214: James King – The Principles that Drive Elite Performance

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It was twenty seventeen when I actually first spoke with James. That was on episode one hundred and thirty three. And it was shortly after he had left a London based commodity trading firm where he had worked as performance director. Since then, he has continued advising to proprietary traders and fund managers, specialist military units and professional sports teams, as well as a few exclusive organizations.

while also presenting case studies on elite performance at various Ivy League universities. More recently though, James has put the final touches on his first published book titled Accelerating Excellence. in which he reveals four foundational principles that have been proven to drive elite performance. And it's these four principles that serve as the focal point for our chat today as James takes time to carefully explain each one.

I'm sure some of you will note James is a rather fast talker at points, so I might suggest you give this a second listen as I'm sure you'll miss some gold the first time through. Now regarding James's book, if you're listening to this episode fresh, then you can pre-order, or if you're listening to this episode at a later date, then you can purchase. By going to chatwithtraders.com slash James, this link will redirect you straight to Accelerating Excellence on Amazon.

Alright, team, on with the show now. I'm pleased to present to you for a second time, James King.

I don't know if this is a good question to start with. It might be a silly question. If it is, just tell me and we can move on. But As it's obviously the the main focus of our conversation and you've written an entire book on the subject, I thought I'd just ask you off the bat, what is excellence? I would define excellence as the the quality of being outstanding. And and I often use the phrase uh to describe what

My objective, accelerating excellence. So by accelerating I mean to increase in rate, amount, or extent the quality of being outstanding. Where and I think it's a really good question you've asked there, because so many people um are obsessed with performance enhancement, but but not many of them actually define it. And I think it's really important to understand. a'r top level let's define the thing we want to improve and the word performance

is another really important one. And I I break it down into three key key areas. So the first construct for me is quality or completeness. So for instance, um, a gymnastic at the Olympic Games scoring ten out of ten is a more complete performance than scoring a nine. And that's traditionally where we where we focus when we talk about performance. But then there's two other really important constructs to measure. And the second one is cost.

So again, cost th there's there's that could come in a numerous form. So we've got uh time, finances, resources, effort, willpower. You know, if we can get that gymnast to get a perfect ten with 3,000 hours worth of training versus 6,000 hours of training, then we've um theoretically reduced cost and maintained performance. And then the third construct, which you think is again equally important, is speed. So speed is that time from initiating that um completion of a given task.

to the actually accomplish to the accomplishment of that. And then within that speed dimension you might also look at repeatability. So can I re can I repeat that performance on demand? Um, and that's a really important one. So performance overall defined as uh the accomplishment of a given task, whether that's making fifty million uh profit as a as a trader or winning X gold medals as a team GB. athletic squad measured against uh you know across time.

And then another one I'll even normally chuck in there as well is the word human. And you know, I always talk about human performance because in the context of the work I do, I'm not talking about the synthetic or technological aspects. So for instance uh AI, weapon systems. Um it's really on the the human and and where I'm working is on the psychological and biological factors that we all have control of and that ultimately operates the weapon, the technology.

it or or even designs it in the first place. So that was sorry, Aaron, that was probably quite a long-winded answer.

That's absolutely perfect. It does answer my question. And I think it's it's good just to clarify before we sort of delve into things too far. So One of the with the first questions I wanted to ask you, besides that one I just did, in your book. You know, towards the beginning of it, one of the things you kinda go into is ambition, hard work, and talent.

is not necessarily the complete equation. So I'd like to ask you like, where do we often go wrong when it comes to understanding what drives excellence? Yeah, another great question. I mean, look, in the majority of organisations or or individuals I've worked with,

uh it's very, very unusual that uh ambition, talent or effort i is the problem. Um, you know, humans have been striving to get better faster since the beginning of time, whether that's like, you know, cavemen racing to light fires or Scientists competing to create the first COVID vaccine.

I d I think everyone has the drive to excel in in one area or another. Um and I think the one of the key issues is that whilst we're born with this incredible adaptable machine, the human brain and body, We aren't born with the software to channel um those those resources we all possess optimally. Or and some of us also struggle activating those resources.

Um, so so the things we talk about with with regard to confidence, motivation, resilience, these, these, this psychological firepower, it exists within us all. And I'd say the two two problems I see are that people struggle to activate it in the first place. to return an i um return on on their investment of effort, talent, time. Yeah, I mean ultimately a lot of a big part of my role or anyone in a leadership role, I think in any organization, is that at certain points in time

individuals or organizations are maximally responsive to certain types of training. And we want to an ensure that we're selecting and investing those resources. in the areas or with the interventions that will generate that biggest return on investment um in terms of time and effort. So so yeah, it tends not to be ambition. Yeah.

