Its not a race...

We often heard of how much one make. Or we often wonder how much does one make? Whether its trading, investment or a job, it makes no difference. Our KPC (keh poh chee) nature wants to know. And after knowing, we re not satisfied. And of all the things we learn from our neighbour, we learn kiasu-ism. Haha, my apologies to Singaporeans but you know its true :P.
We become impatient. We become uncontented. We become competitive. We commit another trading sin.

Trading or investment is not a race. There is no finish line. There is no competition between one individual and another. To me, it does not matter how much one make. Well done, congratulations, I d say. But the money remains the other person's. It would not be mine.
And what if I make less than the other person? Well, what does it matter to the other person? Its my gain, not his. Its my risk, not his.

In the book The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, the commentator, Jason Zweig said,
"To be an intelligent investor, you must also refuse to judge your financial success by how a bunch of total strangers are doing. You're not one penny poorer if someone in Dubuque or Dallas or Denver beats the S&P500 and you don't. No one's gravestone reads, "HE BEAT THE MARKET"
Good one. I could not refrain from chuckling no matter how many times I ve read this. And no, I don't have a clue where is Dubuque.

Also, it went on to say,
I once interviewed a group of retirees in Boca Raton, one of Florida's wealthiest retirement communities. I asked these people - mostly in their seventies - if they had beaten the market over their investing lives. Some said yes. Some said no; most weren't sure. Then one man said, "Who cares? All I know is, my investment earned enough for me to end up in Boca."

Could there be a more perfect answer? After all, the whole point of investing (or in our case, trading) is not to earn more money than average, but to earn enough to meet your own needs.
The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you're beating the market but by whether you've put in place a financial plan and behavioural discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go. In the end, what matters isn't crossing the finish line before anybody else but just making sure that you do cross it.

And to be frank, I ve seen people who could make a million in 3 months. And I ve also seen the same person go bust in the next following 3 months. Its a mere risk and reward game. If you re willing to gamble, you could always plunge with all you have plus borrowed money, should you choose to. Few gains in a row, voila, a millionaire is made. Is that simple. But is that your style? You could lose everything and declare bankruptcy the next moment. Is that what you want?

So my friends, let us all take our own pace. Truly, the market is not a race.