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Why do athletes have a good chance of success in trading?

10.04.2025

Education

Sports and trading are not very far from each other. Training, mistakes, successes, moving forward. Everything is very similar. Only athletes convert their victories into medals and cups, sometimes into money. And traders skip the podiums. And basically concentrate only on the general equivalent.

In rare cases, traders participate in competitions. For example, at the Robbinson Cup World Trading Championship. Their goals are prosaic. To advertise themselves. This is useful when creating your own investment fund. Although there are those who dream of making history.

In 2024, American Brent Carlisle became the champion in futures trading. His final return was 532.3% for the year. He got his cup. Fame too. But to become a legendary trader, you will have to break the record of the absolute champion Larry Williams. At the tournament in 1987, he showed a return of 11,376%.

Without a strong grip, without a sporting character and without discipline, it is difficult to achieve such high results. That is why it is much easier for people who already have such qualities to achieve heights in the financial markets. Trading for an athlete can be as natural as performing in his native discipline.

1. Identical mechanics of success

The success stories of athletes are different. Country, family, conditions. However, they have a common mechanics. An unknown guy or girl works hard. They train a lot. At first, their results are not much different from their peers. But over time, they become leaders. Their gap grows. And at some point, they become champions.

Someone is happy. Someone says that they were just lucky. Rewarded by nature, genetics, and so on. But almost always, this is just the result of harder work. If an athlete has understood this secret. Has mastered the mechanics of systematically improving his level, the chances of success in any business are high. Financial markets are in his hands, a logical tool for raising his standard of living. Work here is not much different from sports. Everyone starts with the basics. Search for trading patterns. Linking money management with personal psychology. Trials. Mistakes. Victories. And self-analysis.

2. Model coach - athlete

Often, after finishing their careers, athletes begin to coach. Someone will say, what else can they do? The opinion is controversial. They can do a lot. There are enough stories. But there is one non-obvious nuance. It is very important for us.

During training, performances, athletes develop a very valuable behavioral model coach - athlete. It implies that one develops a plan and instructions, and the other precisely implements them. Sports discipline.

In trading, this is the key to success. The trader develops a trading plan himself. He implements it himself. A playing coach. However, lack of experience can mix up the roles. Then the instructions are not followed. Trading plans are violated. The result is marking time. It is much easier for an athlete to perform his "program" cleanly.

3. High tolerance to "pain"

High loads, stress, pain. All these are the companions of a successful sports career. Especially in professional sports. One can only envy the ability of athletes to endure.
In trading, fortunately, everything is not so "painful". A positive trading system mainly gives pleasant sensations. However, the willingness to endure, on the way to its construction, helps a lot. The view of mistakes becomes colder. And the path to positive trading is shorter.

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