Everywhere we look, there’s uncertainty right now.

The Bank of England warned of a coming recession this week amid a rising inflationary environment. Globally we have supply bottlenecks, energy concerns, the Ukraine/Russia war plus, growing tensions with China, Taiwan and the US.

As with all periods of uncertainty, just like during the financial crisis, there’s opportunity.

It’s easy to look back on 2008/9 and know it was a great time to be buying assets such as stocks and property but, at the time, it was very hard to do.

An advantage that the experienced Trader has over the masses is that they are used to uncertainty.

Every new trade they place has no outright guarantee of success, but they understand this. In fact, they thrive on it because they appreciate the outcome of a single trade or few trades is pretty much irrelevant.

It’s the outcome of a much larger number of trades over time that counts.

In trading we know that in the short term there is uncertainty but, in the long term, there’s a MUCH greater certainty that our trading efforts will be rewarded.

As a result of thriving on uncertainty, a Trader is psychologically better equipped to deal with uncertainties that present themselves in everyday life.

Just look at the Covid pandemic.

For many, they found it psychologically difficult to deal with.

But many traders I spoke to took it in their stride.

So…..

Right now, when there’s uncertainty everywhere we look, do you allow yourself to succumb to the negativity of the short term or see the bigger picture that the odds favour?

We will be looking back on this period in 10 years time knowing that, yet again, we managed to come through it.

And as Traders, we have the skill set to in fact see the opportunities that arise right on our screens.

Personally, I have always adopted the policy of being a cautious optimist.

No matter what’s going on in the world I believe in the ingenuity of mankind to solve problems.

In the meantime, I keep trading……

Until next time, Charlie