No, I don't have to be smarter than the market, just smarter than you or other traders, what you define as the market is not some evil all powerful entity out to get you. What I am explaining is if a trader has an edge (An edge being defined as a setup with a probability greater than 50% of turning out to be a winning trade). Also, I am rated at genius level, but once you discover an edge, it probably can be taught to someone who is less intelligent. My win % when I follow my rules is extremely high based on real money trades. Also, under conditions of a tracking website, my last commercial system was number 1 for over a year out of over 7,000 systems.
Exactly, and that is why I had so many paying subscribers on my last system when they looked at the statistics.
When looking at the difficulties of trading described, like not taking stops, trading recklessly, etc, I always wonder how much is due to not trading a timeframe that suits ones personality. I can't day trade. Tried it, does not work for me. I am a good swing trader, calm and very disciplined. Do the folks who struggle experiment with other timeframes and other instruments? It does not have to be daytrading ES or bust.
Like you I was tested at genius level. I'm happy that I have a quick mind but for the 12 years of school it was the biggest curse imaginable. Every day sitting in a class with 40 something others, taking 45 minutes per subject to learn what I could grasp in 10 or 15 minutes. Monday to Friday, every week, holidays excepted, 12 effing years. As for edge, it helps but let's not overrate it. My last year swing trading (before my day trading 'adventure') I made 26% profit with a 38% win rate. Yup, great trade management. Now a 50% win rate would have meant manna from heaven, so let's see what the future holds.
My opinion is that sociopaths have distinct advantages in trading markets. This is particularly the case for more discretionary styles. It makes sense really, to succeed you need have or cultivate different qualities than the typical human. The other route for those of you fortunate enough not to be leaning on the sociopath side of the things is, for lack of a better word, the introspection/enlightenment/zen approach. The market can do this for you and/or you can try to preemptively do it for yourself. It is interesting in that these are two extremes that contain people trying to get to the other side. The super successful sociopath who feels hollow inside trying to become more human with more meaningful relationships, and the typical emotional-baggage-riddled human wannabe-trader with relationships all over the place trying to lose the emotions and gain the discipline. Enlightenment may be achieved for either individual but both are almost like alcoholics, and are always susceptible to falling off their particular wagons. Those of you (which should be, by my wild-ass-guess, 98% of the population) who are not sociopaths should probably consider yourself fortunate.
One aspect of being a sociopath is a disregard for others. This could border on feeling no remorse for unethical behavior, or feeling no remorse for taking money from "innocent" people. I do think these attributes definitely help in trading. I think there are many successful traders out there who would make good con-men if they chose a different line of work. Just take a look at the SEC's press releases. Insider trading, market manipulation, etc seem to be at an all-time high. Some of the most high-profile and successful hedge funds are now suspected of engaging in these kinds behavior. I'm not equating a typical ET trader with one of these criminals, but simply that the most successful market participants are likely doing something questionable, and one could consider them to be sociopaths.
Sociopath is a wrong categorization to use as the attribute that facilitates successful trading. Emotions are demonized at ET because they appear as untrained impulses that prevent a newcomer or indeed an existing failed trader from becoming successful. And of course emotions back up and give huge feeling to your impulses. Impulses are just that - untrained responses. The art is in putting your emotions behind your actions in the rational and measured cerebal game of successful trading. You will then find that your emotions will slot in behind your actions of playing successfully. You will feel this as satisfaction. But in the general theme, which I have expressed before, of being positive and to have self trained and considered actions in your life, this is a choice you can make when you get up in the morning each day.
Don´t know but one thing is clear to me, it's a advantage if you´re a hell of obsessive about trading and markets. I´ve been thinking about this stuff for years "every day", can´t remember a day that i don´t worked hard in some way in my mind about "become a top trader"