The War Of Art

The trader and the artist

I am staring out of the window looking across the bay, purposefully avoiding what I need to do.

Post-reporting season, I took a break to recharge. Since then, there has been a reluctance to sit back down and apply myself meaningfully. The market is slow. My mind is gravitating to all kinds of fleeting distractions instead of writing. I am ticking off the trivial and not the important. This is Resistance.

Resistance is that thing that stops us from doing what we need to do. It is the space between the life we live and the unlived life within us. It is the barrier to accomplishing our goals and fulfilling our unique potential.

"It is not the writing that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.*"

-The War of Art, Steven Pressfield

In trading, I think it is very easy to sit down and trade. Call it the gambler mentality and the need to play. This little thing called the Internet has made markets so readily accessible. What is hard is to knowingly apply oneself. What is hard is to do the necessary work on ourselves before and during the trading day to perform.

Committing to writing this Substack forces me to sit down and share what I am working on. It is the portal to show the problems I am facing and the solutions to circumnavigate. As you can see, I suffer from the same procrastination that plagues us all. The time since my last post is staring me right in the face. I know that I need to write not for the sake of it, but to initiate the positive feedback loop once more. The more I write, the more I am making conscious the important processes and principles.

In an attempt to kickstart this latest lull, I turned to a book I was reading during my holiday, “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield. I am struck by the parallels between the life of an artist, and that of a professional trader. This is not just a romantic ideal. To live the life of an artist is a way of being in the world. To tap into our creativity is to harness our best selves and our best trading.

The Creative Act:

Sitting behind a computer screen and clicking buttons is not your stereotypical illustration of creativity. In fact, the typical perception of traders is suits on Wall Street and testosterone-fueled pit traders frantically screaming orders.

This guy:

But what if being creative plays a big part in the process of the most successful traders? What if they are looking at markets in unique ways and have distinct perspectives that change through time and experience? I believe they do. It would make sense to tap into this higher state of consciousness and the states that activate creative thought.

Rick Rubin describes the act of creation beautifully:

“To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention. Refining our sensitivity to the more subtle notes. Looking for what draws you in and what pushes us away. Noticing what feeling tones arise and where they lead. Attuned choice by attuned choice”

And so it goes with our best selves and best trading.

Writing helps trigger these higher states of consciousness. And this brings me back to that book I was reading.

The War of Art:

The focus of the book is how to identify and break through blocks to win your inner creative battles. It is divided into 3 main sections focusing on i)Resistance; ii)Turning Pro; and iii) the Higher Realm. I want to expand on these points and their relevance for trading in turn.

We bring forth resistance when we engage in any number of activities. These include the pursuit of writing, painting, music, or any creative art; starting an entrepreneurial venture; diet and workout programs; or the attempt to change a problem pattern of thought or conduct in ourselves. The list is endless! Any action that delays immediate gratification in service of longer-term growth is an instant test of our mental resolve.

Resistance has several characteristics:

• Invisible: it cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. However, it is a feeling. It is that negative force that drives us away from doing our work. It is internal and rises from within. Self-generated and self-perpetuated.

• Infallible: the more important a call to action for our personal growth, the more resistance we will feel towards pursuing it.

• Fear: the more scared we are of a work or a goal, the more sure we can be we have to do it. It is this fear that tells us what we have to do.

• It never goes away: each day the battle must be fought anew.

• Rationalisation: that part of the psyche that explains away why we should not do our work. The reasons may well be very valid - a big project at work, the wife needs help, the kids are sick, or financial matters need to be attended to. Unfortunately, this all means jack.

Here is my live example- Resistance and this Substack. The voice inside me says I should not “coach” or put myself out there as some kind of purveyor of wisdom; that my writing may come across as vain and egotistical; that my words could inadvertently give away an edge that could do me harm. This all makes sense to my inner dialogue. What convinced me to go ahead was that I was unhappy to not do so. I wanted something better for myself. I wanted better for others. As soon as I sit down to write, these feelings dissipate. Nothing bad happened.

These are all the blocks that stop writers from writing and artists from conducting their art. What about more specific examples that impact us as traders?

• Resistance to take that stop when we know we should take it.

• Resistance to pause to take that check-in to get into the right mental framework.

• Resistance from going deep into our playbook and stats.

• Resistance to log out of that chatroom banter to engage in development work.

• Resistance from writing that end-of-day review after a bad day to learn from our mistakes. Resistance from writing a review on a nothing day.

• Resistance to consistently execute our best practices outside of trading to harness our best selves.

As traders, we are affected by the same forces that impact all artists.

The good news is it can be beaten.

Turning Pro:

Resistance can be beaten through the “ideal” of being professional. The parallels here within any performance field are overwhelming.

The professional understands and internalises:

• Inspiration comes from the process: by performing the mundane physical act of sitting down and starting to work, you set in motion a mysterious but certain sequence of events that produce inspiration. Things jump out to be explored and tested. Listen to these.

• Patience: it is a journey. It takes time for the stars to align and to build the necessary skills. Patience is needed to keep oneself from flaming out in each individual work. Success will come with consistency but not on a schedule when you want it to.

• Technique: focus on mastering technique because you want to have the full arsenal of skills when inspiration comes.

• Play it as it lays: there is going to be adversity, grievances, bad calls, bad beats as well as lucky breaks along the way. These factors all compromise the ground over which the campaign must be waged.

• Preparation: the pro is prepared each day and ready to confront self-sabotage. He aims to take what the day provides him. He understands that the territory changes every day. “The goal is not victory but to handle himself, his insides, as sturdily and steadily as he can."

• Self-validation: being able to notice what you are feeling with non-judgemental awareness and acceptance. The professional cannot allow the actions of others to define his reality. Critics come and go but the blank page is still there the next day.

The parallels with trading are so clear. Conduct your affairs with professionalism- this is a full-time endeavour. Prepare for each day and each catalyst fully. Prepare your mind for what you are about to do. Work on the key skills so that we can tap into our best selves when that one good opportunity comes along. Assess your trading coldly and objectively. Be tough-minded and thick-skinned to accept adversity. Where you fall short, improve it. Come back each and every day. The market is not out to get you. The only thing that stands in your way is whatever emotional baggage you choose to hold onto.

“whats important is the work. That’s the game I have to suit up for. That’s the field on which I have to leave everything I’ve got.”

Tapping into Higher Realm:

Beyond resistance, there is a spiritual element and force that is greater than ourselves.

Here is where the author and I slightly differ in viewpoints. I do not believe in God. I do not invoke the Muse nor do I think our work is serving the Angels. However, I do undoubtedly believe there is a higher sphere of energy that can concentrate around us. I do believe there is untapped talent that has been programmed through the evolution of our genes. Spirituality is the connection to something greater than yourself.

This is the energy we are trying to unlock. It comes about firstly by sitting down every day to do the work. Keep grinding and something mysterious seems to pop up. Unseen forces enlist in our cause.

I can’t possibly expand on the concepts of ego versus the self in the confines of this post; our conscious thought as separate from a greater entity where the archetypes of the unconscious dwell. The most powerful takeaway for me from this section is this: we all have our own distinct and unique personalities. We were not born a blank slate. Instead, we are our own filtred beings.

We can’t be anything we want to be. Hard truth.

We all have a specific personal destiny. If we were born to run, it is our job to become a runner.

“Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it”

The same stands for the trader. Use your unique skills and talents. If you are a man of stats, then go down a quantitative route. If you are more visual, gain insights from the order book and tape. There is no point replicating me or anyone else from Twitter as this is not you. I am on my path. I can shorten the learning curve with these messages so take what resonates and frame it. Perhaps this is your calling. Perhaps it is not. The only way to know is to sit down and do the actual work.

Trading is a business. I believe that business gives you a reason to be spiritual. It exposes you to new problems and unknowns that demand a new perspective to navigate. It fuels growth, performance, and evolution by solving problems. This can all be passed down and be impactful.

Conclusion:

“It is one thing to study war, it is another to live the warrior’s life.”

-Telamon of Arcadia, 5th century B.C mercenary

I can’t tell you how much time I have wasted pursuing low-value tasks and getting needlessly distracted by chats instead of doing what I needed to. This is all my inner dialogue and resistance stopping me. If I learned anything from this book, it was the importance of focusing on the work. This needs to be targeted at the major levers for my business not the trivial. It is up to us to decipher what the exact levers in this work should contain, and then execute.

The market regime changes and edges go. We must pursue an ongoing creative process to fuel our adaptation to conditions. The best traders I see are always examining themselves and the market, exploring new ways to execute whether through size, timeframe, or technology.

The life of an artist is a way of being in the world. We can learn a lot from these disciplines to form our idealised way of being to live a professional trading life. Tapping into our creative selves is tapping into our best selves.