{"id":7444,"date":"2020-08-31T18:12:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T18:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/axiafutures.com\/blog\/?p=7444"},"modified":"2024-02-09T09:28:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T09:28:43","slug":"trading-education-the-right-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/axiafutures.com\/blog\/trading-education-the-right-system\/","title":{"rendered":"A Trader\u2019s Education: The Right System at The Right Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Pyrros Dimas is a legendary figure in Olympic Weightlifting.  A frequent favourite among weightlifting fans, the Greek lifter is known for his showmanship, physique and dominance on the lifting platform at a time when the competition was razor sharp and unforgiving. As a multiple gold World and Olympic champion, he would prove inspirational to both professional and amateur lifters alike, myself included among the latter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more recent documentary, produced by The Two Doctors<\/em>, provides a wonderful overview of Dimas\u2019 life and evolution as a lifter. While I previously devoured this documentary when I had been training for weightlifting, I recently rediscovered it again during a period in my own trading path when it was not moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One central concept had struck me during the entire documentary \u2013 as Dimas\u2019 puts it he had found \u2018the right system at the right time\u2019 which propelled him to his first Olympic Gold medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the right system, why was it the right time and how is any of this related to trading?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider the development path of Dimas in his own weightlifting career. All barbell sports attempt to address the issue of periodization <\/em>\u2013 how to best train the body over a period of time to make it capable of lifting a specific amount of weight of a lift on competition day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Olympic Weightlifting much of successful periodization was dominated by the Russian or Soviet approach since the 1950s until somewhat recently. This approach was slow and gradual that featured many exercises as variations of the competition lifts. Training frequency, volume of work and the weight on the bar would be extremely modular, finely tuned and very dependent on what kind of weightlifter you are training. New weightlifters (often children) would often combine different sports and occasional light weightlifting with heavy emphasis on technique development. This would then dramatically change overtime in the 6-10 year development cycle of a weightlifter\u2019s career until he would be competitive enough for the world championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This generically termed and wide ranging \u2018Russian\u2019 system of periodization was the gold standard of training until the 1980s when a new system rose to prominence \u2013 the \u2018Bulgarian\u2019 system. This new system was a complete paradigm shift in both training and results, enabling lifters to lift bigger weights at lower weight classes than ever thought possible.  This system was the complete opposite to the Russian one. Training was year-round and took place 2-3 times a day. It featured only a maximum of 5 exercises that eventually were cut to 3. There were no planned attempts and modulated volume of work or weight on the bar. The sole objective was to lift the maximum weight you can for a single repetition of these 5 exercises, two of which were the exact competition lifts (snatch & clean and jerk). If you lifted your maximum weight you would attempt more no matter how long it took.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the complete contrast in training philosophy and the issue of the outsider looking in<\/em>, many new weightlifters, often self-taught, assume these two training systems are mutually exclusive and one can never cross over to the other. During the time I was training for weightlifting myself, I often saw a trend for new weightlifters to directly jump into the Bulgarian system while they were still very raw. They had bad technique, their bodies have not had any time to adapt to the sport itself both in long term stress and short-term adaptations. They did not understand the individual and somewhat unique ways their body responds to training stimulus.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why was this the case? Firstly, there is an allure to the Bulgarian system as a quick, dramatic, and flashy way to train and progress. Secondly, the time investment to successfully learn how to apply the long-term development cycle of the Russian system was not palatable. In effect, the classic immediate gratification, desire for quick success, quick results mentality had struck again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More innocently, these new lifters would observe how the top lifters are training right now<\/em> and attempt to mimic them completely. They assumed that this is how they always trained, that they got to the top level by doing the same thing as they always did. There was no realisation or consideration that these top lifters in fact may have trained completely different when they started, and their training evolved overtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimas himself mentions this in the documentary that without his \u201cprevious base\u201d he would have been \u201cinjured in the system\u201d and wouldn\u2019t be able to \u201cstand up to that stress\u201d. This \u2018previous base\u2019 was the Russian periodization system which he trained under for most his life until he started to compete for Greece. Once training started with the Greek team<\/a> the \u201cBulgarian approach was what worked for [him]\u2026. made [him] a champion\u201d yet he had the \u201cbenefit of years of repetition as a base underneath [his] belt\u201d. Even a lifter of his experience and caliber it took him \u201calmost four years from 1991 to 1995 only then did [he] feel the program worked well for [him] and that it was the right one\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dimas\u2019 evolution mirrored the experience of other great lifters since the 1990s, in that \u201cif we compare the two programs one being Russian\u2026 first it\u2019s good until a specific age, this is a good way to build up an athlete but to be in the highest level I think the second program, the Bulgarian method was much better\u2026 I had the right system at the right time\u201d. If one were to research the training evolution of many successful international lifters since the 1980s, they would find the same trend. Firstly, these lifters had built and adapted their bodies through years of workload, repetition, and technique refinement under a Russian based approach. Only once could shoot for the \u201chighest level\u201d their training dramatically evolved into a Bulgarian like system as their entire training and career had culminated to a point where these lifters could thrive under this system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about trading?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned earlier, the concept of the \u2018right system at the right time\u2019 had proved to be the final connecting idea that provided clarity on an issue I had been wrestling with year long with my own trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had failed to see the mistake I made with trading which in fact I originally managed to avoid while training for weightlifting earlier in life. Previously I had understood the long development cycle a weightlifter undertakes, that top lifters trained differently when they had first started compared to now. There was obvious futility in trying to emulate their style and training, simply because they were in a different place in their career and therefore had different career goals. <\/em>They possessed better skills, experience, and capabilities in competition than I had under my belt at the time. Instead I had invested much more time in developing a wider base, better technique with the aim of achieving comfortable, consistent lifting while avoiding predictable injuries compared to others who tried to short-circuit this process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet with trading I had walked headfirst in trying to also emulate senior traders in the wrong way<\/em>. Certainly, their advice, experience and knowledge are invaluable to one\u2019s own trading development. At the same time, I had ignored the fact that they were in a different place in their trading career and had different career goals. A senior trader with a large trading account could withstand large swings since even a proportionally \u2018small\u2019 withdrawal from their account would still be larger than a junior trader\u2019s best career month\u2019s profit by a substantial magnitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n