Our need to be right.

By John Bannan | June 3, 2021

Ayn Rand (1905 – 1982) a Russian-American novelist and philosopher wrote:

“An animal cannot act against his instinct nor suspend it. He enjoys a safety man can never have—the invariable operation of his means of survival…A flea does not have the responsibility of remaining a flea. It can be nothing else…Man must remain man through his own choice. Nature guarantees him nothing, not even his own nature. Such is the penalty and the honor of being a rational creature….The first, most earnest, most crucial question man asks of himself is: Am I right? An animal cannot conceive of such a question. Man cannot escape it. In one form or another, it rings through his whole life. It sets the leitmotif of his existence—the style of his soul.”

So when you pull the trigger on your trades, how right do you feel you need to be?

The answer is: It’s not important.

It’s not important because it’s about following a process, a set of rules that over time will make sure you come out on top, we know from our history that we will be right more times than we are wrong, but that also means we will be wrong from time to time, such is the nature of the beast. Unfortunately, it’s just human nature to derive happiness from being right, a bit like when you where a child and you just mastered a new skill, the feeling of accomplishment because you were right.

Well, when it comes to trading, it’s not about being right, it’s about money management, rules and probability….sounds boring right? Well it should be. It’s the only way you will be able to handle putting larger amounts of money on each trade as your account grows.

And down the line a few months from now, just think how right you will feel then, even if you are wrong from time to time. That’s trading, that’s the road to success.