I remember back in 1997 when I walked into Maverick Trading as a brand new trader. As I I remember watching professional traders with years of experience and I couldn’t believe how simple it seemed. Without thinking, they seemed to enter and exit each stock with precise timing, always evaluating when the market was going to move. The difficulty was, it didn’t come as easy to me as I was pretty sure I was entering and exiting at exactly the wrong time. How could these traders make it look so easy while I was having a difficult time with the easy stuff?
Sittng there at my trading desk, I remembered a young kid|remembered one of my players I was coaching from my team I was coaching ask me how in the world I could pass a ball that far, or kick as accurately as I could, or read the defense of the other team. At first I thought, well…I just can. When I really refelcted about it, I recalled all the time and practice I put|But my next thought took me back to all the weeks of practice I had put into the sport of rugby since I was a teenager. I remembered all the days going outside practicing kicks, pasing the ball as far as I could and watching every rugby game I could get my hands on| all the times kicking that oval rugby ball, pasing the ball as far as I could and watching every rugby game I could get my hands on|analyze every video of the New Zealand AllBlacks I could find. I recalled playing hundreds of games over 15 years of my career. And the answer I gave that kid was, “practice, practice, practice”. He took that advice and became the best|my urging and soon became the greatest rugby player I have ever seen. From being a little kid,He ended up playing on the US Eagles national team, surpasing any of my personal achievements in rugby.
As I struggled my first couple weeks trading at Maverick Trading, I realized I was just like that kid. What I wanted was immediatesuccess without putting in the years of hard work to get there. Being in this business for over 10 years, I have seen this attitude so much as people think trading are the easy way to make a living. In fact, they tout it on infomercials, seminars and websites all around.

So, you announce to your family that you are going to quit your job, become a full time trader, monies begin to drop into your account and life will be wonderful. It all seems so easy, and the seminar people are doing it, so why can’t you. You are just as intelligent as the next guy.

People who think like this borders on the delusional. Just as one cannot wake up one day and announce that one, without any formal education training including the school of hard knocks is going to start a career as a heart surgeon, one does not become a proficient trader immediately. Get over yourself, because it is a fantasy.

I don’t care how many bells, whistles, indicators, seminars and books with which you surround yourself, you have to pay your dues. Trading is simple, but not easily mastered. Successful trading is a skill that takes effort, time, study and disciplinededication. In order to achieve and master these skills, one must progress on a path, which is intellectual, spiritual, and personal. As most traders will tell you, this is the most difficult journey ever taken. Start where you are, and realize it won’t come without work|understand that it is about the process, that it takes time and that the rewards execute the fundamentals with unconscious competence. That means they’ve practiced the moves so many times in the past that they can do them almost perfectly every time without a second thought. Television has blasted us with all the images of game winning shots that Michael Jordan made look almost effortless. However, we never see the 100 shots he took every single day or the early morning practices before anyone else was at the gym. Practice makes perfect.

Head Trader, Robb Reinhold
Maverick Trading