There are three meditative activities in my life. One, when I’m walking my dogs; two, when I’m in bed at the end of the day getting ready for sleep, and three, when it’s warm enough, when I swim. This time, it was the dog walk.

You see, whether I do well or poorly on a given day, I am in a constant state of judging myself. Even during very successful periods, I’ll ask myself: what do I think of my behavior? When I do poorly, of course, I judge myself even more critically, trying to reason out what I could have done better.

Given what transpired over the past week, I was in a particularly contemplative mood. After trading was over on Friday, March 24th, my portfolio was sporting a modest profit for the quarter. A week later, after the close on the 31st, it had turned into a modest loss. It isn’t a good feeling, and although the delineations that mark one quarter to the next are arbitrary in the context of the flow of trading, it’s still upsetting to work hard for three months and have less than nothing to show for it.