Trading is more like Fishing Got to be patient. Got to sit thru alot of boring times. If you know that there are no fishes there, you don't throw your bait in and wait for days... Have to learn to put yourself in a "lucky" position. and then... sooner or later, Fishes will come, and all you need to do then is to pull them out. (bank the "unrealized" profits in the the "realized" profits) Just a little thought.
I like that analogy. Now I gotta learn to wait long enough to catch some fish that are bigger than butterbeans. It just takes so many of them to fill my plate and every so often a bigger fish comes along and snatches all my little fishies off of the stringer.
I have long thought that trading requires a similar mindset to golf. A basic key to both is avoiding the real bad play. In golf a drive in the woods costs you much more than the one shot you used on it, just as in trading a blown stop or too big position can ruin your day or month. There are also similarities in understanding the probabilities for various approaches and having the discipline to choose the optimal strategy. Golf is also a good sport for traders because it requires a lot of time. Traders can be out on the course at 4:30 every day while lawyers and exec's are slaving away at the office.
You can tell a lot from an individual's character by the way they act after a bad round of golf. Do they blame everyting but themselves. The same can be said for trading. The difference between the pros and amateurs is mental attitude. During a round of golf it is hard to tell by watching a pro if they are playing poor or well. On the other hand, amateurs often blow up if something out of the ordinary goes wrong then their whole round is down the tubes because of their mental game. Golf=90% mental 10% physical. Trading =99.9% mental.
I started trading years before I picked up my first set of golf clubs. I have noticed as I have progressed as a trader my golf game has improved dramatically. I agree with other posters that the basic key to both is avoiding the real bad play. I think golf teaches humility, the great Ben Hogan, a man not prone to exaggeration, claimed that in his best week of golf he only had four perfect shots...
There are many ways to swing a golf club and play the game with high degree of effectiveness in order to be a winner. But you do need to: 1. Focus, 2. Have good fundamentals, 3. Patience, 4. Play each shot one at a time(focused), 5. Play smart...know when to be aggressive, and defensive, 6. Be prepared before the round starts by warming up, stretching, knowing what course conditions are like. 7. Make sure your equipment is clean, correct golf balls, etc. All these things can be said of most endevors, including trading.
I think it means that you either play golf once a year or you are not very cordinated. In golf you play againist yourself and the course, so the score as compared to others does not matter. So even if you can't break 120 the strategy is similar. Risk - reward, lay up or hit over the water, stay focused, driver off the tee or 3 wood, hit at flag or middle of green, etc.