How Trading is Like Life
by Jeffrey Blackman
“And the end of all our exploring; will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” -T.S. Eliot
It is the amazing the number of similarities that you find between life and trading. The more you learn from one, the more you can apply it to the other. Life is full of adventures, successes, failures, trials, and errors. Trading is full of its own ups, downs, cycles, waves, channels, drawdowns, and uncertainty.
Development Stages
Infancy
Welcome to a new world where you touch, feel, stumble, and find your way around through trial and error. During this stage of your development, guidance is needed to help you navigate and teach you lessons. This is probably where you looked to the $97, $89, & $67 dollar miracle e-books that were going to make you an instant millionaire.
Childhood
This is where you learn through exploration (different methods: range, trend, new trading, & etc.). You have finally figured out that you need a real education. So you enroll in your very first elementary school or trading dojo to teach you forex. You have learned more about your surroundings/environment and also the participants in the world (market) around you. This is the stage where you start to learn/create your own personality (system/method).
Adolescence
This stage is where you learn how the world works (market moves) and develop goals & ambitions of your own (new trading benchmarks). This may be the point where you get your “first kiss” (big win). You are more educated, consistent, but still a little rebellious (depending on what type of teen you were, lol) and don’t always follow the rules.
Adulthood
This is the stage where you become a success after graduation and become purely independent (mastering your craft, refining yourself through education, experience, and experimentation). You know your history and are using it to move forward (thoroughly back-tested you system so there are no surprises). You have learned to trust your gut/intuition and have mastered skills (chartist, tape reading, or fundamentals) and picked up characteristics such as confidence, self-sufficiency, and enthusiasm.
Uncertainty
As in trading and life we can never be certain about anything from your next trade to your next car wreck. We accept the inevitability that we could lose our jobs, homes, and loved ones. For some reason, people hold on to their trade ideas, certain that their market analysis is correct. Even moving stops to give their losing trade more room to breathe (or lose). So, accept the fact that you do not know where the market is going and you will be a much better trader. Have the conviction to trade your beliefs but detach from the idea as soon as the market says otherwise.
About the Author - Jeffrey Blackman
Jeffrey Blackman is a risk-averse fund manager that swing trades (medium-term) Forex and U.S. Equities. He first got his feet wet in the stock options market. His trading habits grew from a simple hobby to a full time obsessions after he fell in love with the high liquidity, high leverage FX market.
Blackman Capital Management has been in incubation for two years and uses a strategy that is based on technical speculation of trend and counter-trend methods. With risk management as a core feature in the strategy, Blackman Capital Management prises itself in eliminating the risk out of all trades and allowing clients capital to earn "risk free" interest
