The whole world is simply nothing more than a flow chart for capital.
First if all, never play macho man in the market. Second, never overtrade. My major problem was not the number of points I lost on the trade, but that I was trading far too many contracts relative to the equity in the accounts that I handled.
That cotton trade was almost the deal breaker for me. It was at that point that I said, “Mr. Stupid, why risk everything on one trade? Why not make your life a pursuit of happiness rather than pain?
As I've told my three daughters, all of whom I've at one time encouraged to go into macro trading, any man or woman can do anything to which they set their heart and mind.
My off-the-cuff remarks at the University of Virginia were with regard to global macro traders, who are on-call 24/7 and of whom there are likely only a few thousand successful practitioners in the world today. Macro trading requires a high degree of skill, focus and repetition. Life events, such as birth, divorce, death of a loved one and other emotional highs and lows are obstacles to success in this specific field of finance.
I believe that great success is possible in any field — from music to mathematics to macro trading.
If life ever ceased to be an educational experience. I probably wouldn't get out of bed in the morning.
There is no training, classroom or otherwise, that can prepare for trading the last third of a move, whether it's the end of a bull market or the end of a bear market.
We have ripped the humanity out of our companies. It's threatening the very underpinnings of our society.
You can achieve great economic gains by solving social problems.
If trading is like chess, then macro is like three-dimensional chess.
Don't be a hero. Don't have an ego.
There's such an emphasis on making money that we've really taken the humanity out of business.
There is no more compassionate and effective way to help poor people in New York City than to give to Robin Hood.
