Imagine a world that was perfect. Variance did not exist. There were no approximations and risk was nowhere to be found. Such a world would not present any opportunities and would have no enterprise. Such a world would be boring, unchallenging, and would offer no incentives. Such a world would be devoid of humans, and only be inhabited by artificially intelligent robots that appear to be humans.

Fortunately, we live in an imperfect world, that makes us feel perfectly human. It offers opportunities, incentives, and enterprise. It was by design, a world created where uncertainty can never be eliminated. Because, if it was possible to eliminate uncertainties it would be a world devoid of energy and life.

While uncertainties are transcendent, and risk cannot be eliminated, you still have choice. Active or passive, and you can switch back and forth if you wish. You have the ability to choose styles, instruments, and levels of exposure, all the while believing you might be better off handling one type of risk over the other. But returns originate out of risk and not the other way around; and where there is the chance of any returns, there will always be risk

Variance is the spice of life. A 'perfect' world would be the most horrible thing imaginable. Thus, no need for theodicies. Quite the opposite.

@Japhro, you are not the first person I've seen mention trading becoming boring once they gained some level of success. Could you explain why this is from your perspective? Thanks!

Exactly, just like the turtle traders said (his name is escaping me right now). I could tell people when to buy and sell, and they'd still screw it up.


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I can be forgiven because I’m a newbie. Holy grails are just not in my radar. Establishing and implementing good trading habits as well as over overcoming and defeating negative impulses are currently my goal. But I appreciate reading every post. Quite interesting. Thank you.

I would argue that even if you gave your ideas to your family and very close friends in perfect detail, they would not be able to execute the entries as you do, because the market is subjective and each individual would have a different mental/psychological/emotional disposition as well (for better or worse).

I think that anything suspected to be a potential grail only has potential for grail-greatness until the next trade which would be just another chance for it to fail. :-)

I have had family members ask how to trade and just mentioned I didn't really want too as I would feel guilty if they dumped an account like I did starting out . I have spent years doing this and far from being great at it . I am retired and do it as a hobby and love it . I manage to keep my head above water and that keeps me going .

And I bet those family members and friends think that you are "keeping secrets" or simply "jealous" of them for not sharing how to make money quickly in markets.

For some weird reasons in recent times I've seen influx of new traders around me and they all think the exact same thing I mentioned above when I dare deny them. I know what trading took from me, and if offered a choice to redo I would probably choose little smartly.

The most ironic and hilarious thing in here is often that I make abundantly clear that I'm not making lot of money, in fact barely staying up float, nothing in my lifestyle indicates otherwise, these people also believe me on that but for some weird reasons would still think that I'm hiding from them way to make quick money in markets. And to make matters worse, they think that it will work our better for them because I'm not as smart as them (Although they don't say it on face but clearly thinking about it)

/losing track with the original topic here, but I had to say it. My last post on this thread I promise

You say that....But maybe, just maybe ....that's your recipe for a holy grail and you are sharing......Thank you.
L