What is Passion

As many of you know, one of the 4P's of my trading methodology is PASSION. I rank passion as critically important to being successful as a long term trader. Why? Because passion is the life force that drives us. It comes from the soul and is experienced as excitement and enthusiasm. It is what keeps us going despite the bumps in the road and the inevitable losses that all traders have to accept as part of the process of trading. Just like in the game of Poker, we have to put our chips into the pot and then often have to throw away the hand, losing those chips. So it is with trading. We will get stopped out.

But it is the passion that keeps us coming back for more because we want to conquer our craft and become good at what we do. Golfers know what I am talking about because their passion for the game is almost addictive. Just one great swing and they are hooked. The need to keep repeating that great swing is indelibly etched into their psyches. Just one great trade and we will keep coming back for more. Passion, though is the ability to keep coming back even when it is tough in the markets. My take is that there are no stumbling blocks when you have passion, just stepping stones.