The better you are, the better you want to be
January 1, 2007
“If you’re any good at all, you know you can be better” – Lindsey Buckingham
That’s from a clip on VH-1 Classic during part of a special on the Fleetwood Mac album Rumors. As soon as I heard that statement, I wrote it down because it’s one of the most simple, yet insightful statements I have ever heard. It cuts directly to the core of the quest for mastery – in all things.
I’ve been around the block more than a few times, involved in a lot of different developmental efforts in my life. In all of the ones that mattered to me, all the ones that were to eventually lead to the pursuit of above average performance – and I’m very competitive, so that counts a lot of things – there has always come a time when I’ve reached a point in my education where I realized how little I really knew. Sometimes it was early on. Other times it was after a bit of a slap in the face.
As a volleyball coach, I saw the kind of transformation that kind of change in outlook can have on a player. I’ll use the example of one of the seniors I just got finished coaching. She came to school as a student-athlete who was more interested in enjoying the experience than in growing as a volleyball player. This is sometimes the case with freshmen as they make the shift from high school and club ball to the significantly more intense collegiate environment. This particular player was a bit more”relaxed” then most, though.
That changed during the spring of that year, and I credit her coaching a 14-and-under team in helping that process along. She came back for her sophomore year a much more focused athlete, eager to be a better player and with a grasp of what she needed to do to make that happen. Over the next three seasons she continued progressing along those lines. She knew the level to which her skills had developed, and thus where she had to focus to improve.
In this case, the experience of teaching younger players the game of volleyball and helping them develop their skills helped flip the switch to awareness. In other cases I have seen the shift take place through watching other better, more experienced players. I have always been a big proponent of both things for just that reason. I know for sure they both helped me.
The same certainly applies to trading. Brett Steenbarger talks at great length in Enhancing Trader Performance about how mastery in trading implies not just knowledge, experience and understanding, but also the desire and commitment to continue improving. Sometimes we can create the situation through which that shift in mindset occurs (like teaching/coaching or observing strong performers), while sometimes it happens without a specfic catalyst.
Like most people, I jumped in to trading with two feet and not a heck of a lot of education on the subject. Sure, I understood the markets from a functional perspective. To a certain extent I do believe I also had something of a natural feel for them as well, which is probably part of why I’m still in the game all these years later. In terms of understanding risk management and how to develop a proper trading approach, though, I was pretty clueless. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I hadn’t yet looked to others to guage where I should aspire to go.
It took reading How to Make Money in Stocks to set me in the right path. Looking back, I’m sure I was attracted by the title, but that worked out pretty well. That set me on the right course, and I became a voraious reader of trading books, learning everything I could along the way and applying it where possible.
Those were the days of trying to learn how to trade, meaning ways of getting in and out of trades. It would be a few more years before the importance of the whole mental side of trading became apparent, at which point I had a second moment of outlook shift. These days I spend very little time reading about the latest technical indicator or trading system. I’ve got a set of techniques that work for me and I focus on applying them, making adjustments along the way as the markets dictate. I’m also a research geek, so I do spend a fair amount of time looking for patterns in the market that I can exploit.
In making a move to trading education, though, I get to keep on showing myself where I have room for improvement. Writing The Essentials of Trading, and now developing and presenting my trading course has forced me to think long and hard about what it takes to trade successfully at the most basic level. It is a constant reminder to myself of what I need to be doing to ensure that my own trading is properly grounded.
In the new year I plan on pushing even further in to trading education. In the process of sharing what I know, I’m sure I will yet again be forced to realize all that I don’t yet know and all the ways I can still get better. If the past has been any indication, it will prove a great growth experience!
I hope you’ll be joining me.
Struggling with support & resistance and knowing what the key market levels are? Check out the Price Distribution Analysis methods I use.
Comments