Boris and Kathy's FX Blog www.bktraderfx.com

Make your argument

Before Tom Cruise became a Scientology freak show he actually made a few very good movies including A Few Good Men where he plays a young, cocky military lawyer pitted against Jack Nicholson's whose mesmerizing performance as Colonel Jessep drives the film. There is a scene at the beginning of the movie where Kevin Pollak tries to persuade Cruise to take on a very politically sensitive defense case. In a great screen play written by Aaron Sorkin of West Wing and Studio 60 fame, Pollak tells Cruise :"I just want you to make an argument" to which Cruise wistfully replies, " I bet you father is proud of you. I'll bet he is. I'll bet he bores the shit outta the neighbors and the relatives. "Sam, made Law Review. He's got a big case he's making--He's arguing making an argument."

The characters in the movie use the term "argument" in its most positive sense - as a way to prove the merit of your case. Although we are traders not lawyers we make arguments all the time. Each trade is in an argument between the bulls and the bears. We may not utilize elegant presentation skills or posses powerful oratory abilities of our colleagues in jurisprudence but the battle in the markets is no less fierce than it is in the courts.

Arguing is one of the most valuable activities a trader can do. K and I argue all the time . That's our primary methodology of trade selection and it works well. Why? Because a well constructed argument will either fortify the logic of your position or it destroy it by properly questioning some important underlying point that you may have overlooked. In fact I noticed recently that our best trades occur when K and I are generally in agreement - when our arguments are sound. Times when one or the other one of us is doubtful about the setup - the trades are usually losers.

So go ahead make your argument - it will make you a better trader.