Successful Traders Have a Balanced Life by Steve Ward

Balance v Immersion

"Trading is 24/7 for the first two years at least – and then you can get some balance"
- Lex Van Dam, Hedge Fund Manager

Trading is one of those activities/professions that is consuming and can become life rather than be a part of life. As a full time occupation it is more than a job. As a hobby or part-time occupation it is more than a job! Traders tend to trade the markets all day and then many spend time socialising with other traders and talking about the markets, before going to bed and dreaming about the markets!  Does that sound familiar?

Achieving Balance - Life Outside Of Trading

“If trading is your life, it is a torturous kind of excitement. But if you are keeping your life in balance, then it is fun. All successful traders that I have seen that lasted in the business sooner or later got to that point. They have a balanced life; they have fun outside of trading. You can’t sustain it if you don’t have some other focus. Eventually, you wind up overtrading or getting excessively disturbed about temporary failures.”
- Michael Marcus, in Market Wizards
 
Is there life outside of trading for you?

What is that life?

How do you spend your time outside of trading?

What role do you play apart from being a trader? Parent, friend, athlete, artist?

Trading is a fantastic career. It is not only challenging, interesting and enjoyable but it can also offer the opportunity to live a fantastic lifestyle. However, it is also demanding in terms of time and energy. Balance and diversity can alleviate the incredible and real pressure and stress of trading for a living.

Getting a balance between trading and life is a very individual one and there is no real definitive answer here. I know of one trader who is totally committed and focussed on his trading and trading is a large component of his life. He spends some time with friends and and likes to keep fit, but his main life focus is achieving his trading goals and he is willing to prioritise his life accordingly. Other traders I know have families and hobbies/pastimes that take up life outside of trading, that present other challenges and perspectives and create a greater balance. I think it is important to note that a traders priorities and focus will likely change over time as the person moves through life, and aspects that were once important may become less so as priorities and values change and evolve over time. For instance in the early stages of trading ‘throwing yourself ‘ into the markets is desirable to get as much exposure and experience as possible. Immersion in the markets is the only way to learn the markets. To learn to play golf well you have to ultimately hit a lot of golf balls! However over time as the trader gains great competence and experience taking more breaks may be helpful, and as life change events such as marriages and births get added into the equation then the traders priorities are likely to shift.

If trading is the most important thing in your life and is your sole focus then your biggest challenge is that when trading is going well life is great, but when trading is not going well then life is not great. That is – that trading and life are positively correlated and that your life happiness is largely dictated by your trading results. This is not entirely healthy. When you have interests outside of work it means that all your happiness eggs are not in one basket and that when times are tough in trading you can be getting your needed doses of happiness and positive energy from other areas.

So although there is no one solution for any individual because of where each individual trader is in their development and also in where they are at in life, I do feel that from my experience traders who have outside interests have generally benefited from that in a positive way.
 
Practical Strategy: 
 
Having a balanced lifestyle does have many benefits for traders.
 
How do you currently achieve that balance?
 
Are there ways in which you could achieve greater balance?
 
What do you enjoy doing that you could do more of?

Untl next time...

Steve Ward
Trader Performance Coach
Trade With Precision

(Extract taken from Steve Wards new book - High Performance Trading - released 30th November with Harriman House).

See Steve Ward speak live at the Trading Symposium www.tradingsymposium.com on September 12th and  have the opportunity to pre-order High Performance Trading.