Why working on yourself is so important

We know we cannot change the past - what's done is done.

We also know that we don't know what will happen in the future - it doesn't exist, and anything (or anyone) can do something which may influence what will occur in the future.

So, what are we left with? We can only react and respond to the moment of now.

Don't think you know better than your rules

"If you take emotion - would be, could be, should be - out of it, and look at what is, and quantify it, I think you have a big advantage over most human beings." - John W Henry

In trading, hindsight can be a not-so wonderful thing. Your stop gets hit, kicking you out of a trade for a small profit. All of a sudden, price takes off in the direction you were looking to profit from, leaving you on the sidelines.

Take it from me. If it's happened once, it will happen a thousand times.

Is this type of event frustrating? Sure.

Recency bias, and labelling markets as easy or hard

I've seen it said that one of the goals you should have as a trader is to try and make money when things are easy, and that you should be more defensive and protect what you have when things are hard.

That is all very laudable, but from a trend follower's perspective there is a problem with that.

Trend following and Donald Rumsfeld

Embracing what is said here is part of a trend followers core mindset and beliefs, don't you think?

Here is another Rumsfeld quote that, again, can easily be related to trend following:


"I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."

I'll let you ponder on those.