About lack of satisfaction. Be a gratitude maximalist 🔰

“There's something to be said about lack of satisfaction even when turning a profit in trading.

Even after holding onto my trades for a sufficient amount of time from months ago, taking profit at a good time only recently, and allowing myself the opportunity to consider dip buying at the lows, all I can think of is:

> "I only got partially filled on this position".
> "I wish I would've grabbed a bigger bag of that coin".
> "I'm so annoyed my bids on this coin got frontran".

Even after months of incredible performance - the best performance I've ever had in a 2-month period, all my brain wants to fixate on are the refinements which could have brought me an even greater reward.

If I were losing, I'd be hard on myself. When I'm winning, I'm still hard on myself.

Major flaw in that thought process.
Major flaw in being a perfectionist in trading as well.

There are 2 inescapable truths that every trader must learn to accept:
1) Every time you win a trade, you did not allocate enough.
2) Every time you lose a trade, you allocated too much.

Every outperformance isn't gratifying enough.
Every underperformance is debilitating.

Keep up with that mindset and find yourself in a constant state of limbo where regardless of your performance, you're never satisfied. A torturous state-of-mind to be in.

Now that lack of satisfaction may very well be a driving factor in what allows you to keep pushing forward and prosper further.

But that blessing is also a curse. You lack the humility to be grateful for what you have. A lack of appreciation for what you have now is a core concept (imo) as to why we allow emotions like FOMO/FUD to impact our decision making process. Never satisfied. Always greedy. Always begging for more. That same sense of irrational greed is what cycles into irrational fear. Those irrational emotions and the failure to control them creates impulsivity. Impulsivity in trading leads to demise.

It's all one giant slippery-slope and it always starts somewhere. Cure the cause; don't treat the symptoms.

You can likely see this impact more notably in comparing yourself to others. Comparison is the murderer of satisfaction. There will always be someone to compare to. Just like there will always be gains that you left on the table.

Same concept^

So I quickly remember that I'm not allowed to feel that sense of regret.

And I remind myself that it's a luxury to even have a sense of regret to feel towards markets - I literally push buttons on a screen to make my wealth. That fact still dwarfs any issues going on in my mind immediately, as I remember how far-detached from reality my 'button-pressing issues' truly are, relative to the rest of the world's issues.

Then I return to my state of normal. Satisfied with what I've done, but still eager for the next opportunity to present itself. Grateful for what I have, but humbly trying to create a surplus moving forward.

“Dead people receive more flowers than living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude”

- Anne Frank

So just remember to appreciate what you have now. It'll be the main form of logic that keeps you grounded so that you can gather the emotional discipline to enter the market, extract your wealth, and go on about your life.

Operating in that manner provides a sweet sense of bliss, and I'm truly grateful for that. There are no words to express how much of a superpower that 'bliss' is in markets; but especially in a bull market, like the one we're in now. Hope you enjoyed. Much love”.

Link to the original tweet: https://x.com/TraderMercury/status/1861808360317706296