Can you ride a bike?
Imagine you want to learn how to ride a bicycle. You have never cycled before, but you are determined to succeed. So you start reading books on the subject, watch detailed video tutorials on how to keep your balance, how to react to sudden potholes or uneven terrain. You talk to experts, listen to their advice, find out about the various bike models, the best accessories, the necessary protection. Then, finally, the moment arrives: you stand in front of the bike, your foot on the pedal, your hands on the handlebars.
When Theory Is Not Enough
At that point you realise that everything you have read or listened to, however useful and interesting, cannot replace the reality of that moment. Your heartbeat accelerates, you feel the uncertainty of precarious balance, the fear of falling and hurting yourself, and the fact that you are an adult or have accumulated years of experience in other fields does not make this process any easier.
You pedal, you try, you stagger, maybe you fall. But it is from those first few pedal strokes, from those initial small failures, that you really begin to understand what cycling is all about. You understand how to manage your balance, how to dose the force on the pedals, how to brake without becoming unbalanced. Every mistake, every slip, becomes an indispensable part of your learning. Over time, the same roads that initially seemed dangerous and unpassable become familiar: you learn how to handle obstacles, how to deal with bumpy roads and make sudden swerves with greater confidence. Every curve becomes an opportunity to test your reflexes, every bumpy stretch a way to improve your balance.
Similarly, in trading, you learn to recognise the pitfalls of the market, react quickly to changes and turn every emotion – fear, euphoria, frustration – into valuable experience and strategic awareness. Like riding a bicycle, trading takes practice, mistakes and falls. It is not enough to know the theory; you need experience, the ability to get back up and learn from your mistakes, adapting to changing conditions. If you really want to understand what it means to be a trader, you have to take the hardest step: get on the bike and pedal.
Cycling and Trading: Practicing to Progress
Do you remember the first time you tried to keep your balance on the bike? Wasn’t it similar to when you made your first trade without really knowing what to expect?
The bicycle is a powerful metaphor for practical experience. There are things that simply cannot be fully understood through theory alone. One has to experience them on one’s own skin, feel the instability, take a few strokes to gain confidence. Likewise, trading requires more than just theoretical knowledge. You can read all the technical analysis books, study the most sophisticated strategies, listen to the advice of experts, but until you actually enter the markets, until you risk your capital, you will never fully understand what trading is all about. It is only by experiencing the ups and downs, by facing the falls and getting back up, that you can truly learn and improve.
Best regards,
TradingQuant
