If You Are Waiting To Feel Safe You May Be Waiting For Awhile
LB posted this series of challenges in the Mentor Program, and they were too insightful not to share.
1929 – History Always Repeats
I am currently making my way through Andrew Ross Sorkin’s excellent 1929, a day-by-day account of the events leading up to the 1929 crash. As you would expect, the book is full of big characters who are full of themselves. One aspect of human psychology has always been that bull markets convince people that they…
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It Looks Clever So It Must Be Clever
One of the interesting things about the world of trading is that so much has changed, but in reality, so little has changed. The basic principles of trading have remained unchanged since we first started swapping coloured pebbles with one another. Most importantly, the psychology of trading hasn’t changed and probably never will, simply because…
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Courage
Trading is not about charts, systems, or market secrets. It’s about cultivating the quiet courage to act, to endure, and to live a life others only dream of but never dare to attempt. Being a successful trader requires courage, a truth that is almost always overlooked. In the public imagination, trading is often portrayed as…
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Complexity Is A Tax On Your Sanity
I came across the title of this article as a quote I heard in passing the other day. I can’t remember the exact source, so I can’t attribute it correctly, but it seemed particularly relevant to trading, so it stuck with me. There’s a common assumption in financial markets that more complexity equals more sophistication.…
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Wanna A Bet
Betting on binary outcomes—such as the outcome of a drug trial—introduces a fundamentally different risk profile to most forms of trading. In conventional market environments, trades tend to fail gradually. Prices move against the position in increments, allowing the trader to respond: stops can be adjusted, positions reduced, or risk reassessed. Losses unfold over time,…
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Turning Fear into Fuel: Trading Psychology and the Courage to Succeed
Fear. It can freeze you… Or it can forge you. In this deeply personal episode, Louise Bedford sits down with Anne Wicking and Jo Wiese from What’s Fear Got to Do With It? to explore how fear shapes who we become – in life, and in trading. From a childhood marked by poverty and addiction, to health crises that stole her voice and…
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A Punters View Of The World
The AFR recently ran a piece on professional punter Kinglsley Bartholomew – unfortunately, as with most things, it sits behind a paywall. I have extracted several quotations that illustrate the overlap between processional punting and trading. 1. Loss Tolerance Is a Core Skill, Not a By-Product Quote: “I’m used to losing, and after doing it…
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Precision vs. Accuracy in Trading
In trading, profitability is rarely about predicting the market with flawless foresight. Instead, it often depends on how you frame risk, execute consistently, and allow probability to work in your favour. Two terms that are frequently confused but vitally important to distinguish are precision and accuracy. They sound similar, yet for traders, they represent entirely…
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