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Maria YuMarch 14th, 2007

I had a realization lately: Our life is a life of probabilities.

Trading talks a lot about probability but when I look at life, it is all probabilities.

How many times when we make a decision we know 100% sure how it is to turn out or where it leads to?

How often things do not flow in every detail the way we have planned; there might be minor twists or surprises.

We pretty much have to glide in life, constantly making decisions and accepting the probable outcomes.

All the medical, scientific, financial reports and the like, are presented with percentages, that is probabilities.

From reading these research findings we only get a sense of the likelihood of something.

Our future is influenced by our present, and our present our past.

The thing is, because we are human we have the probability of changing our mind, even at the last minute.

So when based on the same past patterns to make a choice for the same event but at a different time, it is probable we would choose differently.

That is the reason why some prophecies failed.

Prophecies are made with reference to the past and present information to look into the future. They are estimated future. Ultimately it’s the human thinking and action at the critical moment that determines the course.

We hold the key to our future.

What we think, do, have now, create our future of probabilities.

Which side of the dice will we get? It depends on our toss, but we always get one.

Then there is no fear in life because whatever we do it is all probabilities.

All we have to do is to “equip” us with whatever we can get - knowledge, skills, intention, will, etc.

By being better equipped we can then make ourselves arrive at the optimal side of probability.

There really is no fear, we just need to explore and experiment life.

How many years can we live, 70, 80, 90, or more? No one knows.

We just do our best to stay healthy and live our life to the full.

It is all probabilities and no fear.

 Reflection in Probability - Photography by Maria Yu

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Maria YuFebruary 28th, 2007

I ran into two traders in two spiritual workshops. The first trader was in the workshop about the shaman’s challenge in identifying people’s patterns and the second one was in the workshop of the western spiritual practices.

I didn’t know traders would be interested in spirituality.

The second trader asked me why I didn’t trade.

We were both interested in Sacred Geometry so he told me that application of Sacred Geometry has been proved successful in trading.

That got me interested but I put it behind my mind.

A few days later I got an invitation from a blogger to join his investment group. I asked him if he had ever used Sacred Geometry in trading. He had not but he did an Internet search and sent me a link. I followed the link and found an e-book, “Cooking in the Forex.”

According to “Cooking in the Forex” you need four things to be successful in trading Forex:

1. Outstanding tools
2. Understanding of technical analysis
3. Money management
4. Psychology of trading

“Most traders fail to truly put their effort in #2. Real traders know exactly where the market should go and do everything in their power to stay in the trade until that destination is reached.

#3 and #4 are actually MORE important than #2 and #1.

Money management is a critical point that shows the difference between winners and losers.

If you don’t manage your money you will be out of business and the only way to trade is to have your trading psychology in place.

The market is moved by fear and greed. These are emotions that affect the market. Fear and greed are part of psychology. A disciplined trader should never let his emotions and greed control his decisions.

Trading Psychology: Knowing Yourself Is Key.

Knowing yourself means understanding how you’re likely to behave under various circumstances. Be aware of the psychological traps, their forms, and which one you are most likely yo fall into.”

Now I understand why traders go to spiritual workshops; they are there for the last part, Knowing Yourself Is Key.

“Cooking in the Forex” advises traders they teach not to trade live until they have read these book:

1. The Disciplined Trader : Developing Winning Attitudes by Mark Douglas
2. Trading in the Zone : Master the Market with Confidence, Discipline and a Winning Attitude by Mark Douglas
3. Trading to Win : The Psychology of Mastering the Markets by Ari Kiev

I went to amazon.com to read the reviews for these three books and found them speaking beyond “market.” I will just quote a couple:

“But successful trading, says Douglas, is the process of yielding to the market and being in control only of yourself and the way you respond to changing market conditions.”

“The Disciplined Trader helps prepare you for the psychology of trading and the avoidance of mental pot holes on the road to success.”

“Trading in the Zone addresses five very specific issues to give traders the insight and understanding about themselves that will make them consistent winners in the market.”

“Kiev spent five years with a group of professional traders at SAC Capital Management studying the psychological and emotional aspects of what makes for a successful trader. Kiev found that what hinders many traders is ego, fear, emotion, and false beliefs about yourself and the markets. See the market as it is, not as a reference point for your own existence. Kiev advocates a disciplined, Zen-like approach.”

