Great post. It's funny how people seem to take for granted all the hard work that lies behind a successful trader. If I were to ask a musician to teach me to play his/hers instrument in a day, I would be met with disbelief. But somehow I am supposed to teach how I "play" my instruments in a few minutes....
The loneliness of success
- Thread starter Smart Money
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Great post. It's funny how people seem to take for granted all the hard work that lies behind a successful trader. If I were to ask a musician to teach me to play his/hers instrument in a day, I would be met with disbelief. But somehow I am supposed to teach how I "play" my instruments in a few minutes....
That approach would work for e.g. poker - Phil Laak uses it. But poker is played in plain sight - so people get some kind of idea, just as they do with sports in general. On the other hand, trading is done audience-free and there's 'mystique' around it. Most people see trading as undeserved easy money from either tips or 'secret formula'.
It is lonely being succesful, thats certainly true. But most unsuccesful people are also lonely
I think its fine to brag about your trades as long as you aren't talking numbers or share size. I tell my family about my trading bc they've watched me struggle and grow with it throughout the years, and they are always interested even if they probably don't understand what I'm talking about. I've met a few great trading buddies off ET and we chat all day long as well as help each other out. I wouldn't tell my gfs about my trading bc none of them would care less, and I'm sure I sometimes drive my bf nuts talking about it. At the end of the day, no one but another trader will ever understand the patience and dedication this career demands, so your best bet is prob to find friends on here or go to some trading hookups. Being lonely during the day isn't the worst problem to have in this biz, so I'm glad the rest of it is working out well for you 
2 things. 1. The need that you are looking/interested in/compelled to possibily satisfy/fill, lies irrevocably in the past. Specifically, the need to share your success with your absent father in one way or another. Either he is emotionally absent, (not there to share your joy with you) physically absent, (left mom early in your developement) and that contributes to the lonliness you feel that takes on a life of its own in your psyche. Or, if he was around, you fear he will act act against your success with jealous, (resentment - anger directed at you) or envy based tantrums of the talent that you have and he dosent, that decends him into a lesser life than the greater life his son is capable realizing. The answer: 2. You are in denial about guilt. Guilt that you are everything he is not, (successful on his terms) or ever will be. Convincing yourself day by day that you don't need, want or seek his or other authority fugures' approval, or validation is your way out of this Self defeating prison you have created for your Self to exist in. It's not living, it's existing; uncomfortably comfortable in the walls of your routine. Constantly visualize yourself separate from him, and that will take you to the place inside that is fluid in the present, not locked in the past. Where you will engage the market, people, and challenge yourself in ways you can't see, yet. The edge you have now is nothing more than something your unconscious mind created to get the attention from us here that you never got from him! If you have REAL talent, there are edges out there beyond satisfying dad's lost attention needs that are intergalatic in nature for your true talent to discover.