The Ant's View
It so happens that time after time I move farther and farther away from the direct subject of the magazine. And now I am going to write about ants and sales managers. In justification: in my opinion, highly specialized magazines/portals are becoming a thing of the past, giving way to thematic forums, blogs and social networks. Yes, neural networks and trading programs are interesting, but in terms of self-study, but there is no enthusiasm to tell about some foresight theory for the thousandth time. Maybe in the not so distant future professional articles will not exist at all and will be replaced with some collective texts prototyped today by articles from Wikipedia. But the articles of authorship, articles from the heart, will remain.
That's all a fairy tale, but now there will be a fairy tale. In my article "Crabs, Feathers and Money" (issue #51 of ForTrader.org) I already touched upon the interconnection of everything and everything. It is easy to perceive this as a funny metaphysical sketch, but the more you look at the surrounding reality, the more connections are found between completely different, at first glance, phenomena.
At the beginning of the 21st century, I got a job as a salesman in a wallpaper store. The store was (at the time it opened) the exclusive distributor of a German company. And the director was rightly overpriced. I remember his words: "I want to create an image of a wallpaper boutique! A year went by. Wallpapers of this brand appeared at construction markets and in other stores. And in the range with other brands. It was logical to refuse to create a "boutique" and lower prices. I did not. I got greedy. I had not dared to lose my status (a false and contrived one!). As a result, the store closed.
Then I had to work in one of the Moscow banks. The boys-girls in the sales department lived next door, and we often talked to each other. Until the middle of 2008, their life was beautiful and amazing. They did nothing, and their salaries were higher than those of the workaholics in accounting and client services. Before the recession, people were buying everything. Needed, not needed. They just spent money believing in a bright future. It was easy for them to sell anything.
Our "salespeople" easily exceeded the plan and told me about mysterious methods of working with clients. Later, I heard descriptions of these methods from one training manager (now they seem to be called a rare idiotic in Russian-sounding word - coacher), then from another ... And gradually realized that someone translated one American book of the 80's, and this book is so and swarms from one training to another. It is clear that the effectiveness of all these trainings is zero.
At the same time, no one saw (and does not see) the main problem. If a person is engaged only in sales, then he has a completely inadequate view of the market: "So what if there is a crisis? I need to sell! How is it that I don't need it anymore? I have half of my warehouse full!" Add to this petrified of antiquity approaches and methods and we get a sad picture: the existence of "professional salesmen" (quotes are not accidental!) generates an excessive desire to sell without regard to external factors. People stupidly repeat a set of actions, but do not want to change anything!
As fast as changes in the economy are, they are much slower than changes in the foreign exchange market (which is understandable). Those who are used to reacting to changes every second can easily notice the coming changes where they will occur in a month or even a year. Let me loosely call it "the ant effect" (I'm not claiming to be the first one). This little worker's eyesight is arranged in such a way that he sees the world like a slow motion movie. If for us the car moves fast, for him it crawls like a snail in the literal sense of the word.
Flexibility of mind, willingness to constantly learn new things - This is the key to success in the market. Constant evaluation and search for factors influencing the result of the game - that is, in principle, the only thing a trader can do. When some people hear about a successful trading strategy, they imagine some monolithic algorithm, which once found will ensure a trader a comfortable life. But no! Trading strategy - is a set of modules with different expiration dates.
I will summarize the above observations. Are you sure you haven't stopped developing and learning? Don't cite age or busyness. Reality doesn't care about your excuses. Either fight or die. Anyone who believes in the abolition of natural selection (whether in nature or the financial market) is already eaten. Third, we sell and buy, after all. And if you don't sell or buy well, maybe you need to change something about yourself.