Last week, my wife and I visited Ken Gaus, my partner in Transformative Trading,  at his home in Rhode Island.

On Monday , we attended the first day of the Hall of Fame Tennis Tournament in Newport, Rhode Island.

The first match was between Rohan Bopanna from Bangalore, India (serving in the picture above) and Kevin Kim from the USA. 

As I watched these two professionals play, I could not help but think of the parallels between tennis and trading. 

In the tennis match, each player tried with all his skill and might to get the ball past his opponent who was trying with all his skill and might to make sure that he did the same.  Each serve and return attempt was the best the player could do.  Sometimes his best worked and sometimes it did not.

Just like trading, each player was giving his all in the clear understanding that a percentage of his best shots would result in points and a certain percentage would not.

Each player knew that he needed to stay focused and not dwell on past losing points or congratulate himself on recent winning points.  He needed to stay focused on the point at hand knowing that if he was able to consistently perform as he had practiced, he would be rewarded.

Trading is like that. 

You stay focused.  You keep doing what you know you should do and, as long as you stay at your best, you will be rewarded on average for your disciplined performance.

There is another comparison between professional tennis and trading. 

Imagine, yourself as a novice tennis player trying to keep up with either of these professionals on the tennis court.  I cannot speak for you, but I would have no chance of holding my own against these professionals.  If I was playing against them, the only good thing would be that the inevitable loss would be quick, if not painless.

In trading, you are competing with the best professional traders in the world, but in trading you do not have to be the very best in the tournament to win.  You just need to consistently do what you have planned; keeping your discipline and exploiting the opportunities presented to you and you will be a winner.

The day after tennis, we reverted to full-fledged tourist mode and visited two of the great seaside mansions of Newport. 

I feel a kinship to Newport as Lake Geneva, where I live, is sometimes called the Newport of the West.

The highlight of our tour of the mansions was visiting Cornelius Vanderbilt’s 70-room, 65,000 square foot “cottage”, The Breakers, pictured below. 

The scale of the cottage is hard to describe.  The dining room is 50 feet by 50 feet and the ceiling is 50 feet high.  I am proud of my dining room here in the Newport of the West, but, I have to admit, it is noticeably smaller than Vanderbilt’s 50 foot cube.Wishing you success in your trading,   Jeff