Can Anyone Learn to Trade? // Ep. 44

In This Episode

• The Turtle Experiment
• The people who walk on all fours
• The thing we both agree on

Is Trading Really Teachable?

There may be times when you're learning to trade that you might think that learning to trade is impossible. In this episode, we address the reality of if trading is a learnable skill and if we think everyone can learn to trade successfully.

Read the Transcript:

Hugh:    Hi, Walter. Where are you today?

Walter:    Yes, I'm coming to you live from the spaceship. No, I just thought it would be cool to switch it up. I actually didn't know this was possible. For those of you watching the video here on YouTube. Apparently, on Zoom you can change your background. So I am up with the times and I have now decided to go into outer space.

Hugh:    Alright, so today's question is: Do you think anyone can succeed at trading?

Walter:    Anyone can succeed at trading. I guess, I'd have to say, no. I want to say yes but I guess I have to say no because to me, it's kind of like the question: Can everybody walk? The answer unfortunately is no. Some people won't walk you know, some people have physical issues and they're born into bodies that don't want them to walk. So I'd have to say, no.

We know about the Turtle experiment which was basically the core of this issue. Which is, one guy, William Eckhardt said, “You know some people are either born with trading skills or they're not” and Richard Dennis said, “No, you can teach anyone”. Even then they filtered people out so they only took people that they thought would be good students and even then they did have at least one student that I'm aware of who didn't do well.

Hugh:     I think a few of them kind of blew out at some point.

Walter:    Did they? I was not aware of that. Now that doesn't mean that those people couldn't trade. It just means you know like I've blown out too a few times. Do you know what I mean? I think I want to say yes that if you stick with it long enough, if you do the right things, if you go through the right process you know you can do it. You can make it work.

However, I do believe that there are some people who are born with, actually I'll put in the show notes. I was fascinated by this. My son and I found on YouTube this group of people. I don't know if they're on an island or something. It was fascinating. What they call them like the missing link. So you know how they say that we evolved from like shrews. The shrew turned into like an ape you know or orangutan or whatever we end up. Well these people, they look like people. They actually have clothes. I don't know where they get their clothes from because they seem like they're totally isolated.

They walk on all fours. So they don't actually stand up and so all these scientists are like, “Oh my god! We found kind of like this missing link between when we were sort of ape-like or like you know monkey-like primate.” Primate-like and then human-like where we decided to stand up and these people and it's so weird. Like you see this grandma and she's like walking around, and they're walking around on all fours on the beach.

What do you say about those people? Are they genetically predisposed to be unable to walk on two legs? I guess so because their brain is set up and that's how they move. Their locomotion is walking on all four. So I would say that there are some people that have impulse issues.

Basically gambling slash addiction issues and they will not stick to the risk rules. They will not stick to the rules of the system and it'll be extremely difficult for them to actually adopt profitable trading habits.

So I would have to say, “No. Not everyone can.” My hope is that everyone can but my belief is you know if you really look at it truthfully there are some people that just, they won't buckle down and they won't follow the rules that will lead to profits. So what do you think? What do you say?

Hugh:    That is a tough one.

Walter:    Tricky. It is tricky.

Hugh:    I think if you take it with a caveat that the person has a normal functioning brain or normal cognitive abilities, whatever normal is, I believe that everybody can but not everybody has the desire nor the perseverance. Like you said some people have these demons like these addictions. Whatever they're working on and I think that if you can overcome those things then you can become a trader for sure but I think they really hold you back.

So ultimately, I think you can overcome everything. If you have enough you know, if you stick to it long enough, you have enough will; you really want this, I think most people can make it happen. But, not everyone can become a trader and nor should everybody you know want to become a trader because maybe you're better at basket weaving or you know something else.  So I think you should do whatever feels good to you.

Hugh:    Hey there! I hope you find this episode useful. I just want to let you know that Walter and I give away something valuable every month that helps traders improve their skills. You can enter to win by simply leaving an iTunes review and leaving a comment on our YouTube videos.

At the end of each month, we'll look at the comments and reviews from the month and we'll pick a winner at random. Each comment and each review counts for one entry during the month that it's pitted.

