Every individual involved in stock and futures trading is, in essence, guided by their subconscious in every action they take. Therefore, I've always emphasized in my articles that a person's trading system inherently carries their own personality traits. For instance, when I first started trading, I couldn't stand waiting after spotting an "opportunity" — I had to place an order immediately. Even after I began quantitative trading, I would enter a trade the moment a certain peak was breached; I couldn't tolerate waiting for a "confirmed" breakout. All of this was because my nature craved extreme efficiency and rejected anything that lowered it. Simply put, it was because I was inherently impatient and impulsive, quick and decisive.
From this, it is evident that every trader's actions are indeed driven by their subconscious and include personal traits.
However, the phrase I frequently mentioned in my articles has a second part: A person's trading system is determined by their personality traits and psychological journey.
During my initial transition from discretionary to quantitative trading, the strategies I chose fully reflected my subconscious. I would break into the market, buy at the limit-up price, sell at the limit-down price, add positions when there were floating profits, with no limit on the amount, striving for the highest efficiency and the utmost explosive power. This mirrored how I defined myself internally at the time: unbound by restrictions, full of passion, and forging ahead fearlessly.
However, the speculative market never cares about how you define yourself. Since my strategy involved aggressive position-adding, it was obvious that most of my trades would end with a stop-loss. High-frequency position-adding meant sacrificing small trend profits in exchange for significant bursts in extremely smooth trends. Consequently, the success rate of this strategy was around 25%. Then I started automating it, and the strategy continuously tried and failed, adding positions then stopping out. At its worst, it stopped out over 50 consecutive times, yet I steadfastly awaited the emergence of an extremely smooth trend. But my strategy was repeatedly stopped out, and my curve repeatedly peaked and then dipped. The market exhibited many trends, but due to my high demands on trend patterns, it was impossible to achieve significant profits. This strategy ran for a year and a half, and the final return was 5%.
Clearly, this was unsatisfactory for both me and my fund provider. Faced with the pressure of trading prospects and life, I began to reflect. Although this strategy matched my personality traits perfectly, so what?
In trading, the so-called personality is utterly worthless under the veil of interests.
At this point, I realized that my pursuit was too extreme. It may appear, but I don't know when it will appear. Since I couldn't afford the cost of waiting, I needed to change. I eliminated the position-adding logic, began to seek balance between portfolio positions, abandoned the pursuit of extremely smooth trends, and started embracing most normal trends. This meant giving up the unparalleled explosiveness in smooth trends and starting to pursue steady curve growth. All these changes began to diverge from my personality traits. I was forced to become calm, not sharp anymore. Economist Xue Zhaofeng said that when the cost of "discrimination" is too high, the more one pays to accommodate their preferences, the more they will actively reduce "discrimination" and abandon their preferences. Thus, the psychological journey in trading will also cause us to change. So-called preferences are feeble in the face of the cost to be paid.
When my strategy became calmer, my funds began to grow steadily, my trading experience continued to accumulate, and my understanding of trading started to change. I discovered my subconscious obsession with efficiency, my impatient nature, and that my strategy chose certain methods because of my subconscious drive.
Do you remember the quote from psychologist Jung at the beginning of this article? "Your subconscious guides your life, and you call it fate." Actually, this is just the first part of the quote. Jung also said, "When your subconscious is made conscious, your fate is rewritten."
When I realized that even though my strategy matched me, it didn't bring any additional advantages to my trading; when I realized that breaking out and entering a trade was no different than waiting for a confirmed break; and when I realized that my once-preferred strategy required far higher demands on internet speed, monitoring, equipment, and slippage than the confirmed signal entry I loathed;
I cast my preferences aside and completely surrendered to interests. Thus, my once-favored strategy, which matched me perfectly, was shelved in my strategy pool. The strategies I once discriminated against due to personal preferences began to shine and bloom. I had come to understand that there is no "best," no "most fitting." As long as it can bring profit, ensure better survival, it is the best strategy, the most suitable for my trading. Most of our unique marks in trading will gradually fade with time and cognition. Because the best strategy is not the most fitting but the most correct one. A person's strategy choice stems from their highest level of trading understanding, from how they define correctness. Why do many experts employ multi-strategy, multi-system approaches? Because they know there is no invincible strategy, no strategy that best fits one’s personality, only the correct strategy, only the most suitable for trading. Polishing off the rough edges is a course every trader must take, and embracing correctness is an expert's compass. Every professional trader should understand that when trading becomes a profession rather than a hobby, it will necessarily prevent us from acting solely on our whims. Hence, the difference between the elite and the ordinary might be that ordinary traders act on their preferences, while elite traders embrace correctness unwaveringly.
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