Must trading be your primary interest?

[rtr1129]

I am interested in many things, among them are trading and chess.

In chess, typically the better players have focused primarily on chess for many years. It is clear that they have spent many hours almost every day thinking deeply about chess. In the absence of competing hobbies, this would likely mean they continue to think about chess "in the background". For example, while they're at work, an idea related to a chess game they were analyzing comes to mind.

Can you become a more-than-profitable trader if you are not thinking about trading "in the background"? When I say more-than-profitable, I mean a profit that makes it worth your while, not "look I'm profitable, I almost made the risk free rate of return".

There are many examples of world class chess players who were also successful in other difficult fields (nuclear physicist, professional trader, etc), but maybe these guys are just geniuses. My guess would be that, for the rest of us, having a "second hobby" places a serious handicap on achieving competency in the first.

 

[cefgw]

Not at all--- the obsessives in trading always lose. Remember the market has the highest attraction for those least suited for it. That's how it feeds itself. If you LOVE the market, you will lose.

 

[cefgw]

Adding value here--- you must view the market as a business or job. Once you get obsessed, kiss you chances of success good bye.

 

[rtr1129]

Not at all--- the obsessives in trading always lose. Remember the market has the highest attraction for those least suited for it. That's how it feeds itself. If you LOVE the market, you will lose.

Interesting. Would you say then, that while chess is about gaining competence over a massive knowledge base, trading is about gaining competence over a smaller pool of knowledge, and then mastering our irrational selves to prevent us from screwing it up?

 

[Redneck]

Hard to get away from what one is - though vacations and hobbies do help - at times

And I do so love the mkt.....(they say love what you do - you never work a day in your life)


Though one must never confuse that - with being in love with it.... Is very easy to do

============================


Make it a career - treat is as a hobby - use it as an enabler - as entertainment - or a talking point / ego booster - even a mechanism to shill

Tis a choice


We are only as good - as we managed our last trade - we will only be as good - as we manage the next


RN

 

[cefgw]

Interesting. Would you say then, that while chess is about gaining competence over a massive knowledge base, trading is about gaining competence over a smaller pool of knowledge, and then mastering our irrational selves to prevent us from screwing it up?

Yes, very true.

 

[kut2k2]

I am interested in many things, among them are trading and chess.

In chess, typically the better players have focused primarily on chess for many years. It is clear that they have spent many hours almost every day thinking deeply about chess. In the absence of competing hobbies, this would likely mean they continue to think about chess "in the background". For example, while they're at work, an idea related to a chess game they were analyzing comes to mind.

Can you become a more-than-profitable trader if you are not thinking about trading "in the background"? When I say more-than-profitable, I mean a profit that makes it worth your while, not "look I'm profitable, I almost made the risk free rate of return".

There are many examples of world class chess players who were also successful in other difficult fields (nuclear physicist, professional trader, etc), but maybe these guys are just geniuses. My guess would be that, for the rest of us, having a "second hobby" places a serious handicap on achieving competency in the first.

I didn't make any breakthroughs in trading until I made it my primary focus. Since then I've made several.

Not at all--- the obsessives in trading always lose. Remember the market has the highest attraction for those least suited for it. That's how it feeds itself. If you LOVE the market, you will lose.

Pure BS. The losers are mostly mooks looking for shortcuts and other get-rich-quick gimmicks. The obsessives include those looking for fundamental relationships, either in demand versus supply or how this plays out in price dynamics.

 

[dbphoenix]

The obsessives include those looking for fundamental relationships, either in demand versus supply or how this plays out in price dynamics.

I don't know that I'd call it obsessive. Rather an acknowledgement of how auction markets work. It is what it is.

 

[xelite777]

If you LOVE the market, you will lose.

??

Now if you are saying we need to stay emotionally detached from the market and trade without emotion that's another story.

 

[kut2k2]

I don't know that I'd call it obsessive. Rather an acknowledgement of how auction markets work. It is what it is.

I should have put "obsessives" in quotes. That was the cynic's word. The proper word is focused.