My Intention

Photograph of Lakshmi sculpture, goddess of prosperity and wife of Vishnu, taken at the British Museum. Submitted by Ranveig to Creative Commons.

Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity.  This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self-realization.  Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul.  Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.

~B.K.S. Iyengar, Astadala Yogamala

Yoga has been essential in maintaining my health, wealth and vitality through what has been a volatile trading period for many of us. People have lost their jobs, houses and other items associated with personal worth and identity. Many traders have lost vast amounts of risk capital, perhaps more than what could have been avoided. Accurately perceiving market conditions—without the bias of fear, greed, or ignorance—is at the holistic heart of integrating yoga with trading. Unwilling to accept the information presenting itself (the Dow can’t possibly fall below 10,000!) will destine us to make uninformed choices, and, ultimately, we may hurt ourselves financially or otherwise in the process.

Of course, there are times when our goals do not end as we intended: yoga eradicates the need to base our happiness on external factors. Maintaining our focus during times of unrest is challenging, but it is possible to mitigate the stress response once we gain control of our thoughts, feelings and actions. Trading deals directly with the gain or loss of cash and cash equivalents; therefore, conditioned responses such as guilt, shame, or arrogance may become characteristics we would rather do without. I will not solely be concerned with the psychology, loosely defined as either eastern or western, of trading in my posts; whatever the physical, emotional, or mental limitation is inconsequential, as disturbances are transcended with a yogic perspective.

I began this project for this very reason: to overcome my own anxiety in trading, traveling,and life in general. Although I’ve managed to keep my trading account intact, I’ve waffled between a debilitating sense of fear of making trades and making trades based on fear, anxiety, and, at times, greed, which has not proven as a sound trading strategy for a technical speculator. I have gained knowledge of the underlying causes of my mental and physical disturbances, which has facilitated a greater degree of creativity  and intuition. My anxiety has given way to trust (most of the time) in the intelligence of the marketplace, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to progress on my path towards greater understanding of my true Self.

My posts may, indeed, be my reserved arguments of past discussions as to the nature of my understanding of māyā, my reality. Trading, my dhárma, or purpose, may well be replaced with any other person’s vision of self-realization and, therefore, relevant to all readers. This is the delineation of my current knowledge of Self/self and how I should progress in the future.