“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36, KJV).

Jesus demands that we separate ourselves from the opinions of others (societal thought) in order to develop spiritually.

“Separating ourselves from the group identification is a painful process, for as long as we remain submerged in the group, we find a certain security. When this unconscious identification gives way, as it must under the impact of the kingdom of God, the illusory peace is shattered” ” (The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus’ Sayings by John A. Sanford, p.58).

Using the sword of discernment, separate yourself from the collective opinions in the trading sphere. You can begin by becoming aware of what not to believe. Here are Bill William’s five sacred-cow terminators:

“1. Don’t listen to the popular experts; 2. There is no such thing as bullish/bearish consensus; 3. There is no such thing as oversold/overbought; 4. Most money management suggestions are ineffective and 5. Common formulas for profitable trading do not work” (Trading Chaos: Maximize Profits with Proven Technical Techniques [2^nd Ed.] by Bill Williams & Justine Gregory-Williams, pp.5-6).

I am not necessarily advocating the book’s trading techniques. I am emphasizing the book’s trading caveats.

“Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.  And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other. . .” (Luke 6:26-29).

Love Your Enemies

Hate is soul-killing. So if you value the spiritual health of your soul, you will do as Jesus said: “Love your enemies.” You may think, “This is a simplistic, unattainable prescription for a complex problem.” Yet on a feeling level . . . on an intuitive level, Jesus’ words ring true.

Dangerous Hatred

Hate enslaves.

“For the danger in hating one’s enemy is, as Laurens van der Post has pointed out, that people tend to become like what they oppose . . . . Hatred, moreover, will bind us to that which we hate, for, as long as we are in a state of hatred toward a person or a people, we are enslaved” (The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus’ Sayings by John A. Sanford, p.92).

Serve God

As a trader, who do you hate? The market? Other traders? The world? Energy that coalesces into hatred could be used to serve God. If your trading is to be a beacon of light in this darkening world, you need not contribute to the darkness by hating. Even if your enemies attack your reputation, remember that praise can be more damaging to your trading than disparagement. “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” Be humble. Trade as a service to God.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it . Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7: 13-15, KJV).

“Because those who enter the kingdom must enter as individuals, the way to the kingdom is never the path of least resistance but a narrow, difficult, and winding way . . . .  The wide road is the way through life that we travel unconsciously, the road of least resistance and mass identity. The narrow road requires consciousness, close attention lest we wander off the path. Only the few take it because of its individual character and because it entails the hardship of becoming conscious” (The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus’ Sayings by John A. Sanford, pp.46-47).

I’ve had clients—in the beginning stage of Jungian psychotherapy—dream of exiting an expressway (society’s way) and ending up on a lone country road or a road that leads into the wilderness. Robert Frost poetically said:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

As a trader, you need to walk the path of the individual. You need to individuate. Otherwise, the perils of the collective trading highway leave you open to “false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Instead, take the narrow way . . . the way less traveled.

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world [hates] you” (John 15:19, KJV).

Being Chosen

Trading is generally of the world and in the world. But what if God chooses you? Jesus said, “I have chosen you out of the world.” Do you dare to comply? And if you do comply, will you be completely ostracized? “Therefore the world [hates] you.” What do you do?

Embracing your Calling

To refuse the call of God is to refuse new life. To refuse to be chosen is choosing spiritual death. Embrace being chosen; embrace being called. What does God require?  God requires that you embrace your uniqueness as a trader. You need to separate from the world (collective thought) and follow God’s guidance through the trading labyrinth to discover your own trading style.

Spiritual Reality

Living in spiritual reality (the inner world) requires a dedication to the truth. God’s viewpoint needs to be predominant. Let go of your accumulated trading shoulds. Let yourself be guided by God’s step-by-step revelation of your own trading truths. Allow God to create – out of the friction of the markets – a diamond trading personality. As a diamond, you can perceive and reflect the many facets of the spiritual world. Accept being chosen . . . and be free. Trade multidimensionally.

“Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:3-9, KJV).

A Frivolous Attitude

Traders who don’t take their trading seriously will find their trading falling “by the way side” and devoured by the birds (their frivolous attitude). Trading demands meticulousness. Details, details . . . always details. Ignore them at your peril. Imagine  a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds where the ignored details of your trading turn into a massive flock of birds and attack you. You would be deemed guilty of “fowl” play.

Stony Places

Traders who become entrenched in their rigid opinions (stony places) about trading can be “scorched” by their own anger when their rigid opinions don’t bear fruit. Opinions that don’t reflect the constantly changing market need to be burned away. You need flexible trading concepts that have deep roots in the market’s soil.

Thorns

Thorns make a good defensive hedge . . . not in the trading sense but emotionally. If not having all the answers for trading success threatens you emotionally, then you will be less likely to embrace new ideas that might be effective. Your hedge of thorns will choke the new ideas before they bear fruit.

A Blossoming Attitude

Instead of a grain of wheat bearing fruit, imagine flowers blossoming. An intuitive trading attitude spiritually rooted in God can only blossom many-fold. Let your mind become a many-petaled flower watered by God’s truth.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear . . . Be still, and know that I am God . . .” (Psalm 46:1-2, 10, KJV).

Trouble

As a trader, trouble will soon find you. A position gone bad, a loss of Internet connection while attempting to get out of a losing scalp trade when using mental stops, outrageous slippage during fast market conditions, a flash crash blowing through your stops at the market resulting in fills fifty points or more below your set price (or a how-I-wished-I-used-stop-limit-orders scenario) and other varied and perilous times.

