One of the points that I made in my talk is that "You cannot achieve world class performance with world class isolation". In every performance field, from sports to the performing arts, greatness is achieved through mentoring and intensive practice. That practice has to be structured, and it needs to be accompanied by feedback that helps us identify and build upon our strengths and correct our mistakes. Even with that investment in human capital, it takes years to achieve world-class success. Seeing the traders I had known as relative newbies now succeeding as traders and mentors told me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, IT CAN BE DONE! With the right support and guidance, we can achieve world class performance. But only when we emerge from isolation and open ourselves to the guidance of those who have been there and done that.
And maybe the best takeaway? We learn great trading psychology when we learn to trade greatly. First we copy a mentor and then another mentor and then another and eventually we synthesize all of that into our own market understanding. That is how I learned how to do therapy: working with multiple, experienced supervisors and taking away "best practices" from each of them. Over the course of that synthesis, we develop insight, confidence, and consistent performance.
Seek many mentors. Copy what they do. Before long, you'll start putting it all together and become like the former developing traders at SMB who are now succeeding and mentoring others.
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