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Walter:    It's like a lot of things in life. You'll know like you know who your friends are; who the people are that you get along with and you know the people like you almost know immediately whether or not you'll want to see. Like if you meet someone at a party or something, you’ll be like you'll know. Like, “Oh, she's pretty cool.” Or, “He’s pretty cool. I wouldn't mind hanging out with him” or whatever and it's the same thing with trading.

After a while, you'll figure out like, “Okay, this just isn't me. Maybe I should go sell adult toys on Amazon” or whatever like, “Maybe this is not my path.” Do you know what I mean?

Hugh:    Yeah.

Walter:    Like, “This is not my way to do it.” What I found is that a lot of people who are attracted to trading, they kind of like the idea of the markets and they like the idea of trading and they get into it. There are some people who are attracted to trading just like they were attracted to selling stuff on Amazon. Or you know, just like they were attracted to flipping houses or selling Herbalife or whatever.

It's just kind of another vehicle and that's cool too but I feel like those people and I don't have any data to support this but I just have a sense that they're more likely to give up. They're not the type of person that would stick with it, that's just my intuition. I don't know if that's actually true. I don't know.

Hugh:    I think there's two sides to that. You could also say that they're just trying different things out and then they you know settle on the one that maybe works for them or whatever. I'm kind of with you too. I've seen more people jump from thing to thing to thing and then just finally give up and go to their job.

Walter:    Totally. I run into those people like they're like, “Oh, I'm going to be a blogger” you know and then you see them again like, “Oh, I'm going to do Amazon” or, “Oh, I'm going to do you know no-money-down-housing”. Or, “I'm going to rent out Airbnb's”. There's always these things you know and they're like, I'm going to do you know whatever. Whatever it is, “Oh, I am going to try Forex robots now.” “Now I'm going to you know, do options.” You're just like, “Okay, cool.”

You know they're trying it out. Maybe that's what's going on. They're trying to like you know I did that when I was younger. I was really interested in religions. I’m like, “I've only been exposed to a really limited amount like in terms of world religions”, the way I was growing up. So I was like when I went to University, I studied Religions. I got a minor degree in Religions because I was like, “Okay, what is Hinduism? What is Buddhism? What is Zoroastrianism? What is all this stuff?”

It was really cool to figure it out because I was in that stage and I think people get that way too. Society in a way kind of encourages us to not necessarily settle on an occupation and you know that was different I think for our grandparents. Where they were almost like born into a thing you know they kind of knew based on their family what their family did. What they were going to end up doing. Working on the farm like both my grandparents. They were born on a farm, working on a farm like that was their thing.

So yes, I think today we have a lot of flexibility in terms of finding what our occupation would be. They even tell you in college. I remember in college they said to my mom, son or daughter is probably not going to get a job with his or her degree you know. They also told her that it was going to take six years to graduate. Which I think is like setting up for you’ve got to keep paying. Which wasn't true. It took me two and a half years to get out but they said it was going to be six.

It's funny how they do that, kind of set the expectations. So I think in a lot of ways because there's so much information available to us, we get to try different things out and see; taste it and see if this is for me or this isn't and so that way it's pretty cool. I think it's cool that more and more people are trying trading.

From a selfish point of view we use those newbies like those are the people that we get our profits from. The newbies coming into the system who don't know what they're doing are the easy prey; that's how we can pull our profits out as retail traders from that group. That's where we're getting our money from and then they learn a lesson. You either learn your lesson and get better at this or you move on to the next thing.

Hugh:    It sounds a little harsh but like it's kind of like a fraternity or whatever. If you can overcome the initiation then you're in. Similar in most of any profession.

Walter:    Yeah, like sports. Think about sports. I was thinking about this. All the kids, the six-year-old kids that play soccer and then how many people are playing soccer at age 26? It just totally filters it out. It's like that in everything. You're absolutely right. Everything in life you know in the end the cream rises to the top and that's it. That's just the way it is

Hugh:    Yeah, so just find the place where you're the cream.

Walter    Exactly, that is the take home message. Find out where you're the cream and then go for it and then rise, rise, rise, rise. That's right.

Hugh:    Alright, cool. Thanks.

Walter    See you.

Hugh:    All the information in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not trading or investment advice.

SHOW NOTES:

The people who walk on all fours

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