To be Right? Or to be Rich?

I posted this on May 30, 2010, before my blog gets refurbished.  The qualities from the world top traders and their viewpoints on Superior Traders.
People who are smart can learn fast, but couldn't stay long in the game without hardwork.
People who are hardworking and read thousands of books, listen to hundreds gurus, but couldn't stay long in the game if they are not ready to accept growth and wealth.

Trading result is a reflection of our own, we can have superb trading setups, we can have marvelous team, after-all, the trade decision and trading plan is totally personal.  Nobody is gonna have the same trading experience, same risk appetite, same capital, same lifestyle, same objectives.  But we need to get the rules defined.
You take the trade, you break the rules, take the losses, and face the reality.
You take the trade, you play by the rules, take the losses, good game.
You take the trade, you play by the rules, take the profit, good game, keep it up!

From the New Market Wizards...

[Bill Lipschutz - The Sultan of Currencies]
Pg 63:

[Superior Traders]

"What do you believe are the characteristics of the truly superior traders?"

Let me start with an analogy. When I was in college, my impression was that people who were really smart could do very well, even if they didn't work that hard; and
people who really worked hard could also do very well, even if they weren't outstandingly bright.
In contrast, in trading,, I think you need both elements. The best traders I know are really quite brilliant, and they all work very hard -- much harder than anyone else.

By the way, when I talk about working hard, I mean commitment and focus; it has nothing to do with how many hours you spend in the office. These traders have tremendous commitment to the markets -- to their craft, so to speak. They develop scenarios, reevaluate scenarios, collect information, and reevaluate that information. They constantly ask themselves: What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? How can I do what I am doing better? How can I get more information? It's obsessive.

[Quote from Bill Lipschutz]

... And there's a lot of pain.

You give up a lot of things. It's all tradeoffs. It's the middle of the night, everyone else is asleep, and you're sitting in front of a machine with glowing green numbers, with a pain in the psyche because the market is going against you and you don't know whether the fundamentals have changed or whether it's just a meaningless short-term move. Those are very trying times.

• "Why do you Trade?"
  I like the game. I think it's a great challenge. It's also an easy game to keep score of.

• "With trading consuming most of your day, not to mention night, is it still fun?"
  It's tremendous fun!  It's fascinating as hell because it's different every day.

• "Would you still trade if there were no monetary remuneration?"
  Absolutely.  Without question  I would do this for free.  I am thirty-six years old, and I almost feel like I have never worked.  I sometimes can't believe I'm making all this money to essentially play an elaborate game.  On the other hand, when you look at all the money I've produced over the years, I've been vastly underpaid.

Some from the final words..

Avoid
the temptation of
wanting to be
completely right...

... Scale-in and Scale-out approach: you many never get the best outcome, but at the same time you will never get the worst outcome either.  ... restrict full positions to those instances in which your confidence in a trade is greatest.

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