Children in general as in most of them are negotiating & dealing for something better... I remember my own kids and my own childhood when there were kids in the lunch room trading away something in their lunch bag/container with someone else for something that they wanted. For example, whever I made my son tuna fish sandwhich...he would "trade" it away with someone that had a "ham or turkey sandwhich" or for a "bologny sandwhich with a bag of candy". Bag of chips was a hot item to trade away for when I was a kid and still is for my kids at their own school. Also, if you've grown up in a big family (lots of siblings)...this type of behavior of trading for something you thought was better, cooler or more your personality style was the norm in a large family. Yeah, I had friends that traded baseball cards, football cards, hockey cards, sports equipement, games or whatever...none of them are traders today except for me (retail trader) but I grew up in a family with several professional traders as relatives that worked for the exchange or a financial institution firm. Back to those that traded card, comic books or whatever when I was a kid...one of them sold his collection for 100k when he recently turned 50 years old. That's a huge profit considering when he started trading cards, comic books and such...he probably only put about 2k into it as a kid. What does he do for a living ? Officer in the Air Force...something with logistics. He graduated from the Air Force academy...played hockey for them. Team wasn't very good when he was there. Yet, I do remember him still trading cards, comic books and such even when he was at the academy because he would attend conventions for card dealers and comic book dealers. wrbtrader
Even if you have some natural talent as a kid, you're most likely going to be institutionalized first. There goes most people's ability to think for themselves. It wasn't until I started to study inferential thinking that I had any chance at all. Anomalies rule! Haha.
If you're trying to explain what the markets are doing right now and at the end the receiving party asks you "why?", then It's just not going to work. But that's what you learn in school. Endless explanation attempting to establish causality.
No one has "no ego." I find a willingness to cut losers comes from confidence in your edge -- a strong belief the next opportunity is around the corner.
what you described is completely foreign to the idea of market trading you described the skill of dealing with people which is great in any business except trading in trading you have to deal with yourself - completely opposite skill to dealing with people... in fact trader really has nothing to do with people at all
I'm curious what he does now, though there are many ways to be enterpreneurial, and dealing with people is very different from electronic trading. However, people-trading is right up in the same alley, and foreign to most (unless you are sole owner of hotel chains, malls, etc. , OR used car dealer, clerk, ... it's a spectrum too. Mainly someone like that could be one building new businesses and will be doing lots of things simultaneously for diversification and opportunity-seeking. I guess the trading most talked about on ET is about electronic trading though. Agree about plastic fantastic. Got a biodegradable bank card and use a bank/insurance company that strive for sustainability. Rather choose such options than the cheapest.
Being a truly natural trader & sustaining it over the years is rare because trading an account upward over time goes against human nature. Some traders have substantial gains right out of the gate, nearly all of them end up giving back most or all of it back & than some. Some traders have substantial gains right out of the gate, nearly all of them end up giving back most or all of it. They may have thought they were naturals, they are garden variety 'shooting stars', destined for a big serving of humble pie. Blasting an acct into the 7 digits is one thing, keeping the profits & sustaining making further gains is significantly harder. If their is such a thing as 'natural traders' than the hall of fame traders such as George Soro's, Paul Tudor Jones, or Jim Rodgers probably would not be attributing their success to working their tails off Our scorecard for trading is our acct balance & the sweat equity we put into it, not how much more talented/gifted we think we are. "I would rather be lucky than good".