The Myth of Being a Trader (Part 1): You must be so smart!
I know, we seem to value being smart above everything else these days, but I can attest to the fact that being smart has often sabotaged my own success in trading.
— Pearl Li
In the last year, I have mentored friends to become traders and form part of the trading community with Tackle Trading in Seattle. I loved the “Ah-ha” moments that new traders have when they understand some of the new concepts and strategies.
Then you get to witness how their belief system about the world is changing. One of them asked me, “I can’t believe what you showed me is NOT that hard. If I can learn it in a few months, why is no one else doing this to make money?”
This is because everyone else assumes you must be really smart to trade successfully. Psychologically, they have divided themselves from the opportunity. The social economic difference isn’t propelled just by circumstances, it always starts with your thoughts. If you think a successful trader is someone who is smarter than you, you are dividing yourself from this wealth-generating opportunity. Yes, most people in the world think poorly and stay poor. It’s a very unfortunate truth.
Overall, in my development, where do I see being smart fit? What are the key characteristics of a successful trader?
Personally, I would almost exchange being smart to have more consistency in my portfolio any day of the week. It’s not a glamorous trait as most people may think rule followers are boring, not imaginative and not creative. My advice is that you want your capital gains to be as boring, consistent and predictable as you possibly can, so you are able to live an adventurous, imaginative and wonderful life! Something simple as this is not easy because we want to outsmart the market and self-sabotage!
I did also put down 1% luck as a success factor. This is very generous of me to even consider luck as a factor. In truth, I had no luck in trading, but I am tolerant enough to consider that there is a random success out there somewhere. Although I won’t bet my future on luck, I will be generous enough to give a 1%. In my future blogs, I will address this myth as well.
Don’t discredit yourself because you don’t think you are smart enough to stay in the game. It’s the turtle that wins the game at the end, not the hare!
Pearl Li. The Theta Finder. In the Making.
Pearl Li previously has been a product management professional for more than 10 years working at well-known companies such as Amazon and Nielsen Company. She took the leap in 2016 with Elite Legacy Education to learn about building long term wealth through financial market trading/investing. In 2018, Pearl happily left her job to pursue investing/trading fulltime producing theta style trading that generates monthly cashflow. She is thrilled to be a voice on the Tackle Trading platform to share her transformation as she goes through various phases of her growing experience.
Originally published at tackletrading.com on April 5, 2019.
