Applying Seven Huna Principles to Trading

Posted: March 16, 2009

Contributing Author: Ruth Barrons Roosevelt

Huna is an ancient Hawaiian philosophy that has been handed down through the centuries.  Huna means secret and Ka Huna means the secret (as in, surprisingly enough, the big kahuna).  Serge Kahili King, PhD derived from this philosophy seven basic principles that apply very aptly to living in any time.*

           From the moment I read them, these principles struck me as a unique and powerful way to live, trade, or pursue any endeavor.  They are as follows:

1. The world is what you think it is.

2. There are no limits.

3. Energy flows where attention goes.

4. Now is the moment of power.

5. To love is to be happy with.

6. All power comes from within.

7. Effectiveness is the measure of truth.

            My next seven columns will pursue in depth how each of these principles can be utilized to effectively involve oneself and evolve in the trading arena.  Let’s look at each principle briefly in the trading context.

            The world of trading and investing is what you think it is.  Do you think it’s dangerous, confusing, unpredictable, or overly risky?  It will be.  Do you think the market is possible to understand and abundant with opportunity?  It will be.  In other words, we all don’t live in the same worlds, trade the same markets, or get rewarded equally.  Whatever you think, you’re right.

            There are no limits to your trading profits or losses.  You apply your own risk/reward parameters.  You need to look at any formerly imposed boundaries you’ve put upon yourself.  It is possible to expand your own ideas of what can be done and earned as a trader/investor.

            Your courage, fears, and perception will flow where you put your attention.  Are you seeking to follow a method?  Make money in any old way?  Avoid loss?  Grow your capital through right action?  Your strengths and weaknesses will go where your attention is placed.

            Now is the moment to interpret events and price movement.  Now is the moment to act.  You can’t trade yesterday’s or tomorrow’s markets today.  And be sure you don’t confuse yesterday with today.  Today is today.  What is the market doing today?

            How do you feel when you trade?  It has many times been said that successful traders love trading.  If you’re miserable when you think of your trading, something is going terribly wrong.

            The power comes from within you as a trader.  It is up to you to perceive and to enter, exit, or remain in a trade.  The winds will blow, but you alone set your sail.

            One of the beauties of trading is that we know the measure of truth sooner rather than later.  You may have a concept of what is supposed to happen, but right now you are making or losing money.  Indeed, effectiveness is the measure of truth.  Don’t fool yourself.

* “Huna, Ancient Hawaiian Secrets for Modern Living”, Serge Kahili King, PhD, Atria Books, 2008.