Where do we where do we kind of go wrong there? Because you know, it's it's interesting actually because if I think about the traders I speak with or, you know, maybe someone who listens to the podcast who sends me an email sometime, uh, you know I think most of those people are naturally ambitious, willing to put in the hard work. I mean, the talent I feel like is something which maybe uh they develop as they go on, hopefully.

So yeah, obviously there is kind of a a missing piece to the equation there. Yeah. Do you think it's is there anything within our obviously we're gonna go into some principles about how to move forward, but Is there something like mindset wise which we think about which you think is maybe flawed in some way. I know you've got bit of an issue with like the ten thousand hour rule when you kind of spoke about

severe issues with that. But yeah, no, no, you you bang on. And and again, I'm really glad that we're actually sort of setting the foundations right by actually look look, let's look at how we look at this whole uh improvement process. Full stop from 30,000 feet. And then we can sort of zero in on some of the tangibles that you can actually do. But yeah, you're right. I mean, look, trading and investing, particularly.

You look at the uh the horsepower cognitively in terms of IQ, conscientiousness, industriousness, these are like psychological gold in terms of performance, these traits. And and and the industry attracts some of the the hardest working, brightest people out there. But there's a few problems that I I see, you know, and I'll I'll go through them. Um the first one is I think when with improvement

Where a lot of people go wrong is they reason by analogy. So they attempt to innovate by copying the recipes of others, falling for sales pitches, or leaning on uh best practice that's approved by the majority. Um, what we should do. as Elon Musk uh is always preaching, is reason by first principles. So we need to break our problems down into their basic elements and then reassemble them from the ground up.

Uh and this allows us to eliminate careless reasoning, copy-pasting, uh and inadequate analogies to emerge with opportunities that that others will miss. And I think this is um the case in human performance. Now, unlike physics or math. The foundational principles that drive elite performance.

aren't aren't popularized. I mean we we know why a as a human performance guy, like we know why people excel, we know the mechanisms, we know the principles that drive that. It's not a secret. And it always amazes me at how um how almost

secret or or reserved or the these principles are. And that's one of my objectives with writing the book is to like look we'll I'm gonna give people the foundational principles so that they can instead of just copy pasting other people, can start to solve their own unique problems with our own bespoke solutions. So that's that's a w that's where a lot of people go wrong. I'd say the second thing I see that is cripples many people is that

We are programmed or our nature is to think in a linear fashion. So we expect progress to be relatively constant with the effort we we invest. Um almost a straight line from bottom left to top right with progress versus effort, time, money, investment. And it's not, it is very much an exponential process.

So when you expect it to be linear and it turns out it's not, unsurprisingly, I think uh, you know, so many people experience frustration and disappointment at how ineffective their effort seems to be. And and and inevitably many people decide to give up. Um also, you know, if you can't see a straight line to the top, some of us just don't bother to try. But the fact is that it it takes one breakthrough to enable you to perceive the possibility of the next.

And, you know, there's a compounding effect with each bout of progress. And, you know, i our inability to sometimes think exponentially in terms of our progress is what sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n sy'n

when you don't perceive the pot there's m there's much potential, it inevitably affects the effort, um, the quality of the effort you put in and the quantity. That obviously impacts results. that then reinforces and it becomes it can become a negative spiral. Uh and then vice versa is when you perceive these like enormous perceptions of potential. Um the

the effort with regards to quality and quantity again, they just go through the roof and then, you know, so the results. And then again we get that upward spiral. So that's another key one I see a lot of people go wrong.

Uh and then the last one I'd make the last point I'll make there links a bit to the sort of reasoning by analogy, but Look, the reality is when when we observe elite performance, you know, we see uh it's it's DiCaprio on stage collecting his Oscar, it's uh Elon launching his new cyber truck or Tesla Roaster.

or the athlete on the podium or or you know, it's Paul Tudor, Jones, um, just just hit some ridiculous or insane profit target and and we just see we don't even see excellence when the expert's finished. So we we sort of grow up with this movie version of success. Not many of us go grow up or or spend any time at all around around elite performance um through the through the journey. Uh so we only ever see a a fraction of what excellence really entails and that's a problem.

