When he hear the term ‘survival of the fittest’ bandied about, people are usually referring to contests of absolute strength and think of the Darwinian struggle for life. Trading is often thought of in a similar light.
It’s interesting to note that while Darwin came up the idea of natural selection, the term ‘survival of the fittest’ was coined by economist philosopher Herbert Spencer. What is more, both Darwin and Spencer were not referring to competitions of brute strength, but of best fit. That is, the survivors were those who best fit in to the environment around them. Brute strength is an aspect of this, but it is only half the story. Adaptation to the environment is also required.
Chance and randomness plays a big role in natural selection, as it does with trading success, but we can be sure that regardless of how strong we are with respect to risk management, discipline etc, if we don’t have an edge then we will likely die out. Likewise, an edge and no strength could prove equally fatal. Because the environment of the active investor is dynamic and forever changing, it may be useful to think of the circles below as constantly moving around about other, only rarely intersecting.
