Читать книгу The Way to Trade - John Piper - Страница 9

When we enter the trading arena we enter an environment unlike anywhere else. The rules we have lived by in the normal outside world no longer apply and, indeed, will cause us loss. Our very motivation can be our own worst enemy as we seek to extract money from the markets.

To succeed in the markets we need to put in place an entire structure, as we have put in place an entire structure (personality) in the outside world. The Trading Pyramid is just such a structure. But before I begin to explain how it works let me give you two examples of why our normal behavior and motivations are not going to help us in the markets.

Many people enter the markets because they have had a successful career or business life elsewhere. At this point they may feel a little bored with life and seek a new challenge. This is very normal, and the kind of stimulus all of us have felt at one time or another. But think about this for a minute. Such an individual, starting to trade, will probably, like many other traders, trade in a fairly haphazard manner to start with. I term such trading “emotional,” because whatever method traders may think they are using, the ultimate decision is more usually an emotional one. I will explain this in more detail later in this book. So the overall rationale can be described as “the person is bored and wants to trade.” So what happens the next time boredom sets in? Once able to trade, it is very likely that a person will make the emotional decision to do just that when bored. This timing is unlikely to correspond with a low risk trading opportunity; I will also be talking a lot about those later in this book.

So the first question traders must ask themselves is “Why do I trade?” The answer to that simple question may save you a fortune.

Now to the second example. In this modern world where we all seek gratification as and when we want it, what do we do when we are offered something nice? We take it. In the real world what do we do when something unpleasant comes along? We seek to defer it and hope that time may lessen its impact. What are these tendencies going to do in the market? They are going to mean you take profits too quickly and take losses too slowly. Yes, you will be cutting your profits and running your losses. What works in the real world does not work in the market. These are just two of the many reasons why all traders need the Trading Pyramid.