Spelling and Trading

Arthur,

I couldn’t agree more. The only people who don’t think that a bare minimum competency of spelling and grammar is important are the very ones who can’t seem to do it. Whether you believe it or not, it says a lot about you. Our accepted standards have dropped so far it is almost embarrassing. It has always bothered me on some level that so many just don’t seem to care.

As others have said, yes it may not be absolutely critical to your trading success but I bet it helps more than it hurts. If you are too lazy to learn to spell at a most basic level, or worse just don’t care, how do you expect to compete in trading or any other endeavor? Trading is all about paying attention to detail and having more discipline than almost everyone. If you don’t have even the most basic English or social skills you are already behind the curve. If you will take shortcuts in one part of your life, you will surely take shortcuts in other parts much to your own detriment. And yes it does say something about your competency in other areas.

How some can argue that this is not obvious is amazing to me. Please continue living in fantasy land IMHO. I say have at least some pride. And as has been pointed out in other threads, almost everyone on this forum will have a job at some point in their lives. Very few will be career traders and never have to exist in another environment. So if you think sub par English skills will not hurt you, well then I guess McDonalds is always hiring.

And for the love of god it is definitely, NOT definately. Loose and loser is another biggie. Ridiculous. Etc.

And of course half those saying it doesn’t matter are making the same mistakes defending it in this thread. Please keep thinking it doesn’t matter, in trading or in life. No one expects perfection, but is it too much to ask for even a basic standard? Feel free to bash away as again, defending the fact you can’t or won’t spell and at least try to use some grammar skills just reinforces the point of the thread.

Ordinarily I don't feed the trolls, but thank you coolweb for defending that spelling is not important and doesn’t matter. I rest my case. You are the man.

Good trading and hopefully better spelling and grammar. But I won’t hold my breath. And most importantly, don’t stop trading.

TM

 

I wonder if the many made-up words used today (I blame rap music) will have a negative effect some 50 to 75 years from now on English in general. Who (other than myself and the few others who care) will be around to correct the herd when they misspell, make up a word that they think is real, mispronounce a word? Those of us who care are far outnumbered. Also, in 50 years I will be 80 so it will be hard for me to travel the globe correcting people.

 

Something else to consider,

Here is one other point that I should have mentioned. Ignoring the semantics of how someone defines a “successful trader” for a minute, what percent of traders are successful in general? I would say 5-10% of all traders, maybe closer to 4 or 5%. What percentage of ET posters can write and post a coherent thought without major spelling or grammatical errors consistently? My estimate is again, 5-10% IMHO.

Is this a coincidence people? My opinion can certainly be guessed, but it seems safe to me to say there is probably some correlation. Are their exceptions to this theory? Of course there are but I think I have made my point.

Some food for thought.

Good Trading

Big Money

 

Shouldn't your question be: "Are THERE exceptions to this theory?"

 

Good spellers have good memories. As traders they can remember where support and resistance are.

 

FWIW / IMHO

I’ve been following this thread with some interest and would like to add this, if I may


I screw up spelling / grammar / sentence structure at times because I become more involved in what I am trying to say, as opposed to how I am saying it… (Content over Context)


I also believe with the advent of email, then exasperated by texting - formal writing / spelling skills have deteriorated, and will continue to do so.

I believe we are a product of the environment we've created


Take Care
Redneck

 

You cant relate the two at all. The founder of Xerox couldnt read, and he built an empire..

 

For God's sake, have you ever read a book? You can't pick up simple sentence structure from just reading? People don't expect your prose to resemble Ernest Hemingway's writing—it's just a bulletin board after all—but is it too much to ask for the very basics?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not directing this at you so much, more towards the crayola crowd, the crowd that thinks spelling and writing like an imbecile is almost as cool as huffing paint.

 

Link please.

 

Then the blame / responsibility falls to the parents of these 'imbecils" who allowed their kids to grow up this way in the first place

I fight these types of issues with mine every day.