Richard Dennis, trend following and leaving your ego at the door

The siren call of the high win rate strokes the ego of many traders, and this causes internal conflict amongst people who aspire to be trend followers.

Left unchecked, the ego within us would make the desire to be seen to be right its primary focus, rather than to make money. But this goes against the grain when it comes to trend following, where the typical win rate can be between 30% - 40%.

Intellect, theory, risk taking and reality

From the outside, trading opportunities within the big financial institutions or investment banks seem to be a closed shop. I took a look at job opportunities in the City of London this morning and all of them seemed to want people who were educated to a degree level, and/or who already worked in a financial institution. This obviously rules out bozo's like me, who left school and didn't proceed into further education, or who have never worked within the industry.

Zen In the Markets

Further to my recent posts here and here on objectivity and simplicity - I would encourage you to read the excerpt below from Zen in the Markets by Edward Allen Toppel. Although a pit trader himself (the book was written in the early 1990's) , the wisdom in the book is relevant to all traders.