Life and trading after 49 days in “prison”…

I never thought I could end up in a prison.

But yes, I did. For 49 long days – like most of us in this COVID craziness.

Sure, it was a “luxury” prison. Being locked down in my house, with everything I needed (including lots of pizza :-) )

But it still felt like a prison. I couldn’t leave, except for 4 times to do some shopping (just to be stopped and questioned by the police).

Yes, the lockdown in Spain was harder than some other places and was painfully long.

But it’s finally over! My days are filled with long walks under the Southern Mediterranean sun again. And my body is slowly recovering from the long sofa-only shock. And I have to say…

…some things really CHANGED.

Both in my life and my trading. Because of that “prison” experience.

So, let me share a bit about it with you.

First of all, I somehow don’t feel the urge to keep spending my day “productively” anymore. I mean, I still love getting sh!t done. I still like working and it still gives me that feeling of achievement and satisfaction.

But I also now love doing NOTHING much more. Not the lazy type of nothing. But pure relaxing and “enjoying just being” nothing. Like imagining that all my work is done – completely, forever. Like I have nothing else to do and everything has been achieved and completed already. And now I can just sit, and do NOTHING, and surrender to that relaxation and have so much fun with doing NOTHING. Seriously! :-) What a joy to be in a state like this! :-)

And this somehow reflected in my trading too. Or, my hedge fund, more specifically.

How?

I totally stopped caring about FOMO. (Fear of missing out).

I mean – a lot of people are now in stress or even panic, because the economy is stalling in a very BIG way. And there is even more uncertainty in front of us than ever.

But honestly, I stopped caring. I know that our hedge fund will always have the EXACT amount of money it is supposed to have, or is able to handle at the given moment. And I do not need to pursue more by any means. And this fallacy that MORE is BETTER is one big fat lie. It’s like a never ending loop we get caught in, and then we just chase this crazy rat-race around and around. After this COVID experience, I don’t want to be in this FOMO mentality anymore. I just want to stay relaxed. And surrender into what is. It honestly feels better. Stress free. Joyful. Even blissful.

So, after 49 days in “prison”…

…I’m surprisingly relaxed, happy, and fulfilled. So, in a sense, it was a GREAT thing, an amazing experience that brought me a lot of good.

Of course, the future will show us what’s next. And I’m not saying there won’t be challenges in front of us. Certainly, there will.

But stress and FOMO will not fix them. Quite the opposite. We need to be brave enough to relax even in the most challenging circumstances. Think about it as an “edge”, that you can bring both into your life and your trading. Starting today.

So, that was my recent COVID experience.

I hope you are all well and did some relaxation too. It is a good habit to master.

Good luck and happy relaxing,
Tomas.

P.S.
And talking about relaxation, let me also remind you that when it comes to trading, there is still time to implement some highly protective techniques like Market Internals or Smashing False Breakouts. That is another way to stay well and relaxed!