Gripping too tight to win

As a trader, I think you’ve got to be a bit careful you’re not trapped in the whole trading bubble.
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Where everything you consume is trading-related. Books, podcasts, videos, news, etc.

I like to make sure I’m listening to experts and successful people from other sectors, and see if I can take any ideas they have and apply them to trading.

• Business
• Sport
• Military
• Music

“How do musicians get into the flow state?”
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“How does the military deal with a plan going wrong?”
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You get the idea…
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So, the other day I was listening to an interview with Jason Fried the founder of business software called Base Camp.
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You’ve probably never heard of it, I barely have. That doesn’t matter.
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But it’s a company worth around $100 bln, so by any metric that’s success…
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​Whenever a successful man or woman speaks (yes there are only two genders…) I listen.
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​Anyway, he said something that intrigued me…
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​“Making progress requires you to release a little, to lighten up your grip”
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​He went on to talk about business and how trying to control everything dooms you to failure.
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You need to relax your grip a bit and just let things happen.
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Like playing an instrument or golf.
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If you’re white-knuckling the drumstick or the club, your performance will suffer.
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​“Hold the golf club like you would hold a bird. Tight enough it won’t fly away but not so tight you’d hurt it.” – Jack Nicklaus
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That’s so perfect for trading…
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​We are ALL guilty of gripping trading too tightly sometimes.
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​Trying to get the perfect entry, fine-tune the exit, optimise the stop, make more from the winners, develop a perfect process, journal and log everything, it’s never-ending…
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But that’s gripping too hard.
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That’s white-knuckling the club.
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​It’s too much – we need to loosen the grip a bit.
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​There’s a load of luck involved in each trade, the outcome is uncertain, and it’s totally impossible to know the result of each trade.
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All we can do is follow the process, control what we can control and play the game.
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A tighter grip won’t get us there any sooner, or make us more money. In fact, it will hinder the whole journey.
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So relax a little, just accept it’s an imperfect game we are playing.
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Sure, put in the work needed, but don’t kill the bird…