State of Mind (Part 3)

I could definitely use a research team with whom to work. Aside from cash, do I have anything to offer them in return?

I could never pay someone to do research for me. I don’t feel I’m at the point where I can hire employees and even if I had some, I don’t know the payoff would justify the cost. Besides, it would be hard to pay someone to do backtesting for me. I might hire a statistical guru to help me analyze results but that is something different altogether.

In exchange for helping me with research, I could teach fundamentals of trading but never a guaranteed system or strategy. I don’t believe I have such a guaranteed trading system, for one. Also, as I have been discussing, I don’t think it makes sense to teach or sell someone a discretionary trading strategy since it will fail at some point if it hasn’t already. I would say the same thing about a systematic trading system because I believe those break too.

How little it seems I have to show for working so hard over the last eight years to master this craft!?

Probably more than anything else, I feel I know a lot about what I don’t know, which I believe is requisite for success. I hardly believe I am the only person who got into trading with belief in the hype of making 6% or more per month. I think aiming for returns like that would cause me to go bust pretty quick.

Maybe this is simply an affirmation of the old maxim “if it seems too good to be true then it probably is.” The slippery slope is how we define “too good.” That’s one place I might be able to help.