BarroMetrics Views: Trading Success

Somewhere,  a long time ago, I heard that when it comes to trading, ‘off goes the head, on comes a pumpkin’. As I recall, the comment was made at a Trading Expo by a trading-educator, lamenting that newbie traders believed that you could attend just the freebie presentations for success.

I saw this in action the other evening when I gave a presentation for a broker. I was speaking with the attendees before the start of the presentation. I asked one how the trading had been going. The reply I got was: “February is going fantastic!”.

‘OK’ I said, ‘but that’s only one month. How did you do last year?’

‘February is really good!’ was the reply…….(nuf said!).

Later in the conversation, the attendee shared that little had changed in the approach to the markets - no journaling, no risk management, a trading plan that was made up of bits and pieces picked up here and there.

‘So, have you spent any money on books and courses?’ I asked.

‘No, I prefer to learn on my own’ was the reply.

Well, if you don’t change something, you always get what you have gotten…..(I thought to myself).

I was pondering how anyone could take that tact and expect success? One explanation may by that newbies want a certainty that if they buy course X, then success is guaranteed. And in a way,  I can’t blame them. If we are going to shell out the dollars asked for, and if we are going to put in the effort demanded to succeed by the markets, I guess we have a right to some guarantee, no?

Unfortunately not.

The best we can say, is getting an education, is like buying a ticket to a lottery - it gets you in the front door. If you don’t get one, you are guaranteed to fail; but getting an education does not guarantee success. Getting an education does not mean we have to go to a third party. Trading is one of those games that we can learn by trial and error; as long as we learn what does not work, (that means some form of journaling), and change that for something that brings the results we want, we can learn on our own. But doing it this way is likely to cost us more - emotionally and financially - than seeking an external education.

The other thing I’d say we’d want to focus on getting the process right and then see if we are getting the desired results; and in getting the process right, we need to give ourselves time rather than look for immediate success.

Refer this blog post to a friend or colleague…