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%.

Trading and the One Minute Manager

I've talked in the past about how I read books not necessarily related to trading, which can help you - one such example was Dale Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, which I wrote about here.

Another such book is The One Minute Manager. Originally published in the early 1980's, it became a business classic with over 15 million copies sold. Updated last year, can the The New One Minute Manager help your trading?

Lets look at the three 'secrets' discussed in the book:

How do you see yourself?

Today I came across the following quote from a former Americas Cup skipper, which is so true when applied to trading:

"You cannot outperform your self-image".

How you see yourself, as well as how to talk to yourself,  has a huge impact on how you perform as a trader. Having an underlying confidence in yourself, the method you choose to follow, as well as the knowledge you have a robust risk management plan in place will undoubtedly help in this regard.