As my father once told me – you have a very important decision
to make in your life. You can decide to become a leader or just be
a follower like everyone else. This choice will determine the rest
of your life. My father was right and the same is so very true with investing
and trading. You can choose to be a follower or you can lead and
go your own way. My life and career reflect that I am a
tremendous believer in the importance of doing your own thing
concerning the markets.
There is a lot of hero worship by the financial media and among
investors and traders. As we do with our athletes, we want people
to inspire us, and who we can look up to. In terms of the financial
media, we also want to know what these guys, who seem to know
what they are doing, are thinking and trading so we can play
along and ride their coattails to success. While we can all learn
something from those who have been successful in the markets,
ultimately the path toward greater success in the markets has
nothing to do with hero worship. Just the exact opposite is true. At
the end of the day, it will always require us to be brave and go out
and do our own thing.
There are NO exceptions to that rule. You may think of the great
Warren Buffett, David Tepper, Tom DeMark, Peter Lynch, Carl
Icahn, Paul Tudor Jones, James Grant, David Einhorn, William
Ackman, and so on. I don’t care about their backgrounds, what
they’ve done in the past, how hot a hand they’ve had or how consistent their track record has been in the past. At some point, all of these folks will get it wrong just like you and me. And, more
importantly, none of their strategies are going to match our
personalities, objectives and skill sets. We are all different and
there are many ways to win in the markets - the important thing is
to develop your own best method and at the same time resist the
urge to use heroes as short-cuts or substitutes for doing our own
work. As my father also liked to say,
everyone in this world puts their
pants on the same way in the
morning. That was his unique way of
reminding me that no matter how
rich or successful another person
has been, they are just like all of us
when it comes right down to it. In
that same regard, these heroes of
the market suffer from the same
insecure, emotional, ego-driven
trading and investing as the rest of
us. The more you watch and track
them, you will find this to be true.
By serving as a mentor to a number of professional money
managers as well as knowing others who have as well, I can tell
you that the only difference between these heroes and the rest of
us is that they are just better at hiding their insecurities because
their job requires it. No one will give you money to invest unless
you show both strong conviction and confidence to others. These
heroes all do this well because their livelihood depends upon it.
But if you sat down with them, you would find that is more of a
dog and pony show than reality. Anyone who has been involved
in the markets has been humbled and respects the fact that this is
not an easy game no matter how successful we have already been or how much experience we have. We are all wrong a lot of
the time. The key to success is in risk management more than
anything else. But, risk management doesn’t excite people or
bring in the big money – only bold predictions and confidence do,
especially if they have been right at some point in the past about
something.
Unfortunately, we are all naturally drawn to people who have
been successful, who hold very strong and bold convictions in the
market, and who display confidence that all of us wish we had.
There’s something about the nature of markets and uncertainty
that we all want to believe that others have figured it out better
than we have. When the heat is on and we are feeling scared or
threatened and our money is at risk, it is a natural instinct to “run
home to Momma” and many investors and traders do that through
hero worship. Because they don’t have enough confidence, time,
or energy to do their own thing, they seek help by following
others. In my view, that’s not the right path to take and it will only
delay your progress if not hinder it completely. No one else will
have your best interest as top and only priority.
If there is any lesson you can learn from these so-called heroes it
is this. Each and every one of these folks succeeded in the
markets because they decided to go their own way and do their
own thing. They follow no one and we shouldn’t either.
Through lots of hard work, experience and perseverance at some
point each hero figured out an approach that worked best for
them and that best matched their time frame and objectives. They
didn’t follow others - they carved their own path instead, and that
is why each of them is great in their own respective way. After
learning the basics from their own mentors and peers for a
number of years, they decided to take their own path, investing
and trading in their own way. That is the reason why they have
been successful. In this life, I must tell you that you will never be another David
Tepper, Warren Buffett, or other hero you may respect. Nor do
you really want to be. Instead, your goal is to find your own way
that best fits you. For this reason, I recommend that you eliminate
all hero worship from your process. That will save you a great
deal of time and money on your path to greater success. It will
also force you to do something that all of us must do: focus on
developing your own system that best matches your objectives,
personality and skill sets.
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