TRADING
TRADING A HIGH PERFORMANCE SPORT I N T H E C O L L E C T I V E M I N D , T RA D I N G A N D T RA D E R S A R E S Y N O N Y M O U S W I T H S P O R TS C A R S A N D L U X U RY T RAV E L , A LT H O U G H S O M E WO U L D AS S O C I AT E T H E M M O R E N E G AT I V E LY W I T H R U T H L E S S A N D L AW L E S S P I RAT E S . R E B E L L I O N I N V I T E S YO U TO D I S C OV E R T H E A D R E N A L I N - F U E L L E D WO R L D O F F I N A N C E W I T H I TS B R U TA L D E M A N D S , I TS R I G O R O U S A N D TA R G E T E D T RA I N I N G A N D I TS P R E C I S I O N J U D G E M E N TS T H AT M ATC H T H E C O M P L I C AT I O N S O F A F I N E WATC H – J U ST L I K E C O M P E T I N G AT T H E H I G H E ST L E V E LS O F A S P O R T. LO U I S - Y V E S D E LV I G O
W
HETHER A TRADER OR AN ATHLETE THE SAME QUALITIES ARE REQUIRED Trading covers an en- That is what enables you to make the to bring your A-game, extraordinary semble of techniques family, financial or physical sacrifices courage and a rationality that is often through which we buy needed to move up from amateur to in complete contradiction with your and sell shares, raw materials, index- professional in sport. But this passion passion. It took great skippers such es and more complex products such needs to be coupled with extremely as Francis Joyon for IDEC years to as futures or options. At first glance, rigorous training and methodology. reach their current level. And the same what could a trader have in common These are absolute pre-requisites and can be said for great traders like Jack with the skipper of a huge trimaran or a are just as common among traders as Schwager, Martin Schwartz and Linda race car driver? To start with; passion. they are among sports stars. A hunger Bradford Raschke. METHODOLOGY AND METICULOUS PREPARATION Just as a top racer will choose their trading outlook – whether they are in it “ride” – a rally car or Formula E – the for a few minutes to a few days or even trader chooses the class of share in weeks. which they will trade. And they will The typology of each choice is highly also choose their trading style: scalp- specific and the strategies to be deing (very small profits on a very large ployed absolutely have to be suited number of trades), momentum trading to those choices. But even before (capitalising on market volatility) swing drawing up their strategy, the trader trading (based on the fact that once has to have a global perspective of a trend is established, it continues the market, just as a Formula E driver until it goes into reverse) or position will reconnoitre a circuit before a race. trading (generally practiced by inves- Because the competition on the finantors). Just as the race car driver also cial markets will be every bit as fierce chooses their preferred track be it an as that in a top-flight sporting event. asphalt or dirt rally or a Formula E-type It is not only in motor racing that time circuit, so the trader will select their is measured down to hundredths of
REBELLION MAGAZINE 100
seconds; the same goes for currency markets for example (in ten thousandths of a dollar). Whatever the support you are using for trading, the financial markets can be bullish, bearish or in range. Depending on which, the strategy to adopt will be different. But, just as the right choice of tyre or adjusting the suspension can help a race car driver, the trader can help themselves by acquiring data, and a number of mathematical tools will aid the trader define their strategy and draw up a trading plan.