The stock market and you

Stock markets are in the news everyday and they make an excellent place for spiritual learning. Whenever you think or talk about it or invest in the stock market, you would not normally look at the spiritual perspective. Stock markets are about buying and selling, profit and loss, bulls and bears and anticipation. While people enter the stock market primarily with the intention of making money, there is a spiritual side to trading, and someone who is receptive can learn a lot of lessons about life here.As in life, the only certainty in stock markets is uncertaintyand unpredictability. Every morning, although we have a broad idea of how ourday is likely to be, we cannot predict with surety about events that mighthappen or not happen during the day. Similarly, every stock trader and brokerknows that the behaviour of the markets cannot be predicted with confidence.While the general trends might be predicted or anti-cipated, what eventuallyhappens when the markets open and trading begins, is known only minute byminute. This is true of our lives too, where life flows moment to moment; we canonly live in the present.Life is enmeshed in duality, with its upsand downs, victories and losses. The same is true of stock markets, whereinvestors move from happiness to sorrow and from ecstasy to dejection, withcyclical regularity. As in life, with stocks too, no one is a permanent winneror loser. Change is the only constant.Stock markets and life areabout being in the present moment, making continuous assessments of the currentsituation, and then taking whatever course of action seems right to us, at thatinstant. And these actions might bring about results which are acceptable orunacceptable. One must have the maturity to accept both the good and the badwith equanimity.Life is all about putting in our best efforts andthen surrendering to a higher authority or power. This letting go is oftenrequired in investing too where, after having made a decision, one should notcontinuously be thinking about it. Having done our job, we must let go and letexistence take over, and give us what-ever returns or rewards... Learn to acceptthat which you cannot change. At the same time, one cannot afford to be callousor careless, as these qualities always lead to trouble.Life and thestock markets are ruled by two emotions — greed and fear. Depending onmindsets of individuals, some might veer more towards greed, while many mightact predominantly from fear. What is needed is a healthy balance of desire andcaution; else we either get too greedy or are too scared. Extreme greed andextreme fear lead more to losses than profits and are major causes of misery andunhappiness.Life moves in cycles and good times are followed bynot-so-good times. On the stock market there are winners, there are losers andoften roles are reversed. The qualities that make our life joyous, balanced andharmonious — awareness, presence of mind, maturity, patience, truthfulnessto oneself, acceptance, and an ability to forgive and forget, resilience, andtrust and faith in a higher power — are the very traits that will hold anytrader in good stead, through buoyancies and crashes, and will ensure that hedoes not lose his peace of mind and become a victim of stress, anxiety anddepression.