Having what it takes to succeed
There are just some
things that can’t be said. Yes, we live in America and, yes, there’s
free speech and all that, but I’m telling you: Some things just cannot be said.
Like when you’re shopping for a house. You can’t
just say to your real estate agent, “I don’t want people of color, unassimilated
immigrant groups right off the boat, or trailer trash. I want to live in a
white, upper class neighborhood.” No, that would be racist, narrow, bigoted,
and in unspeakably poor taste. So instead you tell the agent you want “a very
safe neighborhood with absolutely top-performing schools,” and, voila, you wind
up where you want to be anyway without having to speak what cannot be said.
Or let’s say your son is harassed at school by an
older kid and pops the bully in the nose. The school, of course, calls you over
the incident and wants your reaction. What you can’t say is, “I’m proud of
Junior. I raise my son to be a man, and he gave the kid what he had coming.”
No, you patiently listen to discussion of “appropriate behavior” and reassure
the teachers that Junior is no Columbine wannabe. Then, behind closed doors,
you pat Junior on the back for his testicular fortitude.
The trading world is no different. There are
certain truths you can’t utter. Take the time a small group of currency traders
contacted me for advice after they had yet another losing year. I asked many
questions to diagnose their problems, one of which was, “How does your P/L break
down as a function of time of day? Do you make or lose more money around the
London open compared to the New York open?”
The line went silent for a moment.
It turns out the group didn’t trade the European
open. It didn’t fit with their lifestyle to rouse themselves at 2:00 AM Central
Time.
My error was to speak that which cannot be said.
I told them they weren’t succeeding at trading because they didn’t deserve
to succeed. Needless to say, that was my one and only consultation with
the group leader.
What I should have said, of course, was that they
could succeed if they only adopt a winning mindset and follow their trading
plans with the aid of my expert coaching. Instead, I explained to the group
leader that the feeling that one deserves to succeed follows from the long
experience and effort required to master a field. After hours of drills daily,
Dan Gable’s wrestlers not only felt confident of success; they felt they
deserved to win. Having gone through Navy SEAL training and lengthy rehearsals
of missions, elite soldiers feel that mastery is theirs. Confidence and
competence must be earned, and staying away from periods of opportunity in the
market are not the way to earn it.
The role of a good psychologist is to comfort the
afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If you’re comfortable in bed
while your market is in its peak period of opportunity, you shouldn’t be
comfortable. I told the trader he didn’t deserve to succeed for the same reason
I’m writing this article: to create a test. I wanted to put a mirror in front
of his trading so that he would either close his eyes or squarely face what he
saw.
Gable, as both wrestler and wrestling coach, knew
the value of afflicting comfort: “I’m a big believer in starting with high
standards and raising them. We make progress only when we push ourselves to the
highest level. If we don’t progress, we backslide into bad habits, laziness and
poor attitude.”
The approach at West Point is similar. Cadets
who fall short are allowed one of three responses: “Yes, sir”; “I don’t
understand, sir”; and “No excuse, sir”.
Successful performers–whether in trading,
sports, or performing arts–start with high standards, raise them, and
then–after falling short–look in the mirror and say, “No excuse.”
No, you can’t make a living telling people they
don’t deserve to succeed.
It’s just one of those things that can’t be said.
Except by those who eventually do succeed.
Brett N. Steenbarger, Ph.D. is Associate
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical
University in Syracuse, NY and author of
The Psychology of Trading (Wiley, 2003). As Director of Trader
Development for Kingstree Trading, LLC in Chicago, he has mentored numerous
professional traders and coordinated a training program for traders. An active
trader of the stock indexes, Brett utilizes statistically-based pattern
recognition for intraday trading. Brett does not offer commercial services to
traders, but maintains an archive of articles and a trading blog at
www.brettsteenbarger.com and a
blog of market analytics at
www.traderfeed.blogspot.com. He is currently writing a book on the topics
of trader development and the enhancement of trader performance.