Are Great Traders Born or Taught?

The whole turtle trader experiment was done to answer that question, nature vs nurture. The prevailing answer seems to be it can be taught as most of the traders succeeded in the experiment. However when you read about the traders from that test, the majority failed after they left the tutelage of Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt and tried trading on their own.

I think it can be taught but not everyone has the mind set, or the nature, to succeed in this business. It is a strange business.

How about guitar players? Could this be taught?




I wish I could do that.

I think I could take lessons and practice for years and never be able to play the guitar like those two guys. My uncle can play the guitar and banjo and has never had a lesson in his life. He just listens to the music and then plays it. How can that be? Think about that, it's crazy.

So we know that trading and music can be taught and if you practice enough you may become good. But can you truly become great, or is greatness determined by our genetics?

Hmmmm.

Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders

The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results

Crude Oil Hits New High

Ho hum another day in the crude oil market.

Crude oil came out of the gate before the NYMEX floor open and took a run at $140, it came close with a intra day high of $139.89.

The NYMEX session was choppy until a nice run down in the afternoon. It's days like this that reinforce the , hold no directional biases, theory for day trading.

You wait for a direction to form, then a trend in that direction, and finally momentum in the trend direction for an entry.

Pre market move (click on chart to view)

Afternoon short move