Guest post courtesy of Jordana Balsam of Elitetradingtips
You don’t need to have watched “Wheel of Fortune” to have heard the cliché: ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. When applied to humans this simply implies that people don’t often change their ways.
Most people don’t apply that phrase to themselves. It is easy to become comfortable in our own habits and way of life. Most people stay within their comfort zones for their entire adult life. Staying in our comfort zone does not necessarily mean that we are happy, it simply means that we are used to the life we have created or has been created for us and we don’t want to or know how to change. The inability to make that change is what often keeps people from finding happiness and success.
When people worry or stress about their situation or everyday routine–such as worrying about finances or their relationship with their spouse or their weight–they are questioning these relationships with money, partners, themselves but they are not stepping outside their comfort zone to do anything about the issues that lie beneath. When we continue to question without taking action we are keeping ourselves in our little box, which provides the comfort of knowing where we stand. Taking any real action to improve one’s situation and change one’s box would be a very uncomfortable endeavor and can be viewed as risky. The longer we stay in our situation as it is, the more comfortable and accepting we are of it being just the way it is.
The first step to break this mold is to do things that you aren’t comfortable doing and it doesn’t need to be directly correlated with what you are looking to change. For instance, a very politically conservative individual may benefit from attending a meeting for environmentalists. Or, if you are looking to lose weight try an art class and open your mind and direct it away from food. Whatever it is that makes you tick, try choosing 3 things to do that are out of your box and force yourself to do them. You may just surprise yourself by how little modifications may open up to create real and meaningful change and growth.
Trading in financial markets isn’t any different. Flexibility and adaptability are critical traits to truly command the market. It’s clear that technology has had a tremendous impact on today’s trading world. “High frequency trading” and “algorithms” have become common terms in the public domain. Even the show 60 Minutes aired a segment on electronic trading. The “flash Crash”, the day the market crashed due to computer glitches, as well as political chatter has placed a focus on the subject. That coupled with massive layoffs from proprietary trading firms have put into question of the future of trading.
I take a quantitative systematic approach to trading that teaches how to think like a computer, which in itself is an unnatural human ability. Traders who have been in this business for years are finding this new approach to be very uncomfortable and therefore they need to transform the way they think in terms of viewing the market and treat it as if it’s a new language. Once a human begins to think like a computer, and takes on a systematic and quantitative approach to learning, something funny and maybe a bit ironic happens: their natural intuitive thinking process comes out again.
By challenging yourself to do something different that seems uncomfortable, you can ultimately yield outstanding rewards.
This material is being provided to you for educational purposes only. No information presented constitutes a recommendation by T3 LIVE or its affiliates to buy, sell or hold any security, financial product or instrument discussed therein or to engage in any specific investment strategy. The content neither is, nor should be construed as, an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, to buy, sell, or hold any securities. You are fully responsible for any investment decisions you make. Such decisions should be based solely on your evaluation of your financial circumstances, investment objectives, risk tolerance and liquidity needs.
