Paul Tudor Jones, Bruce Kovner, Jesse Livermore… forget about em.
The only name you need to know when it comes to trading greatness is Donald Trump.
He’s everything a trader should aspire to be. When it comes to having “strong opinions, weakly held”, Trump has EXTREMELY strong opinions, EXTREMELY weakly held.
At the beginning of his campaign, The Donald was 2000% sure that China was a currency manipulator. But after a single piece of chocolate cake with his new buddy Xi, China was a problem no more.
In fact, that piece of cake was SO good that Trump is now looking to improve trade relations with the country. Along with changing his stance on NATO, Trump has quickly transformed from a staunch isolationist against all imports (other than his wife) to an avid globalist.
That’s what makes him amazing. He has an ability to turn on a dime that is uncanny. You can never pin him down to one idea, because he’s always switching his stance. He’s more flexible than a Cirque du Soleil performer.
Some people call Trump a populist, changing his position to whatever the most people want, but that’s not true. In reality, he’s just extremely fallible.
Trump is a master of changing his mind as soon as “new” information becomes available.
Everyone thought Trump and Putin were best buds. But they quickly ate their words when Trump hit Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a few Tomahawks.
Maybe Trump and Putin were friends at one time, but that was before Trump saw that infomercial of the Syrian kids. This “new” information forced him to rip off the friendship bracelet Putin gave him and take action.
See? Huuuuuuge amounts of fallibility.
As Stanley Druckenmiller once explained:
I’ve learned many things from [George Soros], but perhaps the most significant is that it’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.
In Trump’s case, it’s not about doing what’s right or wrong, but how much money (or votes) you come away with in the end.
If you want to be a great trader, you need to be like Trump. Start with your fallibility and then move on to fixing your hair.
Good luck!
We’re kidding. Obviously. To learn from the real trading greats, click here.
