Swing Only At Strikes! Duh
Cliche (noun): a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.
The world is full of cliches and platitudes that hold very basic or flimsy truths. One of my favorites is the undeniable “you miss 100% of the swings or shots you don’t take.” Ordinarily, this is meant as a sports analogy, but the same can be said of investing. However, this is NOT helpful to professional athletes, investors or traders. If you swing at balls, your chances of success drop dramatically. If you take difficult shots while double teamed, you are doing yourself a disservice. If you trade every idea you hear, you are bound for failure. To be successful at any of these endeavors, I assert that one must identify strikes and swing at every single one of these pitches with an intensity depending on the circumstances. We need to embrace the process, swinging at good pitches whether they result in success or failure.
Are we done here? Not even close! Go ask a baseball player to only swing at strikes or a basketball player to only take open shots. Both will laugh at you. Of course, that is their plan. The human mind tries to avoid pain, blocks out mistakes and attempts to cope by finding alternative facts or explanations for failure. You might even need to show athletes film to force them to see the error of their ways. In trading and investing, do you go back and review your losses and categorize them as swinging at bad pitches, bad luck or the market’s fault? When you make or go on a run, does your confidence rise and you think you are seeing the ball well and only swinging at strikes? This article will present a process flaw or trap many of our readers likely fall into, including myself. For those in a current rut, this should prove eye opening and lead to improvement. For those on a terrific run of performance, this should help you keep your eyes wide open for process mistakes.
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