Be Prepared

Hey Terry! You make it sound like I shouldn’t trade. No, I am not saying that you shouldn’t trade. However, my examples imply that you should be prepared for the perils of trading including black swan events (as much as humanly possible). Be careful out there.

Be Still

For every conceivable trading trouble, God promises immediate help. The living God will be “a very present help in trouble.” God will be your “refuge and strength.“  God commands, “Be still, and know that I am God.” In order to cultivate stillness, you could pray the Jesus Prayer repeatedly: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. For more information on the Jesus Prayer, read my articles:  What is the Jesus Prayer? and Why Should You Pray the Jesus Prayer?

“Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had” (John.5:2-4, KJV).

The Trader’s Shadow

In a sense, as a trader you are on a hero’s journey. You want to find a way to consistently win against seemingly insurmountable forces. One of the unknown adversaries you must face is your own shadow. In Jungian theory, the shadow can be defined as both good and bad undeveloped parts of your personality that have been banished (repressed) into your personal unconscious.   Even though these parts may slip into consciousness in unexpected bouts of rage or altruism, for example, in general your ego remains unaware of the shadow.

Given the heroic stance of the trader, the shadow as inner adversary may first appear as an overwhelming fear of pulling the trigger (placing a trade). Whereas the reasons for the fear and its resolution can be unique for each trader experiencing this shadow problem, in general, an important step in healing the shadow requires accepting the cripple within.

The Inner Cripple

“Cripple is etymologically related to creep and crook, to bend, and is considered an offensive term, but it thus contains the same movement as in reflex and reflection, which means to bend back. When in severe physical or psychic pain, we are crippled, and it makes us bend low” (Enemy, Cripple & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path by Erel Shalit, p.155).

If you become humble enough, you realize you need spiritual help in healing your inner cripple. You need to step into the pool of Bethesda.

Wholeness

This pool resides in your psyche. Your guardian angel makes the living water in your psyche ready for healing. Remember, you must be crippled to enter this healing water. This means you need to accept your crippledness before entering. Denying the crippled parts of yourself create unease (dis-ease). Accepting your crippled parts helps make you whole. Step into the pool. Acknowledge your cripple. [He who] “stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and [money]” (Luke 16:13, RSV).  

Money is energy. This energy can be put into growth or regression. Worshipping money is dangerous to your soul’s health. Your soul will wither if it is not nourished with the word of God. As a trader, the words of men—so-called trading experts—can seduce . . . mislead. Don’t be seduced into trading for the wrong reasons.

A Spiritual Discipline

First, you need to discern whether trading is your vocation. You’re not serving God by trading if you haven’t been called by God to trade. Second, if trading is your vocation, treat your trading as a spiritual discipline. What does this entail? This means listening to the Holy Spirit’s guidance in selecting where to obtain basic and advanced trading knowledge, which financial instruments to trade and when to trade each instrument.

Radical Obedience

Third, as a servant of God you need an attitude of humility. Humility enables you to be radically obedient. So if God asks something seemingly absurd of you—in your trading, in your life—you do it. Of course, it is important to discern that the request is coming from God. But remember; don’t dismiss the request too fast because God is the master of apparent absurdities.

Gotta Serve Somebody

You cannot “serve two masters.” But “You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’re gonna have to serve somebody” (“Gotta Serve Somebody” by Bob Dylan).

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 7:47-49, RSV).

The Word of God

What is a trader’s foundation? Neither stochastics nor Elliot waves, but the word of God . . . which Jesus expressed so eloquently. Of course, the word of God is not a technical indicator and thus subject to different rules of interpretation. Who ever heard of an exegesis of stochastics (George Lane 3:0-0, RSV)? Unfortunately, technical analysis is the bible for some traders. It’s not that technical analysis shouldn’t be used in trading; it’s just that it shouldn’t be trading’s foundation.

Unbreakable Spirit

You need a spiritual foundation for your trading. Then the market can’t break you. “. . . the [market] broke against that [trader], and could not shake [the trader], because [the trader’s spirit] had been well built.” More esprit, less flooding. You could be flooded with emotion when trading and be undone unless you’re rooted in God.

Putting God First

You may ask, “How can I be rooted in God/” Do you ask God during the day what He thinks you should be doing? What does God think about your trading plans? Creating a God-centered life takes work. It means putting God first, putting your ego much farther down the list. You need to make your trading God-centered . . . your “foundation upon rock.”

“Jesus said . . . ‘but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (Jn.4:13-14).

Has your motivation to trade dried up? Have new trading ideas evaporated? Perhaps your soul is world weary? Have you become cynical?  As a trader, as a human being you need to be revitalized with God’s living water. Drink deep . . . for your inner landscape is parched. New seeds of personality growth need water. And God is the gardener.

Over-reliance on your intellect parches the ground of your creativity. New ideas are burned away by the intellect’s narrow focus. Drinking spiritual wisdom grounds you in eternal truth. Only then are you ready to discover your own trading truths.

Discovering your own trading truths requires that you acknowledge and accept the uniqueness of your personality. God carefully crafted your personality through providing you with specific life experiences. Why wouldn’t He help you design your own trading style? If you’re meant to be a trader, God will help you discover your trading style. Drink deeply from the well of living water . . . the immense well of creativity (God’s library) that lies deep inside your psyche.