Trader Networking, Trading Success? (Part 2)

Part 1 discussed frustration over spotty e-mails when trying to network with other traders. Should consistent, prompt e-mail replies be a prerequisite for trading group candidates, and does effective networking bode well for trader success?

I honestly don’t know how often people check e-mail these days so I did a quick internet search. Reliable statistics are hard to find, but here are some potential answers:

• 40% of people surveyed thought they checked e-mail 6-20 times per day
• 2009 study: 56.4% of people check their e-mail between 0-5 times per day
• About 15 times per day
• 2021 study: 81% check as little as once per day up to continuously (real-time)

How often e-mail should be checked is also unclear. I have seen so-called “experts” recommend:

• Never in the morning
• Every 24 hours
• Five times or less spread throughout the workday
• Three times per day to limit stress

Any of these would be satisfactory for my purposes. I don’t even need a response the same day. Getting a response within 2-3 days is more than sufficient for the purposes of planning a group meeting a couple weeks out in time.

These cursory findings also confirm my frustration over spotty replies. If most people check e-mail so often then why do my leads seem so disconnected? The caveats listed in Part 1 still apply, of course: accidental oversight could be involved.

Switching gears a bit, I think it safe to say that not too many people have substantial success trading the markets. As discussed in the sixth paragraph here, I have had very little success finding other full-time traders. 90% is the oft-quoted failure rate, which I wrote about in this blog mini-series. I also wrote about it here many years ago, and here I discussed one actual study that suggests the failure rate to be even higher.

I had a challenging time organizing this group, which managed to survive for a couple years. We had decent participation across 7-10 members. 3-4 members presented at least the occasional trade while two of us presented frequently. Only one of us (me) was trading full-time.

I have seen many trading meetups struggle to find consistent attendance and subsequently shut down. The AA District Library once refused to advertise an investing program because historically, they found such content to be in low demand.

I wonder about a possible relationship between consistent group attendance and trader success. Might retail traders benefit by coming together to discuss and develop strategy? Might organized trading teams offer accountability benefits? In my humble opinion, AB-SO-LUTE-LY! For various psychological reasons, getting ahead in trading by working alone is very, very difficult.

I would certainly guess those who work together in groups have more success than those who trade on their own. I have discussed benefits of trading groups in the second-to-last paragraph here, the second paragraph here, and here.

One person who responded to my networking e-mail said:

     > I’ve been trading for years, more purchase of securities. But started
     > with options about 1 year ago, it’s not easy. Everything I seem to select
     > goes the opposite direction 😫… I try to do it every day. lol, well
     > at least look at it to select something.

Do I think she could be taught to approach this in a more disciplined, systematic way? Yes! Does she have the necessary commitment to learn, practice, and develop? I would have to know her better to answer that.

If you believe that trading groups are correlated with greater success and if trader networking can lead to the creation of trading groups, then trader networking can definitely be correlated with trading success.