Stock Trading vs. Football

When I was younger, and played the early versions of electronic football, I almost always went on fourth down - even from my own side of the field. I wanted to score quickly and often, and rack up points. What usually happened, however, was that I was stopped and ended up losing the game because the opponent always had better field position.

Now, being older and wiser, I always root for the Bears (my hometown team from Chicago) to play safe and conservatively. I would never think about going on fourth down unless it was late in the game and my team was behind. Also, when my team is looking at long 3rd downs (such as 3rd and 15), I don't automatically expect them to try a long pass. I'm ok with them gaining a little yardage, punting it away, and waiting until the next possession.

Similarly, you have to be patent when stock trading. When I was younger, I wanted to see success right away. I ended up losing a lot because I day traded and used futures, options, and margin trading to leverage my way to success.

My profits went up (and my stress down) when I stopped trying to make quick profits. Instead, like football, I started playing safely and conservatively.

Since day trading left me stressed with no edge, I switched to long term trading, which I found suited my personality much better. I also stopped using margin, futures, and options because they masked my edge. They left me dependent on short term luck to avoid margin calls.

I realized that one of the reasons I was impatient to day trade and make profits was that I didn't trust longer term trading systems. So, I took a few years off trading and did nothing but system design and testing until I proved to myself that my long term trading system had an edge.

I designed the system to suit my personality and needs. I then became passionate and excited about trading my system and knew that I would make money over the long term - even if I could not see profits in the short term.