A trader explains why technical professionals often fail at trading: they try to control outcomes instead of accepting uncertainty. Success requires probability-based thinking and emotional discipline, not the deterministic methods that worked in their previous careers.
February 27, 2017.
Kardec Trader.
95% (speaker's claim).
Within three years (speaker's claim).
One of the biggest mistakes that traders make, particularly when they're evaluating trading as a new career, is a lot of traders come from a technical background. And in that technical background, whether or not it's in business or in corporate, they have had a wow factor. They've done very well and they've been celebrated. They have been able to conquer problems that are really impressive. And they think, golly, man, I've been really good with this technical knowledge. I have done very, very well. And they look at trading, the way it's presented is that, you know, once you get this technical stuff down, it's just those motions, you push them away. And it's all technical, it's all knowledge. You apply it. And so what they do is they think that I'm going to be able to use this talent of mine, this gift of mine for being able to use technical expertise and I'm going to make a good trader. That is a tragic flaw.
Not only is it a tragic flaw in the transition from a technical person, from like being an accountant, being an engineer, being an IT person, being a dentist, being an accountant, it's also a problem in the corporate world when you see a person who's done very well in the technical end and they decide to promote him into management. But once he gets to management, all that technical skill doesn't work for anything anymore. Suddenly he starts really having problems. And ultimately what they have to do is they have to start mentoring him, training him to be able to accept a new way of thinking, a new way of being.
Okay, I want you to hear that. There's a lot of failure because of that, because they don't. Companies don't take the time to transition the person from thinking technically in that field where they were a superstar to being a manager of where they're managing people. A totally different agenda, a totally different paradigm. This same thing happens in trading. You take a lot of the people, they come out of a technical field and they think, okay, I've got it. I have the smarts, I have the knowledge, I need to learn this stuff and then apply it and everything's good. They've had a lot of success. There's no reason for them to believe that there's going to be a problem with this success strategy. Then they get into trading and all of a sudden all that technical knowledge just flies out the window. Every time they meet uncertainty, every time they get stressed, it just flies out, what's wrong? They think, I try harder, I'll try harder, I'll do more, I'll Study harder. They try to do all the things that produce success in the past and it doesn't work. Ultimately, most technical people have learned how to control outcome. They want to make sure, like an engineer. You don't want an engineer designing a bridge and kind of be iffy on the load capacity of that bridge. You want him to be right and you want him to be very right. You don't want him to make a mistake in the same way that you would want a cardiologist operating on you to really know his stuff at the same time and not acknowledge that, oh, you know, there's uncertainty here. That's the same thing that happens. You get over to trading. All this technical knowledge is then brought into trading. Unfortunately, it's a different world. It's a completely different world and they are unprepared for it. Like many traders. What I'm asking you to recognize is this is no matter how good your mind was back then, what happens is when you move that mind from the world that you were in to the world that you're going to be in and trading, it's a completely different world. And you're going to have to train yourself for that. The mind suddenly has to be able to deal with uncertainty. As the rule, you're not going to be right much of the time. You're going to be at a place where you're going to actually have to realize that you're going to be wrong a lot. You're going to. That whole control over outcome is gone. Ultimately what you discover is you don't control outcome. What you do is you control the mind that you bring into the moment of performance. That's the big thing. But to do that, you have to move from a technical knowledge into a probability based knowledge where you know anything can happen and it's okay not to be right. That's the big thing. It's a hard thing for engineers to do and that kind of thinking. So ultimately in trading, you have to develop a mind that's completely different than what brought you success in your other career, in this new career. This is about probability. You can do everything right and you can still be wrong. You can do everything.
That should make things where you can control. And what you discover is that no, you can't. Control has always been an illusion. Control of outcomes is an illusion. But you can control the mind that you bring into that moment. That's the big deal. Learning that is one of the most difficult things traders have to do. It's hard. Very few make it. There's A reason that all the affirmations, all the visualizations that are used don't work in trading. And most traders wash out 95%.
You're going to have to prepare the mind for success in trading, not success in your old career. The mind that you brought to trading is not going to be the mind that brings success in trading. That has to be built. It has to be built upon really uncertainty. Being able to manage, literally recognizing that you cannot control outcome. You can only control what you do with your process, friends. That's how you do it. Most people never learn that and they blow up their capital within three years. The question as you move into this career, are you ready to change the way you see the world? Are you willing to develop a mind that will embrace uncertainty rather than get stuck with not wanting to lose? Is that embracing the uncertainty? That's the trick, friends. That's the mind that has to be built. It can be learned, but you have to work at it. You have to develop the emotional regulation skills. You have to develop the mindfulness skills. You have to develop really the ability to observe conversations in your mind and interrupt them because there will be self doubt. There will be just absolutely jumping into trades you shouldn't be in. Also then you need to develop a committee of your mind that can engage uncertainty. Completely different than the mind you brought to trading. That's the trick, friends. When you develop that the old challenges of uncertainty are there, however, you bring a new mind to engage that uncertainty. It doesn't have to be right, it has to perform well.
Ultimately, you're going to have to train the mind to embrace uncertainty and not falter under pressure. That can be taught, friends. If you're interested, if you want to really see how you develop that, come check out our website, Come check out the materials, check out the courses, check the book out, check out the free stuff. But start learning. Start learning about what it's going to take to move the mind from technical expertise to being able to work in probability. I wish you well and come visit us. Thank you.
