In today's world, being focused is a superpower. Distractions are more common and readily available than ever. It’s very hard to get bored when you have endless entertainment.
The pace of technological advancement is accelerating exponentially. Society and culture are also changing at great velocity. More opportunities are emerging, but the time window to take advantage of them is shrinking.
The ability to quickly analyze large amounts of information and spot opportunities is more important than ever. This skill takes time to learn and must be trained like a muscle. As society grows larger and more complex, it can become increasingly difficult to find these fleeting experiences.
Speed is a critical factor in determining success in all fields. Being slow will not only take you more time, but it rob you of opportunities that allow you to grow exponentially.
Speed Up Your Learning Curve
In trading, speed is especially critical. The market is a complex mechanism, with millions of factors playing a role at every second. All of this information cannot be processed accurately at once. A trader's job is to cut out nearly all of these factors, and only keep the relevant ones. From these relevant factors, a strategy can be created to generate consistent profits from the market.
To succeed as a trader, speed must be applied in several ways. Start by applying speed to your learning curve. This consists of acquiring information about a trading strategy and trading it in real time.
It doesn't need to be perfect. You just need to trade it and learn from your lessons. Use small amounts at first and journal your results every day. In your journal, include where you profited, where you lost money, and where you need to improve. The goal here is to accumulate as much experience as possible.
Once you've accumulated experience, you'll start to develop a general 'gut feeling' about the market. It may not always be right, but it's a step above trading blind. The more you trade, the sharper it will become. Your trades will be more accurate, and you'll be better at spotting high-quality trades. This experience will compound on itself and grow exponentially because you’ll improve at a faster rate.
This graph illustrates it - you can lose your profit, but you can't lose your experience. Gaining experience can only make you better. This is why it's important to learn fast. The quicker you gain experience and knowledge, the quicker you become profitable. We want the curve on the left to grow as fast as possible.
Take two traders. Trader A can become profitable after trading for 4 years. Trader B can become profitable after trading for 6 years. If Trader B doubles his learning rate, they will become profitable after 3 years and already has a whole year of profits before Trader A, despite not being as 'talented'.
I recommend that all traders start by trading on smaller timeframes. Even if you only want to trade daily or weekly charts, it’s best to start on the 10-minute, 5-minute, and even 1-minute charts.
Why? You’re able to process more real-time patterns. You can see several patterns forming every day on the 5-min chart. If you trade the daily chart, you’ll only see a pattern every few weeks. Trading is just pattern recognition, after all.
Speed has an incredible ability to impact success. A trader can have a huge advantage over other traders by accelerating their learning curve. Sitting around and not taking action will be detrimental to your progress. A person could have been the best trader in the world, but they didn't learn fast enough to see results and quit. Use speed to its full potential.
- Tradewriter
Disclaimer: Any content from this newsletter should not be taken as financial or investment advice, but for informational and entertainment purposes only. This newsletter simply shares my personal opinions. Investing in stocks, bonds, futures, options, and other securities carries significant risks. Some or all capital may be lost. With leveraged instruments, losses may exceed initial capital. Past performance of a security does not guarantee future results. Consult with a registered financial/investment professional. This newsletter and its authors are not licensed financial/investment professionals. By reading and using this newsletter, as well as any other publications, you are agreeing to these terms.
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