9/23/2009

Swinging the Bat

A hitter in baseball can fail 70% of the time and still be an all star. I coach minor baseball (little league) and spend a fair amount of time reminding my players of this fact. They want to get a hit so bad, for Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, that I quite often see them coming back to the dugout in tears if they don't succeed at the plate.

Sounds alot like traders. You can have a very successful plan with a winning percentage under 50% with proper money management. Yet how many of us (me being part of us) come back to the dugout after a losing trade looking like we just lost our best friend.

As I tell the 10 yr old baseball players, the key is not to focus on what just happened, the key is are you ready for your next at bat.

Are you?

Am I?

Solfest after a losing trade


Yesterday's strikeouts.

Today, a couple of homeruns.

6 comments:

EIT said...

gee wot an uncanny resemblance - we're still working on his anger management in the room.......

Solfest said...

Very funny, isn't there some cricket on tv you should be watching?

Of all the managerial meltdowns in baseball history this one has to at the top of the list.

The hand grenade toss, that was a classic.

Anonymous said...

After 1,000 trades you have a win-rate of 40%.

If the next trade loses you have a new WR of 40%.

If the next trade wins you have a new WR of 40%.

No drama. On to the next.

(Although I promise I am not as boring as I make out).

Solfest said...

That's not boring L&W, that's informative, yes, informative.

Also true.

Jaroslav said...

Solfest. Your post reminded me a book 10-Minute Toughness. When i was trying to get emotions under control I was looking for answers in the area of sport and i have found some good resources. Of course they are all about one thing: repetition with discipline and well crafted plan you can proceed under fire again and again and again :)

BTW: thanks for the good tip for the "Pit Bull" book. I have enjoyed reading it.

Solfest said...

Jaroslav glad you liked the book.

There are some interesting thoughts on practice and deveopling skill here:

http://tradingcrude.blogspot.com/2008/12/every-trader-must-read.html