Odysseus Knew He'd Crack. So He Did This Instead
What a 2,800-year-old Greek myth teaches traders about removing temptation before it strikes
Do you know the story of Odysseus and the Sirens by Homer?
On his way home from the Trojan War, he had to sail past an island where the Sirens sang. Supposedly beautiful and impossible to resist… (like a 1-minute price spike?!)
But every sailor who heard them steered straight into the rocks to their death…
So what did Odysseus do?
ODYSSEUS AND THE SIRENS
He told his crew to plug their ears with beeswax.
Then he had them tie him to the mast…lashed up so he couldn’t move.
And he gave them one order… no matter how much I scream, no matter how much I beg you to untie me… don’t.
They sailed past the sirens, and sure enough, he totally lost his mind. Screamed and fought the ropes. Begging the sailors to turn the ship towards the island.
But the ropes held, the sailors didn’t budge, and they made it through unscathed.
Odysseus chose not to play the game on hard mode….
Meaning he didn’t just assume his willpower and discipline would hold up in the moment. He made it physically impossible to fold, no matter how much temptation.
See where I’m heading with this? Traders think they can ‘raw dog’ their way through tough times.
Like quitting drinking but spending all day sitting in a pub.
Or losing a few pounds by staring at a chocolate cake…
For traders, maybe it’s using a limit order so you can walk away from the screen. Removing the temptation to meddle.
- Maybe it’s a hard stop instead of a mental one. Because mental stops aren’t stops… they’re suggestions.
- Maybe it’s hiding your P&L during the trading day. You trade differently when you can’t see the number.
- Maybe it’s deleting the broker’s app from your phone. You don’t need to check that chart at lunch.
Odysseus didn’t trust himself in the moment, and he was literally a Greek hero.
So, maybe to be the hero in your trading story, you don’t need to play on hard mode either…
Here’s your question for today:
What’s your weakness? And what’s your equivalent of tying yourself to the mast?
Figure that out… and you’ve probably just made trading a whole lot easier.