The 100-Pip Traderoutside the circle. So, actually, at one point in that match I was
ahead of him, because he’d throw me outside the circle so many
times and then he pinned me and it was over.
Q: So do you think this ultimately sums up the whole fact that
you don’t have to feel competitive with other people?
A: I’m not sure that this one experience did anything except hurt
my pride for a few years. But now I’m very competitive with myself
and I hope that I could be described as the type of person who is
not very competitive with other people. I do believe that. I don’t
really care if somebody does better than I do [laughter]. It doesn’t
matter, I’m happy for them. Trading is never about the money,
it is about the quality of life and whether I can continue to solve
the puzzle, so to speak. I am not one to hang myself over losses.
One trade is one in a thousand that I took before and a thousand
that will come after. It is a lifestyle. For example, I managed some
accounts for a while and they didn’t go as well as I would have
liked, and I let that go. I found that I dwelt on the losses more
when it was other people’s money, and I was far more emotionally
stable when I traded my own funds. Trading my own account is a
career choice I made. The losses and ups and downs come as part
of the experience. I’m a better trader than I was last year, and the
year before, and so on. And I’m going to be a better trader next
year and the year afterward. It’s a process. You don’t just walk into
a law firm one day and decide that you’re going to be the managing
partner. You gotta work your way up. Through it all, I’ve never
really honestly considered giving it up just because I wasn’t doing
as well as somebody else.
Q: Any parting words?
A: Yes, one thing. I seriously dislike it when I hear people say that
they’ve been taught they should trade only with money that they