Welcome to the Present Trader site. You can call me P.T. I work under a pseudonym here, because who I am is not important. But I do believe my message is.
I’m an experienced trader. I’ve been trading for almost a decade and a half, and I’ve broken through to consistent profit. I day trade my personal account and several funded futures accounts, and I’m continually working to grow the capital I manage.
As a trading coach and mentor, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients over more than a decade, helping them step powerfully towards consistent trading profit.
I’m launching Present Trader to do two things:
- First, to show traders the importance of the state of presence for trading success.
- And second, to introduce the concept of “market presence” — where a trader becomes deeply aligned with exactly what is happening on the market right now, in the present moment. Full acceptance of what is going on, followed by right action for what is observed. This leads the trader to aligned trading, and a strong potential for profit.
There will be two categories here. One deals with presence. The other deals with trading. In the trading category, we’ll spend some serious time on the charts and go deeply into my trading philosophy.
In this introductory video, we’re focusing on presence.
What Presence Is, and Why It Matters for Traders
So let’s consider what presence is, and why it’s important for traders.
Presence is a term I learned from Eckhart Tolle. It’s his preferred term for a state of consciousness pointed to by countless spiritual teachers, past and present.
Jesus referred to the kingdom of heaven when speaking about higher consciousness. When his disciples asked him where the kingdom of heaven was, he said that it was inside them. This is one of the most misunderstood concepts in religion today.
The Buddha referred to emptiness — the space in which thoughts appear. Buddhism cautions us not to get lost in monkey mind.
So we can understand presence as a state of consciousness. It is the awareness inside of which everything you experience happens.
But more important than the mental understanding of what presence is, or what it points to, is to experience it for yourself. If you take a couple of deep breaths, and focus on that instead of your racing mind, you might get a glimpse of presence.
And it is not some elusive or magical state. It is your natural state of well-being.
Glimpses of Presence
- When you feel at one with all of life — that is presence.
- When you focus on the life force inside your body, and you allow that feeling, and your awareness of it, to grow — that is presence.
- When you’re out in nature, and the beauty of something just takes your breath away and quietens your racing thoughts — that is presence.
- When you spend thirty minutes in meditation, and you get up with your whole body buzzing, feeling alive, vibrant, and in bliss — that is presence.
Presence is the joy that passes all understanding.
My Own Journey
I first got introduced to the concept of presence in 2006. As I was a devout Christian at the time, I rejected the teaching, because it felt foreign, and against what I understood the Bible to teach.
But I got involved in contemplative spiritual practice soon after that. And this changed me. It is deeply transformative to spend time in silence, and to experience true stillness.
Around 2009, I again got exposure to presence. And this time, I felt the deep transformative power of it. The joy of being present became such a refuge for me that I started prioritising it, and chasing it, with every moment I could spare.
When I got into a hurtful fight or disagreement, I would find an empty room, close the door, and lie flat on the ground — just allowing the indescribable bliss and peace of presence to engulf me.
Over the years, I lived with an intention of growing more present, and I built regular spiritual practice to support that intention. I had no magical, sudden experience of enlightenment. I’d say my journey has been one of slow transformation. “Painstaking enlightenment” is a more fitting term for my journey than “sudden” or “instant” enlightenment.
And seventeen years later, I’m not even sure I would call myself enlightened. I agree with Michael Singer that enlightenment is a term best left for the masters.
What I do know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that I am a transformed person. And that I have so much more joy and peace in my life now than when I started this journey.
Peace First, Then Action
I’ve learned that the state of presence helps me resolve problems that my human mind could not. I’ve learned to trust that when I have an issue my mind can’t easily solve, presence seems to help.
And I don’t mean this in a spiritual bypassing kind of way. I don’t mean you stick your head in the ground like an ostrich and dream that all your troubles will magically disappear. No. I mean that you stop worrying and fretting mentally. You find peace and quiet inside — inner stillness, and spaciousness. And then, from that state, you try to resolve the issue you’re dealing with.
And I’m sure I was guilty of spiritual bypassing at times. It’s something to be careful of.
I guess the point is: peace first, and only then, action. Acting from a place of resistance and pain will only lead to more suffering.
Complete acceptance comes before any attempt to change what is.
Why This Matters for Trading
And this includes trading. Most traders are drawn to trading because they’re deeply unhappy with their current level of abundance, or their station in life. They want the power to advance themselves and their loved ones. And, surprise surprise — trading does have the power to change all of that, very fast.
Sadly, though, trading turns out to be a very painful experience for many traders. I myself struggled for many years.
What I found is that a deep understanding of how life works — and how the Universe manifests itself into form — is helpful for breaking through. And presence is key to that.
What you focus on expands. And that means if you focus with your limited human mind, you’ll most probably be approaching trading from a place of lack. You’ll try to create abundance with a strong focus on what is lacking in your life.
And that is not how life works.
The Vibration of “Have”
Most spiritual teachers say the root of all abundance is to focus on the good that is already in your life. In short: to get more abundance, focus on the abundance you already have.
If you want something very badly, and you focus on it exclusively from a place of deep wanting, you’ll hold the personal vibration of “want.” To manifest something different, you need to bring your personal vibration to a place of “have.”
Jesus taught that if you ask for something, believe that you already have it, and it will be yours. He didn’t say that if you ask for something, believe it will come to you one day. He said you need to believe it is already yours.
Manifestation teachers teach the same thing. You need to somehow break the focus on the lack in your life, to allow abundance to flow.
One good way to do this is to practice gratitude, and to feel appreciation.
The practice of gratitude, for the good things already in your life, is very important. We’ll spend a great deal of time here exploring the transformative power of gratitude — and how to make the practice of it a significant part of your life.
Until Next Time
That concludes this introduction. I hope you found it helpful.
Thanks for reading. Speak soon.
P.T.
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