July 7, 2016
When I was a young floor trader in Chicago, I was very fortunate to be friends/friendly with some extremely successful traders. I learned a tremendous amount from them. In many cases I learned just by observing both their habits and their psychological approach to the business of trading. One guy in particular whom I had the fortune of meeting was Tom Baldwin. He was featured in the outstanding book about trading — Market Wizards. We were all in awe of his abilities.
So for those of you who are intimated by the markets and who believe that success requires great intellectual abilities, I’ve included five quotes from one of the greats Tom Baldwin:
“You don’t need any education at all to do it. The smarter you are, the dumber you are. The more you know, the worse it is for you.”
“It is a lot of hard work, for one. It’s perseverance. You have to love to do it. Also, in our business, you have to have a total disregard for money. You can’t trade for money.”
“Losing traders trade too much. They don’t pick their spots selectively enough. When they see the market moving, they want to be in on the action. So, they end up forcing the trade rather than waiting patiently. Patience is an important trait many people don’t have.”
“Trading is like any other job. You work hard, put in the time and effort, and make your own luck.”
“Actually, the best traders have no ego. To be a great trader, you have to have a big enough ego only in the sense that you have confidence in yourself. You cannot let ego get in the way of a trade that is a loser; you have to swallow your pride and get out.”
So just relax. Because as the “great’ actor Rob Schneider proclaims with his running gag line from several Adam Sandler movies : “You can do it!”
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