Success in all endeavors is requires absence of specific qualities.
1) To succeed in crime requires absence of empathy,
2) To succeed in banking you need absense of shame at hiding risks,
3) To succeed in school requires absence of common sense,
4) To succeed in economics requires absence of understanding of probability, risk, or 2nd order effects and about anything,
5) To succeed in journalism requires inability to think about matters that have an infinitesimal small chance of being relevant next January,
…6) But to succeed in life requires a total inability to do anything that makes you uncomfortable when you look at yourself in the mirror.
Archives of “endeavors” tag
rssMetaphors and Similes
Similes and metaphors play an important role in both the internal thought-process of a day trader as well as in communication between two traders. To describe the emotional reactions coupled to the movement of a stock in likeness to a rollercoaster, or to compare averaging down in hopes of breaking even to digging one’s self out of a hole is to use simile to quickly illustrate a particular situation as clearly and succinctly as possible. Every trader uses these analogies, each having his own favorites, and they are used to add structure to an environment that often lacks useful tools for explaining particular occurrences.
Sports metaphors also play an important role in quickly passing information to another trader with a small chance for confusion. Traders use base-hit as a metaphor to describe a solid but ultimately small-scale win in the market, and home run for when a trade is “out of the park”.
Ultimately, metaphors and similes can be used by a trader to keep his mind in the right place, and maintain emotional control. By metaphorically comparing trading to baseball or basketball, the Michael Jordan truism about never missing a shot he didn’t take or Babe Ruth’s statistical record for strikeouts helps the trader keep in the back of his mind the inalienable reality that he won’t get a hit every time he swings the bat.
Some traders choose to relate trading to fighting a war, conducting scientific research, or any number of analogous endeavors. The best metaphors and similes are those with which the trader can most easily identify. These easily identified intellectual aids, when utilized to enhance trading and the trader’s sense of control, in the end, will increasable productivity, and most importantly, profitability.
Inspiration
THINK IT
“What the mind of man can Conceive and Believe, it can Achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
“You become what you think about all day long” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“You are today where your thoughts have brought you, you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” – James Allen
“Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself 10 years ago.” – Horace Mann, educator – How many traders feel this way?
BELIEVE IT
“You can have anything you want. There are no limits to your possibilities.” – unknown
“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” – Henry Ford (more…)
Battle of Waterloo and Trading
I often talk about the Battle Of Waterloo and how it relates to trading in general and specifically strategy development. If you don’t know the battle (which I recommend reading about if you have time), just listen to this once popular country song and you’ll get a sense to why I think this is so important.
While I’m no historian, I do think traders can learn a lot about trading through learning about important battles in history. The Battle Of Waterloo offers a great example as it offers many lessons for us to consider:
Make your planning and risk analysis commensurate with the size of your project. For major endeavors, contingency plans are critical.
Know when to cut your losses if necessary. Don’t let your desire to succeed be the enemy of good judgment.
Be sure that the justification is clear for your project, and that your entire team is sold.
Don’t become over-confident, especially after many successes. Remember the basic principles.
Never attempt an unpopular endeavor in isolation.
Don’t make enemies. You are only as good as your allies.
Adopt leader style politics, not the Machiavellian style. Look for the win-win.
Many of these lessons apply to good trading, especially the ones about the importance of having contingency plans, knowing when to cut losses, having clear justifications for your trades, the importance of avoiding overconfidence and finally how important it is to attack from a strong position like having plenty of capital and cash reserves.
Needless to say, every trading strategy has their own weaknesses. So, what the most common weakness I’ve found? That’s easy – human error. That’s right, usually most strategies that have been backtested and proven to work continue to work well unless we do things to either deviate from the plan and/or we apply leverage to it rendering it extremely vulnerable. It is fairly often that I see traders come forward with a hot strategy they’ve used and are in the process of levering it up, creating havoc and exposing themselves to great risk. There is good reason for the expression – leverage always kills. In my experience, that has been true. Beyond that, many strategies are based on things that don’t account for the constantly evolving nature of the market. (more…)
Metaphors and Similes
Similes and metaphors play an important role in both the internal thought-process of a day trader as well as in communication between two traders. To describe the emotional reactions coupled to the movement of a stock in likeness to a rollercoaster, or to compare averaging down in hopes of breaking even to digging one’s self out of a hole is to use simile to quickly illustrate a particular situation as clearly and succinctly as possible. Every trader uses these analogies, each having his own favorites, and they are used to add structure to an environment that often lacks useful tools for explaining particular occurrences.
Sports metaphors also play an important role in quickly passing information to another trader with a small chance for confusion. Traders use base-hit as a metaphor to describe a solid but ultimately small-scale win in the market, and home run for when a trade is “out of the park”.
Ultimately, metaphors and similes can be used by a trader to keep his mind in the right place, and maintain emotional control. By metaphorically comparing trading to baseball or basketball, the Michael Jordan truism about never missing a shot he didn’t take or Babe Ruth’s statistical record for strikeouts helps the trader keep in the back of his mind the inalienable reality that he won’t get a hit every time he swings the bat.
Some traders choose to relate trading to fighting a war, conducting scientific research, or any number of analogous endeavors. The best metaphors and similes are those with which the trader can most easily identify. These easily identified intellectual aids, when utilized to enhance trading and the trader’s sense of control, in the end, will increasable productivity, and most importantly, profitability.