ABUNDANTLY UNCLEAR

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
~ Albert Einstein

After speaking to hundreds of people who want to be successful traders, I identified the one thing that holds them all back:

They’ve studied a lot, but all of their questions start with “How”.

In other words, they want to know something about a specific action in their trading, and they’re already assuming the answer can be memorised in scientific fashion, to be rinsed and repeated into early retirement.

If only that were true.

Trading isn’t a science. It’s an art form.

There really are no rules.

OK, there are some basic fundamental principles that are mathematical, such as the matching of market and limit orders on the exchange, but that’s not exactly helpful in figuring everything out.

The nature of the question dictates the quality of the answer in this case.

There’s a lot of “How to” content out there for everything in our seamlessly digital lives, but not a lot of what is learned gets put into effective practice.

That’s the problem with infotainment. Mastery is in the reps, not the dopamine of vicarious voyeurism.

Better questions always start with “Why”.

The trader who can conceptualise the next move can see the bigger picture and trade it better than someone lost in the granularity of how every little thing is supposed to work.

Successful traders become more intuitive with experience, as they start to embody the underlying principles of market mechanics, trading psychology and systematise their approach into a rules based framework, moving away from outcome dependency and getting into the performance data.

They start using what they can see on charts to confirm what they can’t see in the sea of probabilities.

They draw inferences from the interaction and don’t need signals to set expectations.

Always asking “Why” requires a procedural approach to problem solving where you have to think for yourself and work through a variety of angles to find solutions. If I’ve learned anything in this, it’s that avoiding the hive mind will save your ass and make more money.

“Why” questions inevitably lead to slower answers, and that’s why everyone avoids this path to understanding.

The trick is to know that generalised knowledge creates entry level skills.

Nothing in trading can be treated generically.

Zero sum games require unfair advantage in order to win.

All knowledge has to be context specific and based on scenarios so that you know where and when to get to work.

Your development as a trader is likely to be a slow and difficult process. That’s where the patience and discipline really matters. The basics are straightforward, but the system and edge comes from constant tinkering, increasing mental clarity, testing and iterating ideas and strategies until you have formed a deep connection with the market and a greater knowledge of yourself.

Survive. Adapt. Thrive.

This is not to say that all of the education on offer isn’t useful, but painting by numbers isn’t putting the pieces together.

That’s a personal thing, and everyone has to go through it.

What works for someone else may never work for you. You have to discover your way.

In school, where most of the questions are “How” questions, you could just copy someone’s homework for an easy win.

That will never work long term in the market.

When you get to the “Why” underneath what you’re seeing, you get to clarity on what you can do with it. That’s a source of strength and self awareness.

You increase self worth, and that’s as much a measure of abundance as your net worth.

P.