It’s Good to be the King….
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 Your Mental Game by TraderCiscoSome of those that know me know that I am a huge blues fan. I’ve visited Memphis a couple of times, I’ve been to Buddy’s Guys joint in Chicago, and I happen to live in St. Louis which has deep roots in blues music too. In the early 90′s I watched a video produced by U2 that was released as a concert movie and included a number of songs with various artist, and the one that stuck with me was a song they wrote specifically for BB King. I still remember what BB said in that movie 20 years later about his guitar playing. Click on Link…. BB King and U2
He said “I’m no good with chords, so you’ll have to get someone else to play them. I’m horrible with chords.” (In the attached video time slot 1:20 to 1:35) I never forgot that because to me there are few that can ‘speak’ to me with a guitar like BB. This man is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame and he is horrible with chords… I was always amazed at that, and yet the other day I came to realize the tremendous power those two sentences have to me regarding trading.
Here is a man that is world renowned for his skill, art, style, passion, and yet something that would seem to be so basic as chord playing on a guitar, he isn’t any good at it. I could only wish I was such a horrible guitar player…. It begs a few questions tho. Did it stop him? Did it keep him from making unbelievable music? Did he say I will never make it because I am horrible at playing chords? Funny thought now but I would guess there were a few days that he did have doubts, but he persevered and I for one am so glad he did.
So what about my trading? How does BB King being “horrible at chords” help me and by extension you? Well quite simply, we need to find what we are good at and don’t worry about what some other trader seems to excel at. What works for YOU? I think that all of us want to develop as well rounded traders, and when we start out we look at the whole spectrum of trading setups. Should I scalp, should I swing trade, day trade? Should I trade strictly price action, or maybe Bollinger Bands, Stochastics, Consolidation Breaks? Should I trade the 4 hr compression or maybe the 5 min? Straight technical’s or do I weave in some fundamentals. The list is truly endless, I’m sure I’ve missed the style or set up you use.
Learning from others is highly important, I will go so far as say critical to your success. However, I do think in the end we need to figure out what we are good at and stick to the formula for our success. Our success not someone elses. So what if you can’t trade a trendwall break to save your account. So what if ‘naked’ price action trading scares you to death. So what if you can’t imagine in your wildest dreams staying in a trade overnight much less over the weekend or weeks. What matters is really only one thing. You trade what you love and you make money doing it. I would imagine that BB King loves the sound of his own music, and your style should be no different, it should fit you.
I would love to hear your comments, let me know if this blog and what BB said has any effect on you. Thanks for your time, and I will leave you with one more video of BB King, the man horrible at chords and wonderful at moving me. The Thrill is Gone \’91
All the Best,
TraderCisco
www.euodootrading.com