Instead of being a Luddite, take advantage of the technology available to you. This doesn’t mean that we should leave all our investment choices to the trading robots (never trust your trades with anyone else) – it just means that technology can be a great aid when utilized in a clever way.
Software can do a lot of menial tasks for you so that you can use your time more effectively. Try to automate as much as possible of your daily chores so that you can focus on trading decisions and the things that make you the most money. When I tell someone that they should use technology to become a more effective trader you might think about market analyzing software and trading robots. This is too narrow of a view. You should use any technology that can make your life more effective. This includes dishwashers, automatic lawnmowers, robotic vacuum cleaners and so on. They all save time so that you can focus more effort on your trade.
It is, for instance, a good idea to familiarize yourself well with the trading platform you use for your trades – if you use one. Instead of being okay with just knowing a few basic commands, strive to continuously venture outside your comfort zone and learn new tricks. Sometimes the best tools are the ones that we didn’t even know that we needed until we tried them. One such tool is to be able to backtrack your trading plan to see how well it seems to work.
| “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”
– Thomas Henry Huxley |
Technology – such as computers connected to the internet – can help us find information that would otherwise be really tricky to come by. Many long-term successful traders are persons who are eager to learn new things, within and outside the immediate field of finance. Understanding markets and how they relate to the rest of the world is an ongoing and lifelong process. A myriad of factors can have an impact on the market value of an asset. Sometimes, PLOS.org, usgs.gov and OK! Magazine will provide more important clues than The Economist.