Building your bank

[iambic_pentameter]

To get back on topic for those that are building their banks it is definitely not an initial requirement, for whatever reason it's one of the most common questions I've seen. You don't need to prepare large banks to start trading as it's that much easier to lose them and crank up the pressure, you can build them through trading, although it does help to have a large emotional bank

In other words if you can mentally survive the markets then the banks should survive as well. To simplify things to do extreme those are your only two jobs I think:

1. Survive (don't fall apart)
2. Thrive (find an edge)

But, IMHO shouldn't underestimate pressure (!), even world class athletes regularly crumble under it. So when already managing risk it only feels logical to try and manage pressure as well. A big loss hits very different under immense pressure and can take out a large chunk out of your emotional bank, compared to a big loss in a low-pressure environment. Not saying anyone should trade in "zero gravity" since a healthy balance is not a bad thing, but people often invite too much unnecessary pressure on top, which depletes their emotional bank that much quicker, if that makes sense, at which point they start doing stupid things.

Eh, in an ideal world you could throw in managing expectations as well, but very little chance anyone new can do this properly. Mine were miles off as well

Great post, Kai.

Admins - please arrange for a Bet Angel Hamper to be sent to Kai for winning post of the year!

Iambic