Learning to trade

from here:

Txtrader,

There is a concept in learning called scaffolding. It functions just like the actual scaffolds used in construction. You can read lots of things about trading in a relatively short period of time, but you won't learn them when you read them. You may think that because you can remember them that you have learned them. Not true. I've seen it in language learning over and over again. Something you read today won't be of any use to you until you have a better foundation under it. It may be two years from now, but you'll say, "aha", now I understand what that means. So, you need to put the pieces in place, one by one. Each piece needs to be securely in place, or in actuality, truly learned and assimilated. This takes a long time.

In trading there are two components. The first is the technical side. It's probably the easiest of the two, but it takes a lot of practice and that practice takes time. It can be indefinitely prolonged by jumping from system to system. The best thing to do is to learn one system (or a set of systems emanating from the same basic principles of a larger system) thoroughly. However, just getting to the point where one realizes the necessity of this takes time.

The second component is the learning about yourself. There is no guarantee that this will ever be learned. I suspect a lot of folks go broke before they do so. It takes a long time to come to grips with how one really thinks, what one believes and values, and how they act upon those things. It's a grueling process with many detours and delays.

Putting the two together takes much longer than one can imagine. Now, I'd venture to say that the vast majority of people who try trading think that they are above average. They've had success in their life doing other things they deem to have been difficult. They figure they can just apply those qualities that brought them success in the past onto trading. It's just not that simple.

For starters, half the people in the world are below average. Yet, if you were to poll a thousand people at random, how many people would rate themselves as such? Now this is not a knock at those people. It's simply to point out the mind games we play with ourselves. Humans tend to delude themselves regularly. I'm the first to agree that there are benefits to doing so. But that same type of thinking doesn't work in trading.

There are very few professions in the world that require one to strive for self-actualization in order to achieve success in said profession. Trading is certainly one of them.

I'm also sure that many of us here have believed that we also could jump ahead of the learning curve. I'm certainly guilty of that. Yet, I've found that it's taking longer than I anticipated, but not longer than what everyone who has done it has said it would take.

Now, this is not to say that you won't be a trading wunderkind. It just very well may happen. But seeing as trading is all about probabilities, I'd say the probability of you beating the learning curve is not a bet I would want to take.

Finally, think of it this way. If you do succeed at trading and it does take you 4-7 years, so what? Any thing worth doing takes time. I spent 10 years going to college to get the job I wanted. Think of any profession you want and point out how many of them can be learned in 1 or 2 years. Once I finished my education it took me years to work up the position I wanted, just like any profession requires. But, just like my profession now, I can do it for the rest of my life. The same is true for trading. If you succeed at it, it's yours for the rest of your life. You'll be able to make a living at it for 20-30 years. But you're going to have do it the old-fashioned way....earn it. That takes time.

Nat