Our Religious Beliefs, Our Spirituality, Our Trading: An Invitation

 

In my (free) blog-based online book Radical Renewal, I made a first attempt to explore the spirituality of trading, as opposed to the psychology of trading.  The key question I wanted to address is whether our spiritual development can benefit our development as traders.  As I explored the topic, it seemed to me that many trading problems are ultimately ones in which our egos get in the way of our performance.  The role of spirituality is to transcend ego, not simply eradicate negative emotion.  From that vantage point, the religious and spiritual beliefs that make us better people also can make us better at what we do:  in life and in markets.

I know, I know, I know, most of us are uncomfortable talking about our religious beliefs and practices and sensitive about not wanting to impose them on others.  It is rare indeed to encounter such talk in the field of trading psychology.  So we ignore a major dimension of human experience--which (ironically) may be the very problem that holds us back in our personal and trading success!

My own religious background is Jewish, and I regularly post to a website/blog, Integrative Judaism, that captures spiritual themes and lessons.  I'm continually surprised by how often these are themes that show up in my trading.  For example, repentance is a practice that shows up in many religious and spiritual traditions and that is particularly relevant at this time of year for those in the Jewish faith.  It is also something that helps us grapple with the ways in which we allow our egos to subvert our personal and professional lives--including our trading.

I would love to host an online session for traders of different spiritual/religious beliefs and share how these impact our trading--and our daily lives.  If this is of interest to you and you would like to be part of the sharing/learning, please feel free to email me at steenbab at aol dot com.  It would be fun--and hopefully enlightening--to connect a small community of spiritually-grounded market participants!

Thanks as always for your interest and support--

Brett