A hitter in baseball has to deal with all sorts of distractions — the crowd, noise, weather and maybe even the boos. But his goal is to focus on the task at hand, hitting a round ball with a round bat coming at him at 90 mph. No easy task, and more than likely that hitter will fail at least seven times out of ten regardless of the distractions — still, he may be considered a success with those stats.
Someone once asked famed Dodger Tommy Lasorda what was harder, hitting a baseball or hitting a golf ball. He went ballistic comparing the two, paraphrasing: ‘are you kidding? hitting a little ball not moving with a club and the player asking for quiet vs. a hitter trying to hit a round ball with a round bat squarely? NO COMPARISON!
IN TRADING ITS CALLED NOISE
In trading, we also have to deal with distractions. I just call it ‘noise,, and when it starts getting loud we know people are getting worried. For the right reason? I highly doubt it. My objective everyday is to listen to the message of the markets and what they are telling me, not to pay attention to the headlines or minutia of the hour.
TWITTER IPO
Today’s distraction, we’ll hear about the recent Twitter IPO, capturing the imagination of the media for all to digest. I suspect we’ll be finding out all sorts of details as CNBC, Bloomberg and others strip out what they consider the secrets of the IPO in the days, weeks and months ahead. The more hype, the better the price for the company – so it’s a winner for them. Remember Facebook? I suspect more of the same, but let’s hope the same embarrassment does not occur on the first day of trading.
FOCUS ON THE TRADE
But there is ABSOLUTELY nothing about Twitter that can help my trading today, next week, or next month. The best thing I can do is let others make a big deal about it, focus on the trade and markets and move forward. It’s not easy, and like a hitter trying to nail a fastball into left field my focus has to be entirely on what is happening in front of me, or I may strikeout.
