3/19/2006

Superior trader, a born talent or can be taught?

At Elitetrader there is an interesting discussion going on about: Superior trader, a born talent or can be taught? This is my take on it:
We live in an optimist culture where people are made to believe that anything is possible and everything can be learned if you put in enough effort or get the right teacher/guru/mentor you will learn anything.

Its almost sacrilege to say some people are born gifted or have inborn talent for something. Trading is one such profession along with many others.

There is an X-factor that superior traders have which is very difficult to explain but you know when you see it. That is why most attempts at teaching to trade fail.

The teachers/mentors/gurus would not like to admit this as it is fundamentally against their world views, business interest and their over powering need to have followers.

Superior traders have a world view about markets they trade and life in general which is different from those of ordinary traders and it has nothing to do with whether their style is quantitative based or qualitative based.

Even if you were to be taught by a superior trader you may not get his world view unless you are gifted. Given a same market situation or quantitative data the Superior trader interprets it differently than the ordinary trader.

Sooner or later most trader realise it in their heart, but many may not want to accept it. Till then the illusion is very mesmerizing.

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