For tha Love of Money

As the famous Bone Thugs line goes, "For tha Love of Money, gotta make that money man..."

Prior to that was ABBA's famous "Money Money Money, Money!"

And there are plenty of other songs extolling either the hustle behind making money, or praising the accumulation of money/wealth.

These songs are a reflection of the fact that society's metric for success in the modern world, it's measuring stick if you will, is usually money. Even in Silicon Valley, where people pretend like they're above flashy displays of wealth, a big "flex" these days is an empty calendar (as opposed to the proud workaholics of Boomer culture, whose flex was a complete lack of time outside of their job/hustle). But what allows for an empty calendar in one of the world's most expensive places? You guessed it, money. So as hard as they're trying, they're ultimately signaling the existence of access to capital when people tout their stress-free lifestyles.

The ancients tried telling us a counterintuitive interpretation of money- that it wasn't something to become obsessed with in spite of all that it can bring, that it in fact was the root of all evil! Of course we conveniently ignore all the blatant cautionary tales of the past that don't fit our modern narrative- that we must prioritize the accumulation of capital above all else.

So what motivated me to write about money in a trading blog, whose seeming primary objective is to make money? Well, to be honest, the objective of this post isn't really to vilify or praise the love of money; it's to analyze its effect on us as traders. Yes, our objective is to be profitable, but without a devotion to the game and a genuine immersion in the process of trading and adherence to best practices, the outcome almost becomes a guaranteed failure. As objective as we may try to be as traders, it's very easy to get sucked into the (im)moral values of what society at large throws at us, in the process of corrupting our process. It's easier than you think to get triggered by social media posts about big trading wins, stories of people getting into a story stock like NVDA a year ago and riding it up 5x, etc. We envision large trading accounts, but never think about the flip side of obtaining one without going through the proper steps of knowing how to grow it, and more importantly, keep it.

The ultimate goal of a trader is to be able to "fish", not to simply show a stringer of caught fish. As the saying goes, teaching a man to fish is a far bigger gift than giving him fish. Ever meet someone who suddenly came into money without having really grown it themselves? They are desperately seeking ways to secure and grow it, whose keys may ironically be in the hands of a much less wealthy but skilled trader. So the peace of mind that is derived from trading doesn't come from the sheer accumulation of money--in fact, one can lose a substantial portion of one's trading capital or even go bust at any level. It's from the sheer embodiment of being a good trader. That in itself is what will both guarantee a lifetime of being able to metaphorically fish, as well as to actually enjoy the fish that one catches knowing the effort and dynamics that went behind the catch. And to come full circle to address what the ancients warned us about, being a good trader (who isn't involved in pump-n-dump schemes that is) is the antithesis of unethical and evil since the market teaches you quickly if you bring your ego, greed, etc to the table. The sheer infatuation with a fat sum of money would quickly shift to an immersion in how to eliminate the characteristics that lead to one's downfall.