Accepting Responsibility

The current trading and economic environment is very tough. Making it even more tough are the majority of people that either by choice or through ignorance refuse to accept responsibility for their actions. This is prevalent throughout society and goes all the way to the top. For the best example look no further than the US congress, the senate or the Federal Reserve. How many times do they say one thing, do another and then try to receive praise when they did not even participate? It makes me sick and shows a complete lack of responsibility.

Now let's put it into a trading perspective. Most everyone I know reads the newspapers, follows the news on television and listens to what their "leaders" tell them. When something untoward happens it is easy for them to palm off the problem as being"out of their control" or "it caught everyone by surprise" or "the government will fix the problem". All of this shows a lack of responsibility and needs to be changed and quickly if you want to be successful at trading or any other endeavor.

There are a few simple tips that will stand you in good stead. Stop listening to what others have to say. This includes the so called "experts" on TV and in news print. Did you know that they are right less than 25% of the time? The problem is that they are never called back to report the score. All the producers and editors want is to scare people into believing that this will happen when in most instances it does not.

Do your research and make your own decisions. Now a fool is a person that guesses, gets lucky and calls it skill. Do your research as thoroughly as you can and then make your own assessment of the situation and act under those assumptions. What this will do is provide you with a plausible theory on which to base investment decisions. It will also alert you early when you are wrong, in time to save yourself from large losses. Relying on other peoples opinions such as tips or articles in newspapers will not give you any idea of when to exit as you will never know when things went wrong.

Follow these simple rules and I believe that you will find great success in trading and all business endeavors.