In Memory of My Beloved Grandmother

Welcome to Part IV of this five-part series.

I recall, from my good old days, quarrelling with my Grandmother on some minor issues. For example, I''ve never been much for eating fish. However, quite often she would give me her thousands of good reasons why fish is good for me, etc. When I defended my point, the outcome was always a pretty severe punishment!  

What can you learn from this story between me and my Grandmother? First of all, each of us is different in terms of our personality. For example, Alec (a hypothetical trading buddy of mine), prefers to trade RUT, but that does not mean RUT is a good underlying to trade for everyone. However, what Alec should not do is impose his opinion on other traders and insist that RUT is the best-ever underlying to trade.

In the trading world, I hear many opinions each day. I learnt to respect these opinions but certainly will not agree with every single one; after all, I have certain sets of beliefs too. When a person gives his opinion on someone else''s strategy, does it carry any weight at all? Think about this seriously. It’s just an opinion and your task as a trader is to evaluate the opinion and determine if it makes any sense to you.

I''ll give you another example. Suppose a person is a firm believer of Theory A and Hypothesis B. He then says to the whole world that only Theory A and Hypothesis B make sense and the rest don’t. Worse still, he starts to criticize the others who are believers of Theory C and Hypothesis D. To me, I find this type of person very irritating because he doesn''t respect others’ opinions at all. The fact is that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.

Learning to accept someone else''s right to their opinion without argument will prevent everyone involved from being on the receiving end of any type of "punishment." Remember: there are many ways to carry on this trading business. So, it''s best to learn how to accept others’ opinions while still remaining true to your own. Then you will be able to enter into a fruitful and amicable discussion instead of an argument, which most likely lead to nowhere positive.

To access previous articles written by Jack Wong, please click here.

Jack Wong 
Staff Writer and Instructor
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site

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Recent Articles by Jack Wong, Optionetics.com

• December 1, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part V: The Choice Is Yours
• November 24, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part IV: Respect Yourself and Others
• November 17, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part III: Taking Charge of Your Life
• November 10, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part II: Dealing With Loss
• November 5, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part I: Never Give Up