I've gotten a lot of feedback from yesterday's note. Turns out, there's a lot of Steve Poltz fans amongst you. I had no idea! If you missed yesterday's note, you can read it here.
We had an absolutely perfect night for my Trader Meetup in Colorado last night. About 25–30 of us gathered on a patio in the warm evening twilight for fantastic conversation, laughter, networking, and the forging of new friendships.
Here's me and my pal Brian Lund (@bclund), who was visiting from California!
(That is an NA beer, I swear!)
And here's another one with me, Brian, and our new friend Nick Schmidt (@NickSchmidt_) who was visiting from NYC:
Among all the stimulating chats, one small one-on-one conversation with a first-timer stuck with me.
He asked me a simple question:
If you could only trade one product—stocks, options, futures, crypto—for the rest of your career, what would you choose?
I reluctantly answered (and you can probably guess what I said), but I also challenged the premise. Because what he was really asking—without realizing it—was:
“What’s the best product for people to trade?” Or more bluntly: “Where can traders make the most money?”
The truth is, there’s no perfect product.
Actually, I could leave the word product out entirely—there’s no perfect in trading.
The “best” product for me might be totally wrong for you.
The right product depends on your style of risk management, the time frame you like to trade, the capital you have, the tick sizes you’re comfortable with, and even whether you crave adventure or prefer prudence.
There’s no magic answer. No universal best.
The most important thing we can learn as traders is who we are. Figure that out, and the right product will find you.
Read that last paragraph again and meditate on it.
P.S. If you're ever coming through Colorado on a vacation or a business trip, connect with me. Maybe we can coordinate a Trader Meetup to happen while you're here. Last night, we had out-of-town guests from California, NYC, and Charlotte in attendance! Come meet the great group of traders we have in the Denver and Boulder areas that I'm proud to call friends.
Sean McLaughlin | Chief Options Strategist, All Star Charts
