Your struggles are most certainly different than mine. It follows that they are different from your neighbors, work colleagues, friends, and even family members.
They may be better or worse. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that you have struggles, they are yours, and to varying degrees, these struggles affect your mental health and put you at risk of entering a self-fulfilling spiral that you can't escape from until you've lost everything.
I believe traders and finance professionals don't talk enough about their struggles. I know I personally do not.
There is a pervasive, institutionalized, and incentivized culture in our industry to project calm and confidence at all cost.
Everything is great! We're making a ton of money! Nobody is better than us! Let us manage your money for you!
I'm calling bullshit on that because the costs are greater than we can imagine.
The sooner we talk about it, the better we can tackle problems with effective solutions, and the likelier we are to achieve desirable results.
If any of this resonates with you, I encourage you to make time to join me and licensed clinical psychologist Andrew Menaker (@Andrew_Menaker) tomorrow at 2pm ET on twitter/X Spaces where we will attempt to begin an ongoing dialogue about struggles, symptoms, and remedies to point us all towards peak performance.
If for whatever reason you cannot attend live, you'll be able to listen to a recording of the conversation. Click here to book the conversation and put it on your calendar.
Sean McLaughlin | Chief Options Strategist, All Star Charts
