Today, I am not posting a question and answer. Over the weekend, I thought about Friday’s interactions in this blog, and I decided to press an important point that arose from those discussions. So hang with me as I give you my thoughts …
The question I answered last Friday on “When” to trade stirred a bit of commentary, which resulted in a small but healthy debate. This, my friends, is as good as it gets for what we are trying to do here at TraderPlanet. The whole point of TraderPlanet is to discuss trading from every conceivable perspective. The premise behind this mission is that education is the key to becoming a successful trader, and education can come from traders reading what those with experience have to say, even if those with experience are debating the merits of this approach or that approach.
Both Plato and Aristotle argued that question-sparked debate is a prime educational tool. Now, when such luminaries as these ancients tell us that what we are doing here is educational, we should not only listen, we should step up to the challenge. We should comment and debate even more than we are now. If we do this, more of us will improve as traders, and, I dare say, improve as community members.
I have two more reasons for asking that we rise to the challenge of commenting and debating on the myriad aspects to trading. The first is that trading has, well, myriad aspects, which means not just one but many paths lead to success. The commentary sparked last Friday demonstrates this. Since this is the case, reading about the various paths to success gives us all a chance to sharpen that all-important edge that minimizes our losses and adds to our wins.
The second, as it regards what I am trying to do here, is that I don’t know everything there is to know about trading. In fact, one important reason I am doing this blog is that I want to learn more about trading. I want to hear when traders think I am off-track, missing the boat, or just outright wrong. As well, I want to hear when I positively contribute to someone learning. Both responses are helpful to me and to all of our community.
My final thought about last Friday is that we all share one common desire and that is to be successful traders. It occurs to me that if we all share this commonality, we should all approach our roles in TraderPlanet with this commonality in mind. If we all wish to improve, and we all have questions and answers about how to improve as traders, then we should all consider ourselves teachers, as well as students. Contributing to dialogue adds to our knowledge. Just ask Plato or Aristotle. Well, maybe not …
Trade in the day; invest in your life.
Ed
