Pain as a Function. Also in Trading.
In the real world, pain has a bad reputation. It is uncomfortable, annoying, cumbersome. In the hardest moments, every one of us has thought at least once: ‘I wish I could feel nothing more.’
For some, that wish turns into a permanent condition. But it is not a relief: it is a condemnation. There is a very rare genetic disease called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA). The sufferer feels no physical pain whatsoever. Burns, fractures, deep wounds are not felt. The body damages itself in silence. There are no signals. Only consequences.
It is a pathology as fascinating as it is tragic. One does not protect oneself from what one does not feel. Eliminating pain does not improve life. It exposes it. It fragilises it. It makes it unconscious.
When I first read about this condition, I did not immediately think of trading. But over time, I began to recognise the same dynamics in the reasoning of many traders.
A Dangerous Illusion
In our environment, pain has another name: loss. Loss of capital, of trust, of time. Emotional loss. And, just as in life, the first reaction is to look for a way to avoid it. Many traders do this by constructing systems that try to anaesthetise risk: filters upon filters, pushed optimisations, exclusion of “imperfect” trades.
It all stems from a misconception: that a good system is one that never loses. But a system that does not lose is like a body that feels no pain: it is not healthy, it is in danger. It is a blind system, disconnected from the dynamic reality of the market. It is not managing risk, it is ignoring it. And the moment something changes, because something will always change, it will have no signal to adapt. And it will collapse.
Pain in trading, as in the body, should not be eliminated: it should be interpreted. A loss, if foreseen and included in the overall design of a strategy, is a useful signal, a structural part. It is proof that we are exposed. That we are participating. That the system is alive.
Suffering Well Instead of Not Suffering at All
The real goal is not to zero pain, but to make it bearable, understandable and useful. A robust system is not one that always works, but one that knows how to work even when it is wrong. What is needed is a strategic tolerance of discomfort.
It needs the unsexy, unattractive ability to withstand minor damage to avoid major catastrophes. As in the human body: you don’t avoid the sprain by walking on a tightrope. You avoid it by learning how to fall without breaking.
Over time I have learned to distrust systems that never fail.
- Because they are unrealistic.
- Because they do not learn.
- Because they don’t show where it hurts, when, and why.
A loss, when it is part of a solid structure, is not a mistake. It is a breath. A phase of the pulse. An evolutionary response. Without it, there is no adaptation. And without adaptation, no system survives.
