Malcolm Gladwell: Why Do Some Succeed Where Others Fail? What Makes High-Achievers Different?

This video is a talk / Q&A back in 2009 on his book Outliers. This video is 50 minute long.

There are 2 things in the video worth special mentioning here:

First, the 10,000 hours rule is approximately 10 years for many people in the research results he has look into. Trading, an intensive mental exercise, can range from about 4 hours to 10 hours a day depending on the instrument you choose to trade. If you are really focused in learning to trade properly, it will still take at least 5 years (i.e. 10 hours a day) to get you to a point you are very good at trading.

The point is that you have to be patient and persistent in your quest to become a good trader. You need a plan where you will put in at least several years that you know you may not be profitable at all. There is really no shortcut.

Second, a recurring theme in the video is privileged advantage which can affect your chance of success in your pursuit of a career in trading significantly. When you are young, you may not be in a position to choose trading as a career. When you have already established a career in another field you may not be in a position to jump ship and give it 5 years to achieve consistent performance in trading.

For those who are not lucky enough to have support from their family or a cushion of capital large enough to sustain the long road to trading successfully, my advice is to look at alternative trading. Trading is not a single path skill. There are many markets to choose to choose from that require very low initial capital. There are also many trading styles that allows you to trade while you are making your ends meet.

If you plan your trading carefully, you will be able to overcome the initial disadvantage eventually.

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Hans Rosling: 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

A very short video shows us how much the world has changed.

I guess it is time to look beyond US and the rest of Western countries when you look for trading opportunities. The easiest way to do so, of course, is to check out forex and index futures around the world to participate in the rise and fall of the countries.

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Julia Galef: Look at a Problem as an Outsider

Another way in looking at Ms. Galef’s other video on The Sunk Costs Fallacy.

Being a trader, if you find that you are failing to make money in trading, or that you could not improve your performance further. You need to take a step back and really evaluate yourself as an observer or an outsider.

Sometimes there is only so much you can do to improve on a trading method that has limited potential.

Think of what you have missed during the day.

Have you written down any notes about them yet?

Do you notice that some of them recurring yet you are not comfortable in trading them?

Why you are not comfortable?

Can you make yourself comfortable by trading them with sim trading or confirm your gut feeling or observations with backtesting?

Think outside of what you think you know at this point.

There is always room for improvement in our lives.

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