Yes. Specialization. Our brain needs to build proper connections between cells to really learn something to an automatic level. That's how the fact we can never "unlearn" to ride a bike works. Same in trading. One big mistake newbies do is they search and search and change methods looking for a "good one", when in reality it's much more about taking almost anything and learning it.
You've got it backwads. The problem with trading is that, long before any of us started doing it, we DID build connections between brain cells to learn something on an automatic level. In order to be successful on an automatic level - as opposed to through self-discipline or automation or accountability to a rock-solid business plan - it is ESSENTIAL to "unlearn" to "ride the bike." Why do you think 99+ percent of independent traders can't do it? Faulty assumptions for starters. They think they're trying to build on a blank slate. Nope!
Wasn't it in " Animal Farm " that poor old Dobbin worked harder and harder for less and less until he collapsed. The billionaires probably haven't noticed in their sanitized and gated condos ?? The right wing clots are trying it on here too. They will emigrate to the US they cry, if you dare touch their gold plated pensions amd perks. Be a little less mean and keep most of the plunder imho
red queen theory - live it - understand it - conquer it It's based on the observation to Alice by the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" that "in this place it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." The only way that a species involved in a competition can maintain its fitness relative to the others is by in turn improving its design. In sum, in a competitive world, relative progress ("running") is necessary just for maintenance ("staying put").
================= Good question S capital; 12 hours a day, 6 days a week is a good goal.I am not a mourning person, I don't even get up to hunt deer @ 4;00 am anymore LOL 20 hours a day sounds like[not wise],, a health wrecker +LIFE wrecker; no thanks. Wisdom is profitable to direct.
Aw man...looking back on this, I see how flawed my logic was when I typed this. At the time, I was under the impression that in order to be a hard working trader, you had to be constantly in front of the screens looking for the next trade and constantly on the lookout for the latest news that could effect the markets. In truth, my trading system doesn't require me to spend much time analyzing the markets and for some reason, I felt that I wasn't doing enough...despite getting satisfactory results. Maybe I wanted it to be more difficult, I don't know.
Actually spending much time in work will not always yield to better results. Intellectectual work consumes good chunk of energy and mind tends to exhaust in 4-5 hours. Working after a peak compromises the overall quality of your work and can spoil everything rather than improve.
If you are just a big muscelled boy then it may be the best position you can get shovelling for the boss. Will he respect you for a 20 hr day !! rrrrsssppphhs Not a chance. He will have you out on yer ear if he spots a bigger sucker. Work cleverly my friend. Dress right, look right, know what you are talking about, be the organiser and pull in the money !! Let the big idiot shovel dirt all day for peanuts. Sad but true !!
I think once you have put in the effort to come up with a strategy you are comfortable with and have tested it, the actual trading part should be easy. If not, it might be a sign that either you lack confidence in your trades (more testing) or you are trading in a style that deep down you aren't really comfortable with. Trading is one of the few "jobs" where effort doesn't necessarily equal results. The times I worked the hardest at trading, I probably wasn't even earning the equivalent of minimum wage. Look at me now, ridiculously successful and good looking but yet I have time in the middle of the day to post on ET.
That's the thing....I was and am still getting the results I wanted but I felt that it was coming too easily. I devised a system that is fitting to my personality and that met my criteria but after that, I began to feel like it wasn't enough. Sort of saying to myself, "it's working but it can't be this simple. It has to be luck because after all, the best traders are those that are always in the market." That was my thought process as the time, which I now know to be flawed. I'd forgotten a trading axiom which states that the best results are attained by learning how to sit on your hands and do nothing.