Quote from travis:
Yes, Optional, I agree with what you said, but I was thinking of a different aspect of games and sports. Let me put it this way: if you had fun playing soccer, would you still play another team, if you knew you are likely to lose? Yes. Well, with trading is different. The first objective is to make money, not to have fun. Let's not go any further about that, since I do agree with what you said.
However, let me add something about trading.
You know the game of risk? Trading is also like that game, especially the risk management aspect of trading.
You can't go for a continent on your first turn, because you'd be spreading yourself thin, and you'd be wiped out by the other opponents. You have to play patiently, just making sure you're building up faster than the others are. Pick your attacks, like you pick your investments. Don't plan on being lucky. If you go for a continent on your first turn you'll win one game out of five (the one time you get very lucky), and very quickly. But if you wait patiently and pick your attacks, you'll win 4 times out of five, even though you won't impress people as much for the speed of your victory.
You can apply all that you are saying to sports. In a tennis match for example, do you go for the big winners or do you know that it can be a 5 set match? The professionals pace themselves. They plan on losing some points, they are patient. Very similar to trading actually. They know sometimes they have the angle, and sometimes they don't. They lay back at times, are aggressive other times.
Professionals always think they can win, even when the odds are against them. They love that challenge. That is why ARod, playing on a losing team, still excels.
Michael Jordan was a master of pacing himself, knowing when to rest, when to turn it on.....how to take what the game was giving him and maximize the opportunity.
Good traders know the same thing, when to relax, when to focus, and how to take what the market gives them.
Jordan knew he wasn't going to win each and every game, but he played just as competitively each night during his prime. The similarities between professional sports and trading are many in number.
Professional baseball players have a very long season, 162 games. They pace themselves, they know they will fail at the plate the majority of the time, they know that they do well in different ball parks, against different pitchers. It is a thinking man's sport, baseball. Again, very similar to trading.
Golf is another game of skill, and luck, as golfers readily admit to the existance of the "golfing gods." So similar to the often strange and unpredictable nature of the markets.
A gust of wind can be the difference between a birdie and a par, and in the market a sudden large sell or buy order can be the difference between a winning and losing trade.
