E-mini trading and the theory of relativity

I am a physicist by training. A theoretical physicist, to be more precise. I have spent many years studying things like general relativity (black holes and the Big Bang are probably the most popular buzzwords here) and quantum theory (with its paradoxes and cats, like Schroedinger's).

While for the last several years I have been making my living mainly as an emini day trader, I still remain interested in physics quite a bit. I don't have as much time to work in this field as before, but I do make sure to keep in touch with its literature, popular or otherwise. I don't buy as many physics books as I used to, but I still peruse lots of them, either through my local library or Google books or Amazon.com.

Recently, I have come across a lovely book on the theory of relativity aimed at general readership, yet quite ambitious and deep despite its rather modest prerequisites for virtually everyone who is not afraid of high school algebra should be able to tackle it.

The book is entitled "Discovering relativity for yourself" and was written by one Sam Lilley. Here is a small piece from it, one of first paragraphs of the book.

Relativity has become a bogy word. It has the reputation of being fiendishly difficult. You may, as I've said, be wondering whether you can cope.

You can - I am sure of that.

Certainly you are going to have to work hard. You have been warned! But the same can be said of gardening; and you would not call gardening difficult. Relativity is not difficult in the way that running a four-minute mile is difficult. That needs special aptitudes and abilities. Relativity makes no such demands. Very many, perhaps most of us are capable of mastering it. Our latent abilities only need bringing out. True, there must be some minimum level of intelligence required - relativistic thinking has not yet been observed among apes. But I know from many years of teaching that large numbers of people with no special abilities or qualifications and with very ordinary educational backgrounds are capable of studying the subject successfully and getting a great deal of enjoyment in doing so.

Reading this piece made me realize something. Namely, I realized that the theory of relativity has a lot to do with emini trading. How so?

Well, substitute "emini trading" for "relativity" in the quoted fragment and see what you get. Here it is, with only minor changes in a few other places to make it sound more natural.

Emini trading has become a bogy word. It has the reputation of being fiendishly difficult. You may, as I've said, be wondering whether you can cope.

You can - I am sure of that.

Certainly you are going to have to work hard. You have been warned! But the same can be said of gardening; and you would not call gardening difficult. E-mini trading is not difficult in the way that running a four-minute mile is difficult. That needs special aptitudes and abilities. E-mini trading makes no such demands. Very many, perhaps most of us are capable of mastering it. Our latent abilities only need bringing out. True, there must be some minimum level of intelligence required - e-mini trading has not yet been observed among apes. But I know from many years of teaching that large numbers of people with no special abilities or qualifications and with very ordinary educational backgrounds are capable of mastering the subject successfully and getting a great deal of enjoyment in doing so.

As someone who has spent years trading e-mini futures, and many months as a mentor to a growing number of e-mini traders, I amazed how well this fragment reflects my opinion about learning e-mini trading. It is indeed as easy to learn how to trade e-mini futures as it is to master the theory of relativity. Now, to me that's easy enough. For those who don't believe that emini trading can be mastered as easily as the theory of relativity, I have this simple piece of advice: please do yourself a favor and check out this little great book. Then try e-mini trading. You will see that I did not lie.