These are things I learn in spirituality.

Traders need to know themselves well and get into spiritual development in order to control themselves and become successful.

(Does that mean a spiritual seeker has a good chance of becoming a successful trader?)

The second trader is also a dowser, who believes in subtle energies.

I recently started reading a book, “Self-Mastery and Fate with the Cycles of Life.” I realized that there is something behind successful people, no matter what they succeeded in. They tapped into the cycles of life - they made good uses of certain periods to bring success, happiness, health, and prosperity, and they avoided unfavorable periods.

“What a world of simplicity is revealed in the cosmic laws manifesting through the strange cycles of vibrations!” exclaimed in the introduction of Self-Mastery and Fate with the Cycles of Life.

“The fundamental principle involved in this system of self-mastery reveals that all life and all existence within the universe has its expression in cycles, the periodicity of which is equivalent to the rhythm of certain measured and harmonious recurrences of stresses or impulses of a cosmic nature.”

“By working in harmony with the periods of one’s own personal life and the periods of the business plan, proposition, or creation of one’s thinking, the utmost success will be made and attained, while working out of harmony with these periods or in ignorance of them will bring frustration, failure, losses, and defeat.”

From what I read about trading, you have to wait for multiple indicators to come in harmony to enter a trade. Looking at market charts, there are cycles of bull candles and bear candles. If a trader goes with the trend, the trade is in the trader’s favor.

Traders need to work with the cycles of the market and we need to master our cycles of life, that’s our art of trade.

Trading is quite spiritual.

The Optimist Mandala by Maria Yu 

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Maria YuFebruary 24th, 2007

“There is no should and shouldn’t. They are only in your imagination.”

This morning I had a quick glance of “Conversations with God” by Neal Donald Walsch and the above phases popped to me.

That’s right. In Christian beliefs, humans were created with free will.

If we were created with free will then God did not impose should and shouldn’t on us.

He did give us “talents” (Matthew 25) and “pounds” (Luke 19) to trade and He expected to see gains.

So we have a full life to experience and explore, most importantly, to make it according to our will.

We get want we want, there is no limits to it.

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Last night I watched the film “Conversations with God” from the same titled book.

Neal Donald Walsch became homeless and lived in a camp with homeless people. He was able to get out that camp and start a new life. He questioned God hard, and the answers he received made him an acclaimed author, with wealth.

Those people who became homeless before him remained homeless and got “removed” from the camp because the land was sold.

What made the difference?

I think it’s because Neal Donald Walsch had a will.

He knew he was not going to stay in the homeless camp forever and he sought out opportunities.

He didn’t drink.

He got out the camp to set up his new life when he could.

And he had a will to question God and ask for answers.

He got help from people along his journey.

People helped him because they saw him wanting to get on his feet.

(A reminder for us to help those who have a will and strive to be good.)

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Seems like most often we question God when we are in despair, not when in joy.

Suffering is a mystery, so is miracle.

Why we question suffering but not miracle?

Even the influential Christian writer C.S. Lewis (author of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”) questioned God when his beloved wife, Joy Gresham, died. In his journal, “A Grief Observed,” Lewis confessed his doubts and found again the way back to life:

“If God’s goodness is inconsistent with hurting us, then either God is not good or there is no God: for in the only life we know He hurts us beyond our worst fears and beyond all we can imagine.”

“I have gradually been coming to feel that the door is no longer shut and bolted. Was it my own frantic need that slammed it in my face? The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can’t give it: you are like the drowning man who can’t be helped because he clutches and grabs. Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.”

“To see, in some measure, like God. His love and His knowledge are not distinct from one another, nor from Him. We could almost say He sees because He loves, and therefore loves although He sees.”

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When I was preparing this week’s eternal expression post, A Tribute to Tagore, I was drawn to Tagore’s words:

“I have become my own version of an optimist.
If I cant’ make it through one door,
I’ll go through another door - or I’ll make a door.”

As Tagore believed, “God, the Great Giver, can open the whole universe to our gaze in the narrow space of a single land,” so he believed he could make himself a door.

Tagore knew there were no should and shouldn’t imposed by God.

“Asks the Possible of the Impossible, ‘Where is your dwelling-place?’ ‘In the dreams of the Impotent,’ comes the answer.”

       The Free Will Mandala by Maria Yu

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