TRADING LESSONS FROM SHAH RUKH KHAN
Or, how misbehaviors is at the root of all losses.
The papers are full of accounts of the extreme misbehavior of Shah Rukh Khan. The irony is that SRK himself stated that “Whenever I feel arrogant, I take a trip to the US. The immigration guys kick the star out of the stardom” So there is a law for oneself overseas and another when we are within our environment? That’s what it seems.
Rule breaking seems to be one of inherent traits among Indians- particularly those from the North and West. I say this from personal observation and not because I am from the South. For many from the two regions mentioned, rules are there to be broken and not observed. My travel abroad to Europe and the US and Southeast Asia have convinced me that those countries work so well because the people there are very disciplined and observe rules to the highest levels possible. This is not to state that there are no rule breakers there (human traits don’t differ so much across geographies) but things like road discipline, civic adherence, common sense and politeness and civility among people seem to be alien characteristics to us. These are easily remedied but need to be done at a personal level rather than at an organizational or government level. And therein lies the rub.
While civil society may be a lot more tolerant and forgiving of rule breakers, the market is a hard taskmaster when it comes to rules. If you do not follow the correct dictums of analysis (allowing for creativity as well) then you conclusions shall be different from what the market thinks. If you do not follow trading rules as they should be every single time (it does not matter how many decades you have been at it), the market shall punish you with losses. The more undisciplined you are, the greater shall be the losses. Investments need to have a certain adherence to rules that can be broken only at the cost of incurring even more losses.
Hence, if you want to succeed in the market- as an analyst or a trader or an investor- be the Shah Rukh Khan of the screen, not of the IPL. He sticks to rules like a soldier when in his profession and is at the pinnacle of it for a decade or more but he has lost respect of the nation (a difficult to recover loss) with one misbehavior with the security guards at Wankhade. Learn to respect what the market respects- correct behavior at all times. No wonder W D Gann’s advice for traders is “ follow all the rules all the time”.
