Don’t Quit! Use Your Luke Skywalker Moment to Push You Forward

One of the most important factors in reaching consistent profitability is simply staying in the game. In other words, you have to not quit. And if you want to keep yourself in the game you’ve got to figure out ways to keep yourself steady through extreme emotional ups and downs, tone down the verbally abusive inner critic and persevere through overwhelming doubt. In other words, you’ve got to overcome yourself if you want to be a consistently profitable trader.

You see, you’re going to experience those moments when you think trading is too hard or the chips are just stacked against you and you’re going to want to throw your keyboard against the wall and shut it all down. That inner voice is going to tell you how terrible you are at trading and that you’re just wasting your time. But if you’re going to reach consistent profitability these are the very times when you have to reach down deep and find your resolve. These are the times you have to rally.

Do you recall that moment in The Empire Strikes Back when Yoda was training Luke Skywalker to be a Jedi? During young Skywalker’s struggles he let his curiosity get the best of him and entered that creepy jungle. Once in there he was suddenly confronted by his menacing archrival, Darth Vader, and without warning he faced a life-or-death showdown.

With one swing of his lightsaber Skywalker felled his evil foe, but when Vader’s mask exploded to reveal the face underneath it was his own face he saw. Unknowingly, Luke had faced himself in the jungle. At that moment he realized it was himself he was grappling with and not actually Darth Vader.

I’m not a Star Wars superfan or anything but I think this particular scene is very relevant to the process of learning how to trade. As we go through this arduous journey the frustrations and anger we feel are generally directed at the markets. We see the markets as a Vader-like character against which we are continually training to overcome.

But there are many moments we have like the one Skywalker had in the jungle. And every time we decapitate Vader his mask blows up and we’re reminded that it’s not actually Vader – or the markets – in that suit. It’s ourselves.

The markets are the markets. They’re not affected by how we feel about them. The only thing under our control is ourselves and the actions we take. You have to remember this as you go through the journey because this is also how you begin to understand that the way you become consistently profitable is by taking advantage of this very thing – your unique personality and the way you go about what you do.

You start to realize that the Vader that keeps showing up in the jungle is actually your inner voice trying to intimidate you, trying to push you back, defeat you. It’s bullying you into succumbing to the “dark side” which is, in this case at least, accepting that you’re never going to be any good at trading and that the markets are just going to win in the end. It wants you to think defeat is inevitable because giving in to fear tends to be the easier and safer thing to do. 

From what I remember, right before this scene Luke asks Yoda whether the dark side is more powerful than the Force and Yoda tells him, in so many words, No, it’s just more seductive. Flight is easier than fight, especially when faced with such a daunting task as becoming a Jedi or a profitable trader.

The temptation to fail, to give up, is very seductive in the face of adversity. It’s very powerful. But nothing worth doing is easy, right? Success depends on your resolve. How do you maintain your resolve? Determination and perspective. These are two very important things to hold onto. You have to stay determined and always strive for perspective.

Your determination will depend on why you’re trading in the first place. It has to be important.

Are you trading to become financially independent? Are you trading in order to make a career out of it? Are you trading to build your own personal reserve, or the reserve of your family? 

Maybe it’s more specific and short-term. Maybe you’re trading in order to build capital to buy that new boat or to build that dream house.

Whatever the reason you’re trading, remind yourself every day of what it is and how important it is that you reach your goals. Remember the WHAT and the WHY and always have it in front of you (see Step 1 of TEN ESSENTIAL STEPS in TRADER EDUCATION).

Perspective will especially help you get through the hard times. Why did you have a tough day trading? Was it because the markets are just corrupt and rigged against you? Or is it because it was just a tough tape that day for what you were trading but you traded through it anyway? Most likely it was the latter.

When I have a tough day of trading I force myself to take a pause and objectively analyze what kind of tape I’m dealing with. And then I assess my performance based on this and determine, without allowing any hint of emotional influence, what actually led to my struggles. If I feel that I don’t have an edge in the current environment with what I’m trading, I sit on my hands.

Often, I’ll use the weekends to gather myself again. This is a great time to step back and assess what really happened the week before. Was your strategy really falling apart or were you just reacting emotionally? Most of the time I realize it was the latter and I’m able to continue to push forward.

You have to have a great deal of patience with yourself and with the process. You are definitely going to experience adversity and you’re going to want to find an easier way to make money. There is no tip or trick that can accelerate your path through the learning curve. You’ve got to overcome that curve yourself, and in spite of yourself.

And along the way, as your resolve builds and you acquire more skill and get more knowledgeable about the craft of trading, you start to find out who YOU are in the markets. This is the angst-filled Skywalker slowly becoming the stoic Jedi, building toward a highly disciplined, confident and measured way of life, ready to face the real Vader with no fear. 

I won’t spoil the end of the first Star Wars trilogy for you if you’ve never seen the movies, but our hero ultimately faces down the real Vader with the strength and resolve he needs to succeed. And if we stay on the right path we can build the strength and resolve we need to do the same thing in trading.

I became a consistently profitable trader for many reasons, but one of the main reasons was simply because I didn’t quit. I faced down my Vader self in the creepy jungle, decapitated the menacing figure and realized it wasn’t the markets or the strategies that were the problem. It was me. And the realization of that gave me the clarity I needed to proceed with determination and perspective. Ultimately my resolve became stronger and stronger to not succumb to failure.

And here I am. Believe you can get where I am. Stay in the game!