The Lemming Effect (Part 2)

Today I want to address two questions that come to mind about the Lemming Effect.

First, what established said trader as a sought-after authority? In fields like medicine, law, or education, regarded experts have diplomas, documented work experience, patents, sometimes high-profile clients, published manuscripts or books, etc. In finance it seems to be more about simple persuasion, which comes with a tailwind given the promise of making money. This is what underlies the Lemming Effect. People saw trades listed in a spreadsheet and never mind whether they were real, to the lemming brain that was enough to crown him “genius.”

Unfortunately in trading, strategies can work for a long period of time until they don’t and catastrophic loss is incurred. Traders get blinded to this by the greed inherent in making lots of money. This is precisely why I believe it is important we do our own work using a complete system development methodology.

The second question I wonder about is what are people hoping to gain by studying that trading log? Without taking a survey I really don’t know. I know it can’t help me and therefore I don’t look at it. This makes me think others are heading down the wrong path since they are rushing to look at it.

I briefly communicated with one member of the group about the Lemming Effect and he totally agreed. He did say something interesting in their defense. He would read a 400-page trading book with the expectation that 99.9% would be useless. If even one tidbit positively influences him in the future, though, then the read would be worthwhile.

That sounds like a huge investment of time for very little, if any, potential return. Is there no better way?