And I sort of use the iceberg metaphor there, so it's like The part of the XO of excellence that's visible is obviously smaller and less significant. And it's the bit we can't see beneath the surface, which makes the difference when it comes to enhancing your performance. And that's where I focus. All my effort.

Yeah, they're the three things that um I think really make make make things harder for people than they need to be. So when it comes to self improvement, continuous improvement, innovation, like like p we're bombarded. There's no shortage of people uh willing to fill fill our knowledge gap in that area with quick fixes. Um the personal development space for me, la as I was, you know, uh gr growing up reading reading around this area, I mean it f it feels like a charged fire hose to the face.

Uh we're bombarded with promises of easy change, like, you know, God, whoop bands, aura rings, meditation, bulletproof coffee, channeling you're in a navy SEAL, lunchtime quidditch sessions, ice baths. It's just endless the amount of shit we're told to do. But like elite performance isn't just a prescriptive to do list of of of of things. These are these are all techniques.

um, that sit at the tip of the iceberg and they're all potentially great habits to form, but never at the expense of the principles beneath the surface, the the you know, the fundamental principles proven to drive all elite performance, which, you know, hopefully we'll get to talk about today.

Um, they simply don't have the power. And then the other one there as well, and this one kills me, and it's a really there's a couple of popular buzzwords going around at the moment. Resilience is is is a big one. We've all been we're all sort of given the mindset advice from expert performers who At the top, tend to advise us, you know, that, you know, it's all about resilience, never quit, be positive, no pain, no gain. And that advice just just

It just kills me. It's about as practical as being told to be taller. Um you know, and while those who excel often exhibit these mindsets, like, yes, we all know that. It's that's not rocket science. Yes, it takes resilience, motivation, and confidence.

They're the they're the products or symptoms of something deeper again, the fundamental principles that that are generating these mindsets of where we need to focus. So yeah, take ice baths, yeah, like at times paint on a happy face, yeah, grit your teeth here and there. But those marginal gains and and mindset advice and not why Elon Musk is is performs at the level he does or Cristiano Ronaldo performs at the level he does, you know, don't don't expect them to take you to the top.

They're they're really marginal gains, one percenters. So so focus on them, yeah, but never at the expense of the foundational principles that I'm going to introduce you to shortly. Yeah, I I like that.

You and this is something I th I picked up from early on in the book as well, is that, you know, excellence is no one single thing in isolation, which you kind of spoke about there. Absolutely. As you hinted at the principles, it's probably a good time to dive into those. So there's four principles as I understand it to optimize performance from a strategic standpoint. Let's just go through those. So I guess starting with number one.

Yeah, absolutely. So so having you know studied these outliers and I d you know identified those individuals that are performing upper limits of human capability. Um You know, we've broken broken down um the causal factors that that generate such elite performance. You know, there's this there seems to be four key areas of focus. One probably way more important than most, and that's where we'll start. I'd say that's like the foundation.

of the um of almost this this this iceberg. If you looked at the iceberg almost as a pyramid, the foundational principles right at the bottom, there's the outlier performers tend to align more closely with this one more than anything else.

Um and I I I would describe it as performing from your sweet spot. And scientifically we describe this as self-concordance theory, which was born out of self-determination theory. I'm just gonna refer to it as a s is a sweet spot. So so what's your sweet spot? And Just like uh a tennis racket has a point at which the ball is driven further and faster away, um, with greater force and if struck at at any other point, so do you.

You perform from your sweet spot when the goals that you're pursuing align with the qualities that make you unique. And and this is the essential foundation that all excellence is built from. Like nothing comes before this. Your sweet spot exists at the intersection of three things. So your strengths, your interests, and your values.

Um, so in when we're talking about strengths, we're talking about the things that come naturally to us. So maybe that's the you you know, you dust people in fifteen hundred meters, some athletic ability, or it could be uh a cognitive ability, like your ability to perhaps tell a tell a story with a swelling dialogue or perhaps you've got laser like attention to detail. Now um your strengths are gonna dictate the role you pursue. So so for instance you want to excel in trading. Well

Th th the the problem with that is that trading's a big is I mean, it's like saying I want to excel in sport, right? It's like what sport? And the metaphor here would be like, Look, if you've got um A ridiculous hip to knee ratio and lung a VO2 max of like eighty ninety, which is basically like an absolute engine.

uh and you're six foot four, then you've got the you've got uh you've got some strengths that um you know uh are highly uh causally linked with um elite performance in rowing therefore you know versus say uh table tennis So we can optimize the goals you pursue in terms of strength. And strengths are so important because they dictate your trajectory. So your responsiveness to training.

