The Only Question That Matters
By Joel Pozen
Success is complicated, isn’t it? I mean, what is success anyway? How do you measure it? You certainly can’t determine if you’re successful if you have no definition or means of quantifying it. Ugh, a few short sentences in and I’ve already made my own head hurt.
You could talk yourself in circles and wax philosophical all day long on this topic, but never get anywhere. Everyone has an opinion and none of them are right for anyone but themselves.
In the investment world, however, we don’t have to worry about that. It’s not complicated at all. It’s actually ridiculously, drop-dead simple.
We like simple.
It seems all too common for people to over-complicate just about everything. Complication often shows a lack of understanding and can easily lead to frustration. Frustration then leads to people beating themselves up mentally and emotionally, and giving up. We don’t want that. We want you to take control, find all the success you want, and have your money flourish in the market of your choice.
So what is our measuring stick for success when trading or investing? It’s a question, and an easy one to answer. It is the only question that matters.
Did… You… Make… Money… ?
That’s it.
Futures, FOREX, stocks, bonds – doesn’t matter. Dollars, Pounds, Yen, Euro – doesn’t matter. Day trading, collecting dividends – doesn’t matter. If you got more money out than you put in, even if it’s just a dollar, then that’s success. Great! Be happy with that. Your money did work for you, not the other way around, and that is amazing. Truly.
In the investment world, making money is all that matters.
Does that mean you toss your money into any old investment vehicle you can find, hope you get lucky, then call yourself successful if you do? Certainly not! Hope is not, and never will be, an investment strategy.
Educate yourself, practice, and get better as you gain experience. Trading and investing are learned skills, and require proper nurturing like any other skills. Our simplistic philosophy is not an excuse for ignorance. Quite the opposite, in fact.
The point is just to keep you grounded. So many people get in too deep, too quickly and lose focus. They develop unnecessarily complex ideas of what constitutes success in the market, subconsciously knowing that they can’t get there. They sabotage themselves before they even get started, and accomplish nothing.
Don’t do that to yourself. You’ll lose some money in the market, investments will pass you by. It happens to everyone. EVERYONE. Trust me, no one gets in on every trade or makes money 100% of the time. Like professionals, however, you’ll need to recognize when an opportunity is set up… and actually execute. You’ll need to learn how to limit losses while maximizing gains. All of that will come. Again, it just takes proper education and practice.
Start small. Keep it simple. Gain confidence that you can make money, any money. Eventually, you’ll feel comfortable putting more money to work and you’ll be making bigger gains.
Look at the last week or last month. Look at your last 10 trades. Overall, as a whole, did you make money? Excellent, now do it again.
Now you’ll have all the success you can wrap your head around.
To Your Prosperity!
