Whilst sitting in my local having my usual toast and vegemite following training I was listening to a podcast that touched on the fact that in the UK a huge number of people who might be entitled to government benefits didn’t apply for them. Recognising that people might not be aware of these benefits the government generated a campaign to let people know. There was no real blip in the number claiming so the government aware that it knew who was eligible through their databases decided to start paying people benefits without them applying. They also repeatedly contacted folks who had money dropped into their bank account to inform them that this was happening and that this was a pilot scheme that would run for a limited time. All they had to do was to fill in the paperwork that was being sent to them and money would keep dropping into their account.
Once again very little blip in uptake. Initially, I thought this may be because of language issues but I remembered all the stuff our government sends me in a variety of languages and assumed that the UK government would do the same, so it either comes down to cognitive issues, laziness or part of the strange relationship people have with money. LB goes into the notion of money scripts in depth in her new book Investing Psychology Secrets.
It should be a given that you require a system with an edge, but this edge is somewhat pointless if you do not have the correct psychology to guide it. Jim Rogers the noted commodities traded once stated that he simply waited until there was money sitting in the corner and then he would walk over and pick it up. But that requires you to want to pick it up and for a variety of reasons there are people in general and traders specifically who do not want to go and pick it up. This is a failure of software – I have seen it in all traders at some stage and I have seen it in myself particularly of late when doing a review of potential trading opportunities that forces me to ask why I didn’t take a particular trade.
The trade below is of London Sugar – this fired one of my systems but for reasons unknown, I saw the filling of the bearish gap and the breakout but didn’t take it. A failure to launch afflicts all of us at some period in our trading career. You just can let it become the default setting.
It’s an interesting topic. As someone who has had elderly folks in this situation, it’s a conversation with money. They always lamented the fact that they could receive a benefit, but didn’t really feel as disadvantaged as others so didn’t take it any further. It was hard for them to realise that their not taking something didn’t lead to someone else getting more (which is what their conscience wanted). There’s only one pot and what’s left over goes to the government.
It is probably akin to when old folks call an ambulance – they apparently spend a lot of their time apologising for the inconvenience.