By the way, thats quoted from Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds...South Sea Bubble.
Q All of the traders we interviewed initially experienced great difficulty and frustration, but what sets them apart is that they never allowed themselves to experience failure. ... We would like to share someone's life history with you: At the age of 21 he failed in business. At 22 he lost a state legislative race. At 24 he failed again in business. At 26 his lover died. At 27 he had a nervous breakdown. At 34 he lost a congressional race. At 36 he lost another congressional race. At 45 he lost a senatorial race. At 49 he again lost a senatorial race. But at the age of 52 he was elected President of the United States. This was Abraham Lincoln. --- R Koppel and H Abell (The Innergame of Trading) UQ
Thanks for that quote Oddtrader, I disagree with their statement, the most successful people have experienced failure. I may be reading it differently, but difficulty and frustration are forms of failure. It is certainly my "subjective" opinion. Failure is a necessary component of becoming successful. Only after I failed, did I realize something needed to be changed.
From the views of others, probably yes. From the minds of the players, probably not. It would stimulate a challenge for improvement, yes. Which aspect you currently have in mind?
Ahh, I see. Through the use of a daily trading diary, I keep a log of all the reasons why I succeeded or failed in a trade. When I say success and failure, I'm talking about whether I complied with the my plan for each trade. An example of one reason for failure is cutting profits too short, becoming too conservative and moving my stop higher on a long (not complying with my plan). One of the ways I combat that weakness is by repeating (verbally) to myself the stop, as it it's reached. It has been working.