People sometimes experiment with the idea to trade with other
people. It might work, but for me, it did not. I trade alone. The
advantages of trading alone are:
- You are free to make your own decisions without having to
find a way to explain the rationale of your decisions to anybody else.
Your time and effort can be focussed on what the market is doing and
how you react to it, instead of worrying about the psychological and
emotional dynamics of a trading group.
- You are free to
experiment, based on the knowledge you gain from your experiences and
your self-education, without having to asking others to allocate a
certain portion of the trading funds to let you conduct your
experiments.
- No one can blame you for their failures. No
time is wasted on justifying your actions or feeling guilty about the
impact of your trading blunders on someone else's financial situation.
- You
alone are responsible and accountable for your own success or failure.
You cannot shift the blame to anybody else. It could be disappointing
to some knowing that they cannot blame anyone else if they fail. For
others, it is very empowering to know that they, and they alone, are in
charge of their own destiny.
Personally, I believe that a person should trade alone first before
he or she decides to trade with other people. This allows the
individual to develop his own philosophy and his own understanding
about himself and the market. I understand, however, that not everybody
can trade alone because it requires a set of beliefs and values to be
part of the trader's character. Not all people are created with the
same set of characteristics. Not everyone can operate under the
solitude of the journey. For example, there are people who need social
contact more than others. Individuals who are social by nature and
those who solve problems by talking to other people, may have
difficulty undertaking a solitary endeavour.
Furthermore, there are people who do not have faith in their
abilities and in their capacity to learn to trade successfully. I know
of individuals who need constant reassurance before they take any step
towards their goals. In similar circumstances, trading in a group may
be the only option available for some people to give them the push they
need: otherwise, they may never start.
by Marquez Comelab
Marquez Comelab is a private trader in Melbourne, Australia. He is the
author of The Part-Time Currency Trader, a book on how to
develop trading strategies. He is also the founding editor of The Part-Time
Investor Magazine: an online magazine for traders and investors.
See http://www.marquezcomelab.com.
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