, it should do so now. What I write here in these newsletters is not to discourage you, on the contrary, it’s to encourage you, but, to do it right from the very first day. The training I parted a lot of money for, that you will benefit from here, if, IF, you want to.
There comes a moment in every trader’s journey when they realize they’re not fighting the market — they’re actually fighting themselves. Let that moment be here, now, not two years hence, or more. If you can truly assimilate this into your thinking right at the outset and accept it as one of the holy truths of trading, and there are many, then congratulations are in order, you have indeed taken your first step to consistent profitability!
Would you rather compete in a marathon on a blisteringly hot day, or a five mile run? Here, I would save you the hardship and pain of running a hundred marathons to discover that all important lesson.
It’s not the S&P that’s out to get you, the algorithms, or the news.
It’s your own impatience that clicks the button early.
Your own greed that won’t let you take profit.
Your own pride that refuses to admit the trade is wrong.
The revenge trade isn’t about “getting back” at the market. It’s about *not accepting* that you lost — and needing to prove something to yourself.
The market doesn’t defeat you. You defeat yourself, that’s the enemy within.
The market is a direct reflection of who you are, and it will reveal your innermost flaws, not just as a trader, but as a human being, like any great selection course, the only difference here, the market was not designed to do that, but the result is much the same. Every time you blow up a trade, you’re not uncovering some hidden flaw in your edge — you’re revealing a flaw in your mindset. That’s the point. That’s the indenture.
New traders think the market is an opponent. It’s not. It’s a mirror. It reflects your flaws instantly and without apology, and that’s why this work is so personal.
When I started trading, I thought I was here to beat the market. You hear it often, “I beat the market, I cracked the code,”
The lesson here, there is no market to beat. It’s a facility for transactions, in itself, one giant broker, matching buyers with sellers and vice versa. Of course, you have many participants, what’s more, many different types of participant. Some have better facilities, faster computers, faster connections, insiders like the market makers, institutions, wholesalers, and at the very bottom of the trading food chain, us, the lowly retail trader. As a retail trader though, we have no need of the lightning speed, nor do we need to beat anything, not the market, not the professional traders and certainly not the market makers or those that live and breath this industry.
To do so, is tantamount to trading suicide, and your express ticket back to the depressing grind of that underpaid, overworked ten hour work day.
The real work, is to train yourself.
I’ve had trades where everything lined up — the setup, the plan, the levels. And I still blew it because I couldn’t sit through the discomfort.
I’ve also had trades where I followed my process to the letter — and walked away calm, clear, and confident, yet, the trade still lost money. Accept it, it is possible to execute everything perfectly, and still lose. Another holy trading truth.
I’m unsure when I realized the fact that the win isn’t the green number. The win is *discipline under pressure.* Every trade is a test of emotional control. The market offers the conditions, you supply the response. A practice you can control, but first must be learned. Remember, you are managing risk. What other industry manages risk?
Do you know?
The insurance industry. They are masters of managing risk, and they have it down to an art. That’s why they are still in business.
Do you want to stay in business as a trader? Then you need to learn and master risk as well as they do. They know they will have to pay out on insurance claims. Over the long run, they manage that risk so well, they make hundreds of millions.
Will you manage your risk as a retail trader to the same degree? If you want to be around to trade tomorrow, you better!
If you’re trying to improve, stop tracking only your P&L. Start tracking your emotional performance and your risk
A few prompts that helped me:
- What emotion led to this trade?
- Did I follow my plan or react to pain/hope/boredom?
- Would I take this exact trade again with no emotion?
You’re not building a trading strategy, not yet anyway, — you’re building a trader and that’s you, that’s why this is difficult.
You’re not indentured to the market. You’re indentured to your own growth, and that’s eternal.
A final quote that was told to the group on my particular selection by the CO.
“There are only two reasons for failing this course. Either, you are unwilling, or unable……”
As I write these newsletters, I realize it will demand more of my time to write them. From here on in, I will be writing a newsletter once per month. Next newsletter on the 16th July, we will start delving into what risk management is. It is a very large subject, so may cover numerous issues.
I will also briefly discuss setting up your first trading simulator to start practicing and will cover this in more detail later. I may also hold a live chat on Substack for anyone whom is interested.
Welcome to The Indentured Trader — Not the place you start trading. The place you start becoming a profitable trader.