Get The Facts - Make Your Own Opinions

frustration

Frankly, I've found the last 3 months a complete ball ache.

I'm frustrated and pissed off with every kind of media be it, mainstream, alternative, political, financial or social as almost all are providing very little in the way of quality content. Couple this with the fact that all the market commentators I respect have written three months of "if/but/maybe" articles, I've decided only two things can be happening. 1.no one has a clue. 2. no one's got the balls to say what they believe. And it is my belief that as much as this is not helping me, the reader, it's not helping the writer either.

the unhelpful need to be right

Last week I fell into the same trap as those I am beseeching to change; I wrote an "if/but/maybe" piece of my own. I have since taken it down because it is the antipathy of what I hate: it was safe. I gave myself a get out clauses. You know why it felt awful?  It was because as a trader you don't have the luxury of deciding whether you'll be right or wrong. You own it and manage it and guess what? it doesn't matter! So why do we care whether we write a piece that turns out to be correct or incorrect? 

the same could be said for writing

I guess this behaviour is human but the point I'm trying to make is it's not useful behaviour. Actually, I would go so far as to say it's verging on dangerous. It's behaviour that makes you believe you can fabricate a reality that does exist: you can't be right and wrong at the same time; this kind of behaviour makes you think you can. 

The fact that trading is binary is what makes it beautiful, beautifully painful sometimes. But it is also the best way to learn. If you don't follow-through you're just the guy at the end of the night with clean trousers on, everyone's got clean trousers on (journalists), successful traders aren't everyone; so it stands to reason that some part of being successful is being the guy who shits himself (which I'm going to try and do in the following post).

the importance of doing your own work

My rant above could easily be seen as avoidance, and thinking about it I probably did fall into this trap at points throughout the last few months, however, I still believe in what is written above.

It's vitally important to be consistent in your actions: A trader owns his decision and manages it. If he starts practising alternative behaviour in other areas of his life he lives in danger of bringing that into his trading (this might be why most journalists are not good traders). So this post is as much a pledge to myself to write this blog as a trader, not a journalist. 

This brings me onto one final point. Along time ago I walked past an old Victorian warehouse around the back of Tate Modern in London. Carved on the doorway were the words "Facts not Opinions".

I loved this and took a photo of it (which of course I can't find). I even used it as my screen saver for awhile. I need to get back to this way of thinking, particularly when filtering what news I am choosing to eat. Analysis and opinion are like complex carbohydrates, delicious but cause all kinds of drama. Facts are boring but safe, they make it easier to form your own thoughts.