Quote:
Originally Posted by ASAP17
Following up with what you guys are talking about, do you feel like being part of a community is important to success? There is a lot of noise out there, as you said plenty of smart guys can still be crappy traders/managers and provide nothing of value. Why did you end up leaving the business and go on your own?
Interesting question. I initially learned mostly through reading about other successful investors. The issue is that a lot of that advice is outdated / priced-into the market. A good example is Buffett. I find it interesting that so many people worship him, yet most of his teachings are well-known at this point. Buy great businesses with moats and great management teams, etc. etc. IMHO, you're going to need to go a step further to consistently make money these days.
I was fortunate enough to work for a portfolio manager who had a very good track record. He was awful at teaching (couldn't be bothered), but you learn from making mistakes (he was good at letting you know when this happened). You learn from osmosis and seeing what works and what doesn't. People sometimes ask me what is the biggest lesson I learned over the years. I tell them it's to be patient and know when to get big in a bet that is 10/10. Here's the issue - it's my years' of experience that let me know through intuition when a particular investment setup is "awesome". It's the same as any other job that a particular person gets very good at. It's the same as lightning chess (which I play); it's the same as poker (which many of you play).
So, to answer your question, I guess being part of a community is helpful to success, but definitely not necessary. At the end of the day, you need to learn things yourself so that they become a part of you. The issue with communities is that you really don't know who is good and who isn't. Sure, some person may have made a lot of money trading bitcoin in 2017, but maybe he's just buying every dip and getting lucky from being in a massively bull market.
I left because I just found the job to be less interesting. I never had time to travel and wanted to do so while I was still relatively young. I may come back to the business in a year and become a portfolio manager where I can be my own boss, or a may do something completely different. We'll see.