The Experienced Newbie

Sean McLaughlin
February 9, 2023

I’ve been enjoying a (new to me) book recently. Today, I came across this passage that stopped me in my tracks:

Trading is a journey, not a destination. So you’re a trader. Now what? Trading is a constant process of intellectual and emotional growth, and people who trade for twenty years are still learning what to do and who to be when they finally hang it up.

From Street Freak, A Memoir of Money and Madness, by Jared Dillian.

It was almost like Jared was staring at me when he typed those words.

They hit home.

I’ve been in this game for over 20 years now. This coming summer will be the start of my 25th year!

And while I have the scars to prove it, in many ways (and quite often!) I still feel like a newbie. I continue to make mistakes and commit trading sins and fat-finger errors that would make you think I am among the greenest of the green, having just placed my very first trade in a Robinhood account.

I keep promising myself that I’ll never repeat that error again. Yet, somehow, someway, repeats of comically stupid decisions still plague me from time to time.

Additionally, I’m constantly wondering who I want to be when I grow up. I’m in the back half of my 40’s. You’d think I’d have a pretty good grasp on that by now. I don’t. Not even close.

Maybe this is my way of tricking myself into thinking I’m still young. Whatever works, right?

Right or wrong, I think all of this is perhaps the greatest attraction to this greatest game in the world. It’s a game that is constantly challenging us. Rewarding us. Punishing us. Teaching us. Harming us. Stimulating us. 

It is a game that cannot be won, but can certainly be lost.

The sooner we begin to enjoy the ride, and make the journey the goal, the happier and more fulfilled we become.

Speaking of “the ride,” I’m enjoying the ride through Jared’s memoir from his days at Lehman Brothers before it all crumbled into a pile of dust during the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-09. 

Give it a read!

 

Trade 'em Well,

Sean McLaughlin
Chief Options Strategist 
All Star Charts, Technical Analysis Research

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