A friend of mine linked trading to a career in sales. Both have high risks, a lot of wash outs, hard repetitive work and no guaranteed income. Both require an edge/strategy/system to eventually gain confidence and prevail. Failure rate in both is high. Thoughts on this relationship?
FWIW.....................(1) In trading, you can lose a lot of money. Not so in sales. (2) Sales requires "people skills". Not so in trading. (3) The "work" shouldn't be thought of as being "hard", unless you don't have the proper aptitude and focus.
Cubs, I can see the correlation as you've pointed out. There's some distinct differences, but some similarities that's for sure. I was a broker before becoming a trader so I see where you are coming from.
Hi All, Interesting thread, because I worked in Sales for years before I finally went full-time with trading. In sales, you learn to deal with rejection, which can be a great toughener and character builder. A bad day in a sales job where a large part of your salary relies on commission can really make you feel like a failure, but you must pick yourself up and begin the next day with a positive mental attitude. The resistance you build to rejection and failure in Sales can certainly help toughen you up and develop the attitude and character required to deal with trading. Thanks Damian Professional U.S. Share Trader
I think you can make a connection with having to keep at it to be successful. Also if you are 100% commission or have a draw against commission where you could owe money to your employer if you don't make enough sales it is comparable to not making money or losing money as you can in trading. Trading and sales both have a large psychological component to them. Overcoming bad learned behavior is essential in both.
Trading can be done part-time, or even while working if you have access to a computer. Sales is less flexible.
I do believe they are similar even I do not have sale experience. in sale, you do not know who will buy your product or service, like realtors, they showed listing houses to potential buyers, but maybe those so called potential buyers may take a look at that house and leav for good, you do not know why they leave, maybe too pricy, maybe do not like the location..... every potential buyer is unique, but you just do not know who is the right buyer for the house! in trading, basically you have no idea which will be top gainers or top losers today, when you see a top losers, it may pull back pretty soon or continue its slide, or you see a top gainer, peopel may start to take profit, but it may continue to surge, you have no idea when the market will turn, most time just a gut feel. both are dealing with uncertainity, both needs experience, both needs mental toughness to deal with the frustration of "sold out nothing and spent lots of time with nothing gained or loss" basically speaking, all are stressful. market is spinning, if you do not pay much attention, sometimes maybe windfall, sometimes maybe disaster
I started out as a broker in a couple of penny stock boiler rooms back in the early 90's. I also worked a few years in telephone sales in other fields. Trading and sales are similiar in that many are called but few are chosen. After that, they are polar opposites. You can be blunt, abrupt and analytical and make it in trading. You won't make it in sales at all like that.