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Let’s say you have a teenage son. He is generally good at sporting activities and particularly good at tennis. He wants to become a professional sports person. Do you encourage him to take up golf, cricket, swimming, basketball and soccer and bring all of those sports to the same skill level as his tennis? Or would you encourage him to continue improving his tennis and take it to new levels of excellence?
The choice seems simple and obvious, doesn’t it? You would encourage him to get better and better at tennis. Yet with most of your trading skills you try to do the exact opposite. You try to develop skills in multitude of areas, simultaneously. There is nothing wrong with being multi-skilled. However, there is something very odd about trying to be a specialist in multitude of areas.
If you are a long term position holder, you may need to use, and stick with, Weekly Swing Charts or Multiday Swing Charts. There is little benefit in trying to jump to intra-day trading just because you heard it is exciting. On the other hand, if you like to trade frequently, Weekly Charts would do you little good.
Most amateur traders cram many indicators into their analysis, bringing in methods and tools they do not yet understand. This is often done to confirm one’s opinion: buy, sell or hold. When you are using tools and indicators you are not very familiar with, the chances of subjective error increases.
If you have been a person who likes learning face to face and absorb information that way, it is best for you to take yourself to a seminar or a workshop. If on the other hand the pace of face to face training overwhelms you, opt for self study at home, at your own pace. If you often take quite a few repetitions to learn, do not expect to get it first time round.
Your strengths are right in front of you, take time to look. In what ways have you been successful in trading and other areas of your life? What is your style? What is the pace you move forward? If you are challenged do you get discouraged, or does the challenge push you to do better. Are you more of a visual person (pictures, charts, diagrams, colours), or auditory person (listening, looking at tables of numbers)? Do you take in information sequentially (one at a time) or in parallel (paying attention to multiple things simultaneously)?
There is no wrong way of progressing your trading. But there are more efficient ways of getting to where you want to get to. Your strengths are really your friends. Notice them, observe them and use them. Keep developing your strengths. Remember, specialists get paid more than generalists.
Believe, achieve
Sinan Koray
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