So when we pursue goals that use our ex our strengths, we use we um we experience more Eureka moments or like those breakthrough through moments. So if I'm using my strengths more so than maybe um or you're using your strengths, Aaron, more so than me. and you're having two breakthrough moments a day and I'm having one, two, three months down the line, you're gonna be so far ahead of me, I'm just never gonna catch you up no matter how hard I work or how how long I try or or how ambitious I am.

Um so so when it comes to using your strengths, it really is a case of of the best get better. And and of course the reality is that we can and should try anything we wish to try. But real excellence will elude us unless we determine early on uh those things we have pre existing strengths for for and then leverage them in our goal pursuit.

And that's really important as a trader. I see I've seen in the past, you know, people that are born to be uh physical traders, great communicators, organized, incredible attention to detail. Um But they're trying to make it as market makers and it's just painful to watch because they don't have that sort of pattern recognition perhaps. So from cognitive abilities, it's really important to map where you you excel versus the rest.

uh in in those areas and then think, well, ac actually where where's that? What what style of trading would that be a real asset in? Just like an athlete would. Does does that make sense?

It does make sense. I I guess if we could just m maybe delve into that part a little more. Thinking about this, if there's someone listening to the podcast right now, and let's say they've been trading two years, they're still fairly new to the game. You know, what would that what would their discovery process of identifying their sweet spot look like? Like could you give someone in that position a couple of pointers to, you know, identify their strengths, their interests, their values?

Yeah, so the strengths, in terms of strengths, a first question to ask is is a reflection one, a reflective one. Look where historically have you excelled versus the rest? Uh uh uh you know, throughout throughout your life? Um That's an important question to reflect on. The second one would be where have you where have you been highly responsive to training?

Uh and also where haven't you been? Uh and what's the opposite of that? Um that'll point you in certain areas and and then your your your aim is to look for you look to look for for where themes emerge.

And marry them up. The other thing I would recommend, because you've got two types of strengths, right? If you're an athlete, you've obviously got the physical aspect. And if you're a trader, you've obviously got the cognitive aspect or working in the knowledge working space. But then we all have the personality aspect.

So just like an athlete can go and do uh what we call like an anthropometric assessment to see which sports they're suited to, you can go online and do uh i I've got links in the book and I can forward some to you, Aaron, for readers at the end of like uh free cognitive testing sites where you can just go on, complete a test battery, and it'll say, look, you know, versus normal desp based on the normal distribution curve, here's where you fall and it will point you in areas. So that's a good

feedback tool. And then and then the other aspect we all share is this personality aspect where again I would I would encourage people to just again, there's three online tools. Myers Briggs, I like it. It's it's uh gets criticized by a lot of psychologists. However, I find it very useful for giving people quick insight that they can leverage and put to work quick.

Again, you're gonna get a bunch of questions, 40, 50 questions. And to what extent do you agree with the following question? It will spit you out. You'll fall into one of 16. personality types and a and it'll it it will uh the report will will show you your strengths and weaknesses and you really need to make sure you're pursuing goals that

Leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses. So where your strengths are an asset and your weaknesses just don't matter, that's the aim when it comes to strengths. Moving on to the second component of of of your sweet spot when we're talking about your interests.

Your interests, that's a that's a bit more simple and it should be a reflective one, because the interests are are are things which that that that you're drawn to like like a magnet. And the essence there is you don't need to mo motivate a child to play. And that's where interests come in in this sweet spot. So strengths have given us that nice responsiveness to training and our interests will dictate our ability to engage and put the time in. Um

that that you know to to disguise the repetition that is required t to excel. Um and they you know, when you're pursuing goals that align with your interests, they enable you to become the gym rat. You're first in, last out, and you and and you don't you're not even thinking about it. So in terms of trading again, this is where

Your strengths might influence the role or the style of trading you're gonna engage in. So you're gonna be a swing trader, a market trader, directional trader, a broker, perhaps you're gonna work in research, perhaps you're gonna be a physical trader. But your interest might dictate which asset class you work in, whether that's FX, commodities, um biofuels. I I mean I don't know. There there there's Yeah, you know, equities depending on what your interest are drawn to. Then we go on to value.

Um, so values will dictate um the intensity you bring. You know, you you You bleed, sweat, and cry to achieve your goals because doing so fulfills your values. So they're the the the the things that in the context of your career are most important to you? And that's a simple question you need to reflect on. Is is that what in the context of your career now as a trader, What's most important to you?

And based on what comes up there will dictate perhaps where you work. So again, strengths will dictate the role, interest, perhaps the domain or the asset class, but your values will dictate the um The the company. So uh are your values aligned with a company like a a Glencore or or Goldman Sachs or a small startup or maybe working independently? And you need to get those things right.

because there's that synergistic compounding effect again between that high responsiveness to training, that ability to put the time in, and then that um that third component, that that ability to bring the bring the intensity. Um And and and when you get in that sweet spot and you're pursuing goals that leverage your strengths in areas that interest you where there's that opportunity to align with your values, what happens psychologically is we unleash um what we call our predatory

um predatory circuitry in our brain. So this is this is this is psychological firepower that that, you know, we all know again, uh it's not that people lack resilience, confidence, or motivation. A lot of people are just pursuing goals that fail to ignite these things that exist within them in the first place.

And consequently they stay dormant. So again, that's that's the key thing that that makes this uh sweet spot piece s so important. Um and your sweet spot will be as as unique to you as your fingerprint. Uh yeah. And it's your job to do that research. Spend some time there if you really want to excel and and find out who you are and then make sure you go out there and be it. So this requires shifting from the

There there's this bullshit, you can be anything you want to be. To the more accurate, you can be a hell of a lot more of who you already are. And and I love the poker analogy here that, you know, the greatest poker players aren't the ones with the best hands, but the ones who can leverage the hands they have been dealt best. And and that's that's the that that's stage one, that comes before everything else.

That's going to be your biggest lever in terms of maximizing your progress. So that's principle one. And I appreciate I've taken some time to go into that, but it's so important. So I don't feel guilty.

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I was just gonna ask you on the the point about values there, you know, someone who's an independent trader, uh maybe self funded at home or maybe even a a prop trader within a firm. What would you expect someone in that position to say uh their values? Obviously, you know, like you said, everyone's values are gonna be different, but just generally speaking

Someone who's optimized to be working independently will probably say things like, you know what? Autonomy, freedom, um, you know, control over my um control over my strategy, my risk management. Those things might be important. Um, it could be a bit of strength stuff going on as well. It could be like, look, I'm really introverted and I like, I don't like interruption. I don't like loud trade trade like trading floors.

Um, you know, the the nightmare situation there is actually if you're naturally maybe a bit more extroverted and you actually learn I I'm a person who learns through discussion, conversation. So knowing that, I know that or working in isolation on my own.

um as I experienced writing this damn book is not optimal for me. It's painful, especially during this horrendous lockdown we've had in the UK. I I I'm much more effective when I'm in an environment where I have the opportunity to samboard my ideas of someone. So therefore, you know, that that's that's gonna shape the environment or the organization I might opt to work work in work in or with. Um does does that make sense?

Yeah, a hundred percent. That's that's really good actually. I think that clears clears that up. I I I th I just I swear to God, like the amount of money and time we spend looking for quick wins, if if people can reflect

you know, spend a good hour maybe reflecting on those questions, engaging in those test batteries and and then just coming back to it each week. You know, your sweet spots this, you know, it's not it's not panacea, like, you know, you can uh it's not uh an indefinite route to ultimate virtue but it's the the the biggest um The the biggest factor I think that

the biggest multiplier for progress and and and it and it's hard to get perfect and and the message here that I want to make clear is that look don't don't wait to get it perfect.

Just have an idea of where it is or an area to optimize one of those dimensions if if something jumps up and you're like, actually that's definitely a key point. Just go with that. And and your sweet spot sort of um zeros you in as you go. So Rydyn ni'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd

galvanize your instinct, your your definition improves and you get more feedback. So don't worry about getting it perfect. Just get an idea of where it might be, then go out and test it. That's my advice in terms of sweet spot. Excellent.

Phase two. We should. Let's go into that. I believe it has something to do with technical preparation or maybe skill acquisition. So yeah, let's hear that. Yeah. So so so sweet spot, right? We're working with a hardware. We're working about what is our hardware. These are the things that are relatively consistent about us, um, our strengths, interests, values. So once we've optimized the goals we're pursuing in that respect.

we've theoretically got this technology with it with bursting with potential. The challenge now is