Last Monday and yesterday, I was invited by CMC to address its FX clients on the Habits of Success. On the first evening we had 600+ and last night about 400 attendees.

Questions I ask after a presentation are:

  1. What outcome did you seek for tonight?
  2. What outcome are you seeking from your trading?
  3. What is stopping you from attaining these outcomes?

Invariably, I receive some general reply:

  1. More knowledge
  2. Make money
  3. Don’t know enough

What I find interesting is when I press for more specific answers, they are not forthcoming:

  1. How will more knowledge assist you attain your goals?
  2. What does ‘more money’ mean to you?
  3. How will you know when you know enough?

These are some of the questions I pose to the answers. Few attendees were able to provide clear replies to any of the questions.

This brings me to one of the points I was seeking to make in the series ‘Hitting Your Target!’ : to increase our chances of success, we need to form clear outcomes and actions. Yet, few newbies take the trouble to formulate the most rudimentary strategic and tactical plans. They seem to think that success will just magically happen. Yes, they will shake their heads and agree with you that such plans are needed; but they will fail to act.

In my quest to make a difference, I sometimes wonder if it’s worthwhile. If newbies won’t lift a finger to save themselves, then why on earth do I think I can make a difference?

But then I meet traders like Tom Curley, Dr. Peter Whitnall, and Mic Lim and it makes the effort worthwhile. By the way, Mic can hardly be called a newbie. He was a successful local in the Singapore pits and was one of the few to make the transition. I am proud to call him friend.

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