Time is a funny thing, isn’t it!? Some people say time doesn’t exist but in our reality, time actually has a place in our lives whether we like it or not. One thing about being a swing trader is that you have to be well aware on the time schedule that the markets move with and that time schedule is not ours. The problem with most traders is they don’t understand this very important element of trading and because they don’t they scramble around the charts trying to capture pips from up and down moves without ever being aware of when or where the large moves will take place that could drastically grow their trading accounts with very little effort.
Building up enough experience through hours of work, study and determination to understand the markets is the only way to fully understand the flow of the markets, to tap into the time schedule that the markets are moving with. You can relate what we do with the markets with many other skills. For instance, Bruce Lee, the greatest martial artist the world has ever seen, was a master because he took things to a level most never knew existed. He worked so hard at his skills but he was also a student of philosophy and with the combined knowledge of fighting techniques, body training and philosophy he was able to understand that there was a higher level of mastery that he could be achieved by fusing his understanding into one. Many years ago Bruce Lee did an interview where he talked about his view on life and of course martial arts. He was trying to explain how you have to become one with what you are trying to achieve and only then can you truly be a master.
In our quest to understand and master the markets, what we ultimately what to achieve is the ability to know where the markets are heading and when they will turn before anyone else and the way we do this is by understanding the time schedule that the institutions are working with. What I mean by this is that since the institutions control the markets, we have to understand what their intentions are and we have to be aligned with what they plan for the markets. Just like how water doesn’t have a specific form, you pour it into a glass and it shapes itself as such, freeze it and it becomes solid. It becomes aligned with whatever force it is interacting with. Just like water, we must be aligned with what we are doing and in this case we are speaking or trading. We must not approach trading with our own beliefs, ideas and time schedules, we must become the market, be aligned with its movements and be comfortable engaging with it as if it was our very best friend. Be like water!
Kevin Araujo