“Anyone with average intelligence can learn to trade. This is not rocket science. However, it’s much easier to learn what you should do in trading than to do it. Good systems tend to violate normal human tendencies. Of the people who can learn the basics, only a small percentage will be successful traders.”
The way Eckhardt phrases this, there are two components to being a successful trader. You must have a baseline level of intelligence, but beyond that, the ability and discipline to follow a system become more important. This combination of skills is the reason that some extremely intelligent people end up making terrible traders.
I find this to be very encouraging. I have always considered myself to have slightly above average intelligence, but certainly not anything special. This line of thinking means that once I have met the minimum requirement for intelligence, the only thing holding me back from becoming an exceptional trader is my discipline to stick to my system under pressure.
