Quote from Eric215:
I didn't mean for this to get into a large drawn out debate becasue both sides will stick with their views either way. With that said, you post some interesting points and seem well thought out. Especially with your turtle "rebuttle", you very well may know more then I do on that experiment as I have just learned little tid bits here and there.
However, I still respectfully disagree. I think the inner psychological aspect is extremely important. I will agree that a sound strategy (or edge) and risk management parameters are essential, but I do not believe that those two things are what is holding most traders back. Maybe the turtles wasn't a perfect example, but the point was that you can give a profitable system to a random unsuccessful trader and because of their lack of discipline and psychological make up, which stems from how they handle their inevitable emotions of fear and greed, will leave them still unsuccessful long term, unless they eventually address their inner problems. Your example of Tiger Woods is more of an example to prove my point, that the inner person or psychology of a person is very important at higher levels of mastery and success. In all of the Woods biography material that I have read and seen, he was shown to make considerable effort with honing his inner emotional and mental or psychological strengths. He was known to often and extensively use affirmations, visualizations, probably meditation, etc. to hone these areas. It is my belief that aside from constant and relentless physical practice, it is his complete focus, emotional awareness, and mental stamina which allows him to keep his, almost surreal, focus to perform EXTREMELY well under the intense pressures of competing against the best golfers in the world on international television, month after month.
So my final opinion is that yes, sound strategy and money management are surly vital to success and need to be practiced, but I believe that many aspects of a persons psychological make-up, both emotional and mental, are also extremely important, if not more important, to success. Especially when it comes to outlier type success, like mastery for example. Another words, I believe what separates the good from the truly great is mostly psychological in nature.
Let me also be clear that I am not referring to how a person acts after, or in response to, a gain or loss in the chosen field. A person can be emotionally and overall psychologically balanced during the performing of the task but then be an emotional wreck afterwords. These psychological and emotional strengths can, and often times are, compartmentalized in the extremely successful person or master in their field. Another words, an extremely successful person can perform flawlessly while performing and then later on show great emotion in response to the result of their performance.
Just my opinion of course as there is really no way to prove this with facts either way.
