Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

IT’S NOT LUCK

Recently, I read a book used in an MBA course on leadership in business. In one study, the authors concluded that almost no difference existed between executives who rose to the top of their fields and those who dropped out along the way. These individual managers were equally intelligent, capable, productive, affable, committed, and ambitious. In some cases, regardless of the individual’s efforts, it seemed that luck determined who was rewarded and who was not. Even discounting luck, the researchers found a single trait that characterized the not-so-lucky executives: They were defensive.

What does it mean to be defensive? A defensive trader is one who finds it difficult to take direction, correction, advice, or constructive criticism. The individual may get upset and angry, but it is more than likely that he will simply explain and justify his behavior with rationalizations, excuses, and reasons. What he cannot do is say, “I am wrong and need to make a correction.”

For a trader, the problem with being defensive is that nothing can change if the present course is always defended, even though it is moving the trader in the wrong direction.