Nov

19

Gandhi said a person cannot be different from himself in different areas of his life. He meant a person really cannot be someone at work and a entirely different person at home, with his friends, etc. The personality is a whole –- you can’t have a mask for different occasions. What you do in private life echoes in your business life, and vice-versa. What you do in the different areas of your life (private, professional, friendship, religion, spirituality, fun) echoes in every other part.

If you are a fighter in your work, one cannot expect you to be a daisy flower at home -– you will treat your family with the same authority and discipline. If you are kind, you will be kind whether at home or at office. One cannot really perform different roles separately. The person is an unity.

That means if you are lazy, undisciplined, late, in your behavior, it will reflect in your trading. Have you ever thought your trading problems may not be trading related? If you find yourself…

1. Unprepared
2. Getting late
3. Not aware of details
4. Leaving office or desk at crucial times
5. Answering phone calls at trading time
6. Talking aloud as if your office was a party
7. Not taking care of your trading journal…

Can you honestly say that the problem is with the market?

Marion Dreyfus comments:

Not sure about this. Some children are quiet at home, noisy at school. Many of us are introspective at work, but different at private functions. I know people behave differently all the time…

Newton Linchen responds:

I didn't mean surface behavior. An example of what I meant is that person who cannot endure "suffering" (such as boring parametrization) to achieve results. In this matter, Daniel Goleman mentioned a study of children who could not wait the experiment time to not eat a cookie in order to get two cookies — and it seems this behavior (of immediate gratification) had an impact in their professional lives.

Marion Dreyfus comments:

Ahh, yes. Literalist me.


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3 Comments so far

  1. Ken Drees on November 19, 2009 11:53 am

    From reading one of the Market Wizards books, I remember one trader (don’t recall who) that said if his trading was going poorly then he was very nice and pleasurable to be around, both at home and the office. The obverse was that when trading was going well, he was grouchy and not so fun to be around.

  2. Bella Fiore on November 19, 2009 3:02 pm

    Well said. If you are not a disciplined person, why should you expect to be disciplined in your trading? Maybe the reason some can't hit stocks that trade against them is more about their person than the market. But all of this can be changed through effort.

    Very interesting blog!

  3. Newton Paulo Linchen on November 19, 2009 8:57 pm

    Bella,

    I agree with you.

    Regards to all at SMB Capital!

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