"As I began interviewing traders for this book, I was surprised how many of them wanted to talk about their love for their wives. One after another talked with great feeling and without any prompting from me about the trust, support, and encouragement he felt at home.
The intellectual demands of the market are not very high. In this game we only have to deal with five factors: open, high, low, closing prices, and volume. Why then do so many people who are successful in their professional lives fail in trading? This is because trading places immense emotional demands on all of us. It evokes powerful feelings- fear, greed, and so on, making it very easy to make bad decisions. A person with a happy personal life has an advantage, while the one with a stormy personal life finds himself doubly stressed.
This is not to say that every trader in this book lives in marital heaven. Some are single, and at least one is currently going through an unpleasant divorce. Curiously enough, he is also in a draw-down this year, although as a professional trader, his losses are minimal, and I am sure he will pull out of his slump. I still remember the deep slump I had at the time of my divorce many years ago.
A person who goes home to a smiling, loving spouse and does not need to spend an ounce of mental energy on figuring out the angles of a tense personal relationship is in a much better position when he sits in front of the computer to analyze charts and make decisions. While most traders in this book conformed to this pattern, it is difficult to translate it into a specific recommendation. What you do with this insight is entirely up to you. I can only share with you my surprise at discovering this factor in the lives of many successful traders."
Entries and Exits, Elder, p. 317
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