Resisting the Siren’s Song of the Markets
With crypto on the rise, I thought it would be fitting to impart some of the lessons I have learned over the years. Lessons in psychology, discipline and self control. I have learned many difficult lessons over the years so my suffering hasn’t been in vain. These experiences have been invaluable to getting my investment strategy back on track as well as providing a foundation to build a new psychological paradigm inside my own mind.
Today I am writing to warn you of a potential danger ever lurking in the crypto market. Here is the message I have for you today: “Here be Dragons…”
Here Be Dragons
From the earliest surviving maps we have on record, we have learned that ancient cartographers used phrases and pictures to warn sailors and other travelers of dangers they might encounter. Dragons, sea creatures, and other mythical beasts were often drawn in and around maps as decoration and as a warning about exploring these unknown territories.
Early sailors were often the first to come across lands and waters unknown, and their travels provided the information that would be used by these cartographers to push the boundaries of the known world further and further.
"Here be dragons" (Latin: Hic Sunt Dracones) meant dangerous or unexplored territories on maps from the medieval period. Hic Sunt Dracones, Hic Sunt Leones (here be lions), and Terra Incognita (land unknown) all denoted areas on these surviving maps of the world that were unknown to the explorers of the time.
The sea has been the stage for monstrosities and strange tales since antiquity. The ocean is constantly shifting and moving with currents that could carry a ship off course and storms that threaten wrecks. Even the substance itself, seawater, is often cold and dark and deadly to drink in quantity.
The sea monsters that occupied the imaginations of medieval and renaissance travelers were depicted as fierce toothed animals battling in the waves, long serpents wrapped around ships and torturously beautiful sirens calling out to the sailors that passed their island.
The Crypto Market: Terra Incognita
The crypto market, like the seas of ancient times, is a wild and unpredictable place full of perilous storms and monsters that will devour your life savings.
Over the last several years I have seen these same markets crush the souls of many strong men and women. Some learn from their experiences, but most do not.
The volatility in the market is extreme, some cryptos can see daily fluctuations of 100% or more, and even the least volatile coins like bitcoin and ethereum can easily rise and fall 30% without batting an eye.
We all know that to be successful in the market one must buy low and sell at a higher price, yet human psychology is such that when prices rise it gives the market onlooker a sense of excitement and fear that they might miss out on future gains. When prices fall, people get depressed and wonder if the market will ever recover— many sell when this happens.
But this kind of thinking is backwards and it gets the best of even the most strong willed individual. They buy when it goes up and sell when it goes down and it is all fueled by a blind greed that is never quenched. They are tempted by the Siren’s song of wealth and riches beyond their imagination.
Even the strongest man from mythology, Odysseus, couldn’t resist the call of the siren.
The Siren’s Song
No road of trials was longer or more arduous than that faced by the hero of the
ancient greek epic The Odyssey. The book tells the story of the journey home of Odysseus after the Trojan War. He had been fighting in Troy with his fellow Greek Kings for 10 years.
Odysseus was the king of Ithaca and he was known as being a very important hero during the Trojan war. It was Odysseus who came up with the plot to get inside the walls of Troy with the Trojan horse. He was known for his intellectual skill and innovation— Homer described him as a man of many minds.
Odysseus and his men set sail to return home to their wives and children in Ithaca, but on the way they would take many detours that were fraught with peril. Cyclopeses, witches and hideous monsters were all waiting to throw the men off their course.
One of these detours included spending some time on the island of Circe with the witch who had turned his men into pigs. She fell in love with Odysseus and warned him about the Sirens on the journey home.
Circe told Odysseus:
“First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If any one unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song.
There is a great heap of dead men’s bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them. Therefore pass these Sirens by, and stop your men’s ears with wax that none of them may hear; but if you like you can listen yourself, for you may get the men to bind you as you stand upright on a cross-piece half way up the mast, and they must lash the rope’s ends to the mast itself, that you may have the pleasure of listening. If you beg and pray the men to unloose you, then they must bind you faster.”
When Circe warned him of the danger ahead, Odysseus listened carefully and took the precautions he needed to protect his men. He ordered them to seal their ears with beeswax so they wouldn't be lured by the siren’s song.
They set sail the next day to the island where the sirens dwelt. Their ship glided across a calm grey sea toward an island covered in the green and golden meadows described by Circe. The crew was eager to land, but Odysseus knew better. He told them:
“That is the Island of the Sirens. Circe warned me to steer clear of it, for the Sirens are beautiful but deadly.
They sit beside the ocean, combing their long golden hair and singing to passing sailors. But anyone who hears their song is bewitched by its sweetness, and they are drawn to that island like iron to a magnet. And their ship smashes upon rocks as sharp as spears. And those sailors join the many victims of the Sirens in a meadow filled with skeletons.”
Odysseus, gifted a large piece of beeswax from Circe, breaks it into small chunks. He gives one to each of his men and tells them to soften it before putting it into their ears; thus, they will not hear the Sirens’ song.
Odysseus was determined to hear the sirens’ song without succumbing to its lure. Circe had told him how to do it: he ordered his sailors to tie him firmly to the ship’s mast with beeswax in their own ears so they couldn’t be tempted by the music.
They sailed alongside the island where the sirens lived and as soon as Odysseus heard the words and music of the sirens he was enchanted. He longed to plunge into the waves and swim to the island where the Sirens were singing. He wanted to embrace them.
Odysseus pulled against the ropes that bind him to the mast of his ship. The ropes cut deeply into his flesh, but he did not care.
He nodded and scowled at his men, who plugged their ears with wax. He urged the men to free him, but they only rowed harder with their oars.
Odysseus being under the spell of their singing, the Sirens appeared as beautiful as Helen of Troy. To his crew, whose ears have been filled with beeswax so they cannot hear, the Sirens looked like monsters with vicious claws.
The ship swiftly moved forward and before long the song of the Sirens was only a faint echo. Only then did the crew members stop rowing and take out their earplugs. Eurylochus unbinded his now grateful captain, Odysseus, who had now come to his senses.
Bind Yourself to The Mast
Will you be able to withstand the temptation of the siren song of the crypto market? Do you really believe this is the last time to get your money into the markets before bitcoin and other cryptos exponentially rise to meteoric levels? Do you believe we will never see down days again? Do you feel a sense that you are missing out? Is anxiety and panic fueling your investment decisions? Have we seen the absolute bottom? Is the bear market really over?
These are some questions you must ask yourself before proceeding. If you think more danger might be ahead, then please have your loved ones tie you to the mast so you don’t fall victim to the alluring promises of the market.
Using mechanisms like recurring purchases on Coinbase is a great way to continually seed money into your favorite coins. It takes the decision out of the equation and allows you to slowly average into the market over an extended period of time.
We are in terra incognita my friends, dragons are near.