Quote from Martinghoul:
I find myself intensely curious about this particular statement of yours. How do you define greatness? Who, in your opinion, is a greater trader? The one that has made more money for investors? The one who is wealthier? More famous? What exactly is the metric used for greatness?
I apologize if I am hijacking this thread. Pls feel free not to respond if you think this is a digression.
Not at all. It's an interesting question...
I think greatness has to be defined on a personal level. Sort of like the Supreme Court's definition of pornography - "know it when you see it" etcetera.
At the same time, if your standards are any good, then others will recognize them (at least some will - such will always be subjective - and to varying degrees).
It certainly isn't about fame, though, or even general recognition. Being on the cover of Bloomberg magazine (or any magazine) is not a goal.
Nor is making the most money - as John Paulson has demonstrated dramatically, riverboat gamblers can make huge sums of money. They can then go about losing it in equally stunning fashion.
I would say there is a sort of trader's arete - the Greek term for all around excellence - that is embodied in traits like skill, creativity, competitiveness and consistency over long periods of time.
A truly great trader is one who can do exceptionally well for his investors over a timeframe of decades, and who has demonstrated an ability to consistently make money on a risk-adjusted basis, for all intents and purposes indefinitely. He may have some epic macro exploits along the way, but always with risk management in mind.
Unlike some of the guys - Paulson, Thiel, maybe even Robertson and now Bass - who made huge scores along the way but then gave massive amounts back through poor (or nonexistent) risk management, a great trader is as brilliant in defending his capital as he is in growing it. (Making a gigantic binary macro bet - you either kill it or you lose it - is not trading.)
Also re, goals, milestones etcetera, I don't have any hard deadlines for when to do such and such, or boxes to check off by a certain date. I just have a strong mental sense of what trading greatness looks like - as embodied in mentors-from-afar like Jones, Bacon, Druckenmiller, Kovner and Soros - and seek to create my own version of that path.
