I am a Winner

My whole life, I have been involved in sports. Ice hockey, soccer, golf and tennis are the sports I loved to compete in. Playing hockey at a high level, I learned to win consistently. There were always teams in the league that would win consistently while others lost. When we played a team with a bad record, they would sometimes be ahead for a while but I never worried. It was almost like we could be down in a game, but we knew that we were going to win. This is because of attitude. Most of the time, no matter the score during much of the game, we would come back and win. The winning attitude almost always beats the losing attitude. Winning teams play with one thought, that is “to win.” Losing teams also play with one thought, “not to lose.” This equates to a lack of confidence and fear and is a recipe for consistent failure. Like many of you, I love the game of golf. I have a childhood friend who plays the game as well. While our skill levels are nearly equal, I almost always beat him. What happens is that as soon as he hits a bad shot, (and I mean a really bad shot) he cannot recover mentally. He allows this one shot to have such an impact on his game that the rest of the round is a disaster for him. Once in a while, I have a bad shot too; we all do. The difference is that I do not let one bad shot have anything to do with my next shot. I know that bad shots will happen sometimes, which means it is actually a part of winning the game. As soon as my friend hits a bad shot, he is finished, I win – game over.

I Love to Win, I Hate to Lose

After so much success in a sport growing up, you feel there is nothing in life that you cannot do. No matter the task, not succeeding is never an option or thought. You can imagine my shock when I entered the trading world and learned that you have to be a good loser in order to win. When I first heard it, I thought it had to be a joke...

There is no way I am going to lose. I hate losing – I hardly ever lose. It did not take long to realize that this lesson was 100% true. I had losses that did not sit well with me. I tried to eliminate them but as I did, I eliminated the winning trades, as well. I hated losing. Slowly, I figured out the secret to trading from experience and from the advice of a friend. It depends on your definition of “losing.” In my early trading days, I had the wrong definition of the word “loss.”

Perception is Everything

Think about all of the setbacks and losses you have had in other parts of your life – financial, relationships, job promotions, school. Haven’t they always made you stronger and led to something “better?” In my humble opinion, losing is a necessary part of winning. As our founder at Online Trading Academy, Eyal Shahar says, “Life is all about perception.” If I had a dollar for every time I have heard him say that, I would not have to trade. He is so right... The key is to categorize. If I perceive each trading loss as a loss or losing, it is not going to sit right with me because I cannot stand losing! However, if I put each trading loss in its proper place, which is in the “winning” category, suddenly a trading loss is a must for winning.


This is an excerpt from October 2009 issue of Trader's Journal.