Success in any endeavour relies upon a triad of components process measurement and outcome. Traders, as a rule, have a tendency to focus on the outcome not the process this is understandable because the process is boring whereas the outcome enables us to daydream about a different future. This daydream is obviously more attractive and seductive than our current reality otherwise we would not have the daydream. Unfortunately, access to the daydream is only granted by process and as I said the process is boring.
Part of the boredom with the process is generated by the fact that as traders we do everything in isolation we don’t have a crowd cheering us on as athletes do. There is no band for us at the finish line we are simply engaged in an endless cycle of scanning markets selecting trades taking trades and managing those trades until their completion. All of our work and all of our subsequent celebrations exist in isolation and once the successful trade is done you simply close it off and then we repeat the cycle again.
It is this isolation that is problematic for people and unfortunately, process does not serve as a distraction from this isolation hence processes are ignored. But without a process without a strict mechanical mechanism for selecting trades then all we are doing is picking things at random and hoping. For many, this approach fulfills their definition of trading because to them trading needs to be some form of entertainment it needs to be a mechanism through which they enjoyably pass time. Long term studies of the motivations of traders have shown that the prime reason traders engaged in this activity is not the question of profitability but rather the question of entertainment. Unfortunately, the solitary nature of trading reinforces this need for entertainment. There generally is no one to share your trading experience with unless you’re part of a trading group. Fortunately, LB and I solved this problem for ourselves by meeting several decades ago and by beginning the Mentor Program which has given both us and others a means to share not only the frustrations that trading brings but also the successes that it offers to the diligent.
I have a personality that by design is ideally suited to working alone but even I found it difficult grinding away day after day by myself,
