Choosing the easy options is choosing a hard life, and choosing the hard options is choosing an easy life.
Mark Manson in his book The Subtle Art
When we look at the concept of success, we see that everyone who spoke about it summarized it as a mixture of beliefs. We see that those who knew the path to success were committed, and we see that those who interpreted success as an individual decision, and we see a lot and a lot. The period in which success was studied the most as a concept and a reason was the beginning of 1995 in the United States, and here was the beginning of what is called self-development. In those years, books became famous under the heading of human development (noting that academically, it is not classified within the science of human development). In early 2007, the number of books that spoke about the concept of success, self-motivation, the power of the subconscious mind, and distinction reached no less than one million books, of which no less than 500,000 books achieved fame.
All that distinguished these books and made them top the sales list is that they addressed desire, not reason. Everyone desires success, distinction, fame and wealth, and this is exactly what these types of books worked on, as they marketed the desire that any individual is looking for as easy to achieve, and the entire subject requires only an overwhelming desire and positive thinking.
Marketing can obscure the truth and lead us to ask questions.
"Marketing to emotion, makes the product sacred and loses the true facts"
Philip Kotler
What made us mention these types of books is the marketing policy used by these books (Dialogue with Desire), which is completely similar to the same way that trading was marketed, as being easy to reach and available to everyone. This makes us fall into the same trap and makes us repeat the question that was previously asked to psychologists after development books became widespread, which is: Is success difficult or easy and why? We can apply this to trading as follows:
Is trading hard or are we not learning well?
"Whoever wants to succeed must rethink everything, this is the world's mentality."
Adam Jerant
Ibn Khaldun, in his definition of the concept of difficult and easy, says that difficulty is the state in which we need more time and experience to pass a certain stage, and this is something that not everyone possesses, which makes passing the stage the preserve of some and which forces us to rethink the concept of difficult and easy again in the event that we have the time and experience but are unable to complete the task.
For example, a beginner in driving finds the maneuver difficult, if not impossible, knowing that the difference between him and the professional is time and experience. But what is the solution if time passes and he is unable to gain experience!?
Here Ibn Khaldun says that we have to rethink the concepts again and see what hindered the acquisition of experience in the presence of time. It could be fear, or not knowing the secrets of leadership, for example.
In the same way, we apply the subject to trading. There are many who entered the field and stayed for more than a year, but eventually retired, although there are people who were able, in one way or another, to take the field as a profession, and there are those who excelled in this field, so what is the reason?
Reasons why you are not getting experience
"Don't judge immediately, listen and then think again."
You are a jerk
Based on Ibn Khaldun’s concept that if we have time but do not have experience, I present to you the summary of years of research that suggests to you the two most important reasons that prevent you from having experience in this field.
First: Superficiality in searching for information
“Having a little knowledge is much more dangerous than not knowing, for it gives us the illusion that we know the depth of something.”
Niles Bor
The excessive fluidity of information, its proximity and the ease of obtaining the beginning of information, have made contemporary man superficial, if not extremely superficial, in his information.
Previously, if a person wanted to obtain information (the subject was done vertically), he would go to a science lecturer such as a university or to an expert, and he would start with the information and delve into it, starting from the principles of science, reaching the deepest and most complex points. Here we say that science was transmitted orally, that is, through speech, lectures, and academic transcendence of stages. Today, the subject is done in a way that a group of university professors describe as if it is not systematic, it is ridiculous and useless, as the information is obtained horizontally, which is that you obtain a large amount of information but without delving into the depth of this information, which makes the person who obtains the information lack the orality and the mechanism of thinking and scientific logic that requires him to know whether this information is correct or not. This is what makes us face a large group that possesses a lot of information, but this information is superficial and its bearer lacks the academic thinking mechanism that makes him link between this information.
This makes us deal with an environment that requires you to know the economy and its basics, to know politics and its impact, to know how to interpret prices according to an economic law and not a superficial method. We may repeatedly try to interpret the markets with just an indicator and we do not know whether this indicator is useful for the market or not, or we try to rely on a false reality.
It took Warren Buffett years to understand the principles of investing, Jesse Livermore spent decades of research, study and observation in the market, William Delbert Gann spent twenty years studying time cycles in economics to apply them to the financial markets so he could build a base, and Tom Williams spent years studying the depths of economics and surrounded himself with the elite of the greatest doctors of economics and statistics just to summarize the state of the market.
But today, with the fluidity of information and the ease of obtaining it, and marketing that pushes you to hurry, you think that the large amount of superficial information is enough to explain the market, knowing that the market contains an elite of some of the greatest geniuses in this universe. Look for those who accept employment in Wall Street companies in Manhattan, which contains stock exchange and trading companies. They are doctors of economics, statistics, psychologists, financial engineers who graduated from universities that are almost impossible to reach. Do you think that it is possible to compete with these with superficial information, with an indicator?
Second: There are no restrictions in the trading environment.
Douglas in his book The Disciplined Trader explains that the trading environment is more attractive to the human mind than we imagine for two reasons:
1. There is no supervision in trading, meaning no one holds you accountable for when you start working and no one holds you accountable for when you finish except you. Practically, nothing starts until you decide when to open the deal and nothing ends until you decide when to close the deal.
2. Marketing according to the principle of (dialogue with desire), which markets the world of investment as easy and all it takes is a few simple principles.
The combination of the two previous reasons makes the field market a rosy dream world, and unfortunately it is the reason for some traders’ love addiction. These reasons are motives that any individual loves and any individual desires in his own work environment (no supervision, and an environment that dialogues with dreams and wishes), so the trader remains in a vicious cycle of searching for a simple concept that explains a complex market, and then the subject fails.
Financial Advisor's Opinion
In conclusion, dear reader, the concept of difficult is simply that the field requires more time and greater knowledge in the correct way. Therefore, if we want to answer this question, we can say that the field is easy if you study it correctly based on scientific foundations and through books and references, and difficult if you underestimate the field. Therefore, always remember not to underestimate the field so that the field does not underestimate you. I know that the obstacle to achieving great profit is that we do not want to perform a great effort, and my article never pushes you to see the field in a pessimistic way. All I want you with a sincere heart to believe in striving in the field.