Why the Best Trades Bloom When You Let Go
The illusion of control costs traders more than drawdowns.
In fall, asters bloom.
All year long, they look like “weeds”. Tall, gangly, unshaped. Neighbors probably shake their heads and wonder why we let them grow. But we know what’s coming.
Because when everything else fades, asters explode with white or purple flowers. And they’re the only thing left for bees, wasps, and pollinators before winter sets in.
They:
Feed the hive and make it strong enough to survive the cold.
Sustain next year’s queens, the mothers of future generations.
Provide food for the native bees — the ones that matter most here, not the imported honeybees — so their young can make it through winter and emerge in spring.
If I cut them down, the cycle breaks. The pollinators starve. The hive weakens.
And yet most people don’t let them grow. Yards must be clean. Lawns manicured. Everything under control.
That word — control — is what this comes down to.
In life and in trading, people can’t stand to just let things go.
But here’s the truth: the more you try to control, the less you actually have.
Lao Tzu said:
“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go.”
You Can’t Control the Trend
Traders love control. Tight stops. Perfect entries. Predicting exactly where the market will go. But trends are like flowers. You don’t decide when they bloom.
You can only prepare the soil, plant the seed, and step back.
Gold Miners GDX 0.00%↑
For years, gold miners looked like weeds. Volatile, choppy, frustrating. Every bounce sold off. Every rally faded.
But in 2024, we stepped in. It was volatile — no doubt about it. It shook traders out. It tested patience.
Now look at the chart:
Years of resistance finally cracked.
Like a balloon pressed against a ceiling, it burst through.
Today, GDX is one of the leading sectors in the market, up more than 120% this year.
You couldn’t force that breakout to happen sooner. You couldn’t control the volatility. You could only let the trade work.
Bitcoin $BTCUSD
Bitcoin has been in the portfolio since 2023. And in that time? Sideways, down, up, sideways again. Enough chop to drive anyone crazy.
But here’s the difference: I didn’t try to control it.
I didn’t sell on the drawdowns.
I didn’t double down on every dip.
I just stayed long.
And now? It’s breaking into new weekly closing highs, with 150k in sight.
When price makes new highs, the job isn’t to predict the top. The job is simple: stay long.
Bonds $TLT
Not every trade blooms. Some just sit there.
Bonds have been dead money for over a year. Sideways after a brutal collapse.
So what do you do? Flip long? Run for the hills because “the bottom must be in”?
No. Because you don’t know. And you don’t have to know.
Some of my (past) best trades over the years were things I never would’ve guessed:
Shorting oil. 2020
Long lumber. 2021
Russian equities. 2019
I couldn’t have told you those would be my best trades. I simply weighed the probabilities, sized them, and rode the trend.
The bond short was one of those. If it’s given me 300% with leverage over a few years, and I give back 10% at the end — that’s not failure. That’s part of letting go.
Marcus Aurelius put it simply:
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
You don’t control the market. You control your discipline.
Natural Gas $NG_F
And then there’s natural gas — the Exorcist. The widow maker.
We put on a position a few weeks ago, and immediately it went down. That’s normal. That’s natural gas.
If you try to control it with tight stops, you bleed out from a thousand small losses. That’s why you need wide stops here.
Look at the chart:
After a long downtrend, it based.
It faked a breakdown, then snapped back — a false breakdown, one of the most powerful reversal patterns.
That’s often where big moves begin.
It may join the party. Or it may not. Either way, I can’t control it. My job is to take the setup, size the risk, and let it go.
The Deeper Lesson
Asters don’t bloom because I demand it. They bloom because that’s what they’re meant to do.
Markets work the same way. You can’t force the breakout. You can’t smooth out the volatility. You can’t stop the chop.
All you can do is:
Prepare.
Take the trade.
Let go of the outcome.
And that’s where the edge comes from.
Because the irony is this: the trades you think you can control rarely pay. The trades you let breathe — the ones that feel like weeds most of the year — those are the ones that feed the hive.
So let the weeds grow. Let the trades run. Let the outcomes be what they will.
The bees know it. The flowers know it. The market knows it.
And the sooner you let go, the stronger your hive will be.
“Trading well means doing nothing.” Andy Featherston
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I suffer from all these things, but in my defence IBKR says my Sharpe ratio is 3.12, micro managing everything, probably because I have such bad drawdown PTSD.