{"id":40203,"date":"2015-03-14T12:21:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T16:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/?p=40203"},"modified":"2023-06-08T10:39:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T14:39:37","slug":"surround-yourself-with-positive-and-negative-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/surround-yourself-with-positive-and-negative-people","title":{"rendered":"Surround Yourself with Positive AND Negative People: Unleash the Power of Diverse Perspectives"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;People are like dirt. \u00a0They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.&#8221;~Plato<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I was on the phone with a developing retail trader (let&#8217;s call him Saratoga\u00a0Slayer)\u00a0who had impressive results in Year1. Why did\u00a0Saratoga Slayer\u00a0do so well in Year1 when most fail? \u00a0He wasn&#8217;t sure. \u00a0In fact\u00a0Saratoga Slayer\u00a0wasn&#8217;t even sure if he was doing so well since he was so green to the game (He was!). \u00a0But he shared a chat room with a High Performing Trade AND that trader &#8220;was the most positive person I have ever met.&#8221; \u00a0This got me thinking about the importance of a positive environment on trading performance.<\/p>\n<p>After some research and tapping into my own 18 year trading career the benefits of surrounding yourself with positive people are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>push you to perform better<\/li>\n<li>increase your passion about trading\/investing<\/li>\n<li>make you overall happier<\/li>\n<li>drains away your negative energy<\/li>\n<li>creates opportunity you might have missed in a negative state<\/li>\n<li>improves your self-esteem<\/li>\n<li>there is a strong correlation between positive people and success<\/li>\n<li>heightens motivation<\/li>\n<li>improves your physical health<\/li>\n<li>ability to be resilient from setbacks increases<\/li>\n<li>more easily able to see a challenge as an opportunity<\/li>\n<li>able to see challenges through until the end<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So surrounding yourself with positive traders like Saratoga Slayer has done\u00a0helps performance.\u00a0 But is surrounding yourself with only positive people best for you as a trader\/investor?\u00a0No it&#8217;s not. \u00a0And the why comes from the mouth and reasoning of the most positive person I know.<\/p>\n<p>Seth Freudberg is the most wonderfully positive person I know. \u00a0I just love being around him and\u00a0him sharing the most positive attribute about a trader or trade or teacher or student. Give him ten facts about a trading student and he gravitates and latches onto the most positive.\u00a0 And he harps about it almost endlessly.\u00a0\u00a0One of his former students who now trades for our firm has started a few companies as well. \u00a0Hearing this from Seth you would think the guy was Bill Gates. \u00a0His admiration for his student is infectious and energizing.<\/p>\n<p>But Seth recognized that being overly positive can be dangerous. \u00a0In a former world he credits his success to surrounding himself with doubters and men of caution to counterbalance his optimism. As traders we must do that as well. \u00a0This is why trading firms have risk managers. \u00a0This is why you as traders must have stop losses. \u00a0That&#8217;s great that you are certain that LL is going back to 50 but it&#8217;s 37 and heading lower and lower and lower and now it&#8217;s time for a doubter to help your optimistic conviction.<\/p>\n<p>If a trader has 400 AAPL short calls well past his stop loss having a group think that everything will turn out well is very dangerous. \u00a0This is not a healthy way to handle a position.<\/p>\n<p>If you are certain the markets are about to plummet (we saw a 60m options bet to the downside Friday by one player on the tape for example) it is not in your self-interest to surround yourself with only those who will tell you you are right. \u00a0A challenge to your thinking and outcome breeds the best decisions.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago a veteran and accomplished trader at our firm was convinced the markets were headed lower. Each day he would put on full risk with his market bias. \u00a0 He lost and lost and lost. \u00a0 And he lost some more. \u00a0He chided the firm for not giving him more risk as the collapse was inevitable in his mind. \u00a0We had to let him go. \u00a0We doubted.<\/p>\n<p>Further, as a trader some of my most important moments are when I say,&#8221;This trade is not gonna work out.&#8221; \u00a0Or banning a stock I don&#8217;t trade well (SNDK). \u00a0Or lightening up in a position that just doesn&#8217;t feel right. \u00a0Or getting totally flat when I sense I have all risk from this price. \u00a0Or passing on a trade because another trader on the desk disses the idea. \u00a0Tapping into my negative can be some of my best trade decisions.<\/p>\n<p>So while there are\u00a0benefits, numerous benefits to surrounding yourself with optimistic traders, there is also a real need to have traders\u00a0of doubt and caution to make sure you are making the best decisions.\u00a0 Some negativity around you can be very positive.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>*no relevant positions<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;People are like dirt. \u00a0They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.&#8221;~Plato I was on the phone with a developing retail trader (let&#8217;s call him Saratoga\u00a0Slayer)\u00a0who had impressive results in Year1. Why did\u00a0Saratoga Slayer\u00a0do so well in Year1 when most fail? \u00a0He wasn&#8217;t sure. &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/surround-yourself-with-positive-and-negative-people\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2834,757,2929,4332],"class_list":["post-40203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-comments-2","tag-negative","tag-people","tag-positive","tag-surround","no-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Surround Yourself with Positive AND Negative People: Unleash the Power of Diverse Perspectives | SMB Training<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smbtraining.com\/blog\/surround-yourself-with-positive-and-negative-people\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Surround Yourself with Positive AND Negative People: Unleash the Power of Diverse Perspectives | SMB Training\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;People are like dirt. \u00a0They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.&#8221;~Plato I was on the phone with a developing retail trader (let&#8217;s call him Saratoga\u00a0Slayer)\u00a0who had impressive results in Year1. Why did\u00a0Saratoga Slayer\u00a0do so well in Year1 when most fail? \u00a0He wasn&#8217;t sure. ... 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