In a recent blog for Forbes, I described the essence of a solution-focused approach to trading: studying your own successes. As da Vinci's quote suggests, it's not just dry, academic study, but study with desire: the desire to know what makes you the best you can be.

Here's an interesting observation:

When I ask traders to tell me what they do wrong in their trading to make them lose money, most can name a variety of mistakes they make. They talk about chasing trades and getting in at bad levels; they describe sizing positions too large or small; etc. When I ask traders to tell me what they do best in their trading that leads them to make money, most offer vague generalizations or simply say that they don't make the losing mistakes.

Even more to the point, if I ask most traders to map out a detailed flow chart of their best trading, starting with the gathering of information and generation of ideas to the structuring of trades, management of risk, and the trader's own self-management, in the vast majority of cases it would be a difficult task. The result would be a sparse flow chart.