RANDOM THOUGHTS FROM LIFE ON THE ROAD
Louise Bedford and I have just wrapped up about a month of travelling to
different states and presenting, which is something we haven’t done for
probably 15 years. It was an interesting adventure and good to get out from
behind the screen and talk to people. When I go anywhere I try and be a keen
observer of people. It is amazing what you can learn simply by listening and
watching and the one thing I learnt this time rather surprised me.
Success in any endevour has a few trials that it places in your way and
if you conquer this trial then there will inevitably be another one. Life is in
many ways a little bit like the 12 labours of Hercules – there is always
something else. As you would expect
trading also has these hurdles, some are huge but most are trivial and the thing
that interested me most in my current journeys was that people fell at the
first hurdle. The first hurdle for many people is actually getting off their
own arses.
Let me explain by reference to my own evolution as a trader.
Step 1 – Decide I want a different life.
Step 2 – Get off my arse and decide what form this will take.
Step 3 – Learn about equities trading by once again getting off my arse
and going down the the ASX.
Step 4 – Repeat Step 3 repeatedly whilst I devour everything their
education department has to offer.
Step 5 – Open an account with a broker – how did I do this?…….I rang them
up and asked (this also involved getting off my arse).
Step 6 – Make a trade – how did I do this?…… I rang them up and asked.
Step 7 – Get trade wrong (my trade, my mistake, my fault).
Step 8 – Repeat Steps 6 and 7 repeatedly.
Step 9 – Learn technical analysis – how did I do this?…..I found a book
and read it.
Step 10 – Place another trade – make a slightly smaller mistake….repeat
ad infinitum.
Step 11 – Begin using computerised technical analysis. How did I learn
this?…..I bought a PC and a charting package and spent countless evenings and
days playing with it.
Step 12 – Start trading derivatives and make lots of mistakes.
Whilst this is a little flippant there are two central themes, I made a
vast number of mistakes and everything I did came about from my own sense of
discovery and getting off my own arse. When travelling and in subsequent emails
I have been surprised at the number of people who cannot begin to trade because
no one will sit down beside them and show them how to place an order or how to
find information on their brokers website. When I suggest that they look at the
copious and detailed instructions brokers offer all of which is in glorious
multimedia they are somewhat taken aback that someone should suggest this, as
if the magic do everything for you fairy should sit down beside them and do it
for them.
As my father used to say in his more eloquent moments…do you want me to
come and wipe your arse for your as well?
One of the hallmarks of people who are successful is that they have a
sense of internal direction, this internal rhythm keeps them moving forward and
it is powered by their own sense of achievement. My failures are my own but so
too are my successes because I seek out new things and learn new things without
constantly being prodded forwarded. My hypothesis about this sort of thing is
that some people have been in the employee mindset for so long that they can no
longer take action for themselves and to suggest that they should overloads
their brain. This I can excuse because it is a powerful form of social
conditioning and it is hard to break. Lazy bastards I have no time for.
Author: Chris Tate
TODAY, I TRADE
WHERE ARE YOU… my brilliant trader within?
I move through the trading world with confidence.
I will walk my path with audacity.
Today I trade.
I am in awe of the future that I have ensured for my family.
I am judged, and misunderstood. Yet, I stand strong.
I am battered by my losses, but I rise above.
The world is missing what I am designed to give.
Today I trade.
I am one with the markets, and my light illuminates my most precious
goals.
I am black. I am white. I am old. I am young.
I trade with precision.
I fight procrastination and lack of clarity.
I harness my anger and transform.
My power is limitless and I’ve caught a glimpse of my potential.
I emerge from my stifling cocoon of work and labour.
Today I unite with my fellow traders, my supporters, my Mentors.
Today I trade.
Today is the day I trade. – Louise Bedford
“…Successful traders realize that
they are not in this business to trade, but rather to make money. And to do
that you need patience. A patient trader with a second rate system will
generally out perform an impatient trader with a better system…” - Jeff Wecker
“Trading is a god awful grind at
times as it requires you to do the same bloody thing day after day and to sit
with the pain of losing. And the pain of sitting with losing is amplified by
the fact that you know the mistakes (if they are mistakes) are your own. If you
have taken a trade that wasn’t there, acted on a tip or simply failed to engage
a stop then these are your mistakes, they do not belong to someone else and you
have to cope with the emotional cost of that. It is here that there is a schism
between those who go on to be successful and those who just drop their bundle.
Those who move through this have the energy to change and in doing so they
naturally accept the pain that this invokes. There is no outsourcing your
success to others but that is the good thing about success at any endeavour –
it always belongs to the individual.” – Chris Tate
