Everyone talks about Mercury retrograde as if it is a time of trouble. This year (2020) Mercury retrograde from February 16 to March 9, then in June 18 to July 12 and once more in October 13 to November 3. We are about to see the end of the first retrograde period. Let’s sum up my experience so far with this retrograde.
The famous electronic device failing issue:
- my cell phone used up all its battery once
- one of my UPS (uninterruptable power supply) battery suddenly died
- my laptop suddenly dropped its speed to 0.4G
- my remote trading server works fine, but Tradestation crashed like an hour before market close
The famous communication issue:
- I ask for one document, people give me something else all together, several times
- Some deals just stuck on unimportant points
Is it a time that we are supposed to experience more hiccups? Sure.
But should we be afraid of it? Hell no.
Learn to make use of the positive side of Mercury retrograde is what matter most.
Instead of pushing hard on getting deals done, I know it is a time to take things slow and review documents carefully. So things may not progress as fast as I like, at the same time I get to hammer out all the details with time to spare.
This is also the best time to push hard on conducting research projects. As someone who spend a lot of time studying the financial markets. This is the best time for me to review what I have done in the past and see if I can improve on what I have accomplished before. Even past research that ended up not useful can become inspiration of a new research direction.
During this retrograde, I found one significant flaw in one of my trading models that leads to the large drawdown that I do not feel comfortable trading. This particular problem is there for 12 long years since I started trading the model. Some of you may recognize that 12 years is also an important cycle.
The breakthrough to this issue helps me drop the drawdown on this model by half. And in turn, the new research helps me applying similar ideas to a number of other models to improve their trading stability. I never thought I can improve these trading models any further until now.
I am very happy with the results.
The key to utilize Mercury retrograde is to first dive deep into research / study something important to you before the retrograde at least several weeks prior. Then revisit the subject again during the retrograde to see if you can gain new insights. Incorporate the new insights to further your understanding of the subject. It’s effectively a hack to gain expertise quickly.
I am looking forward to the next Mercury retrograde already.
Mercury retrograde is really a blessing in disguise for traders and anyone who conduct serious research.
One Reply to “Mercury Retrograde: Blessing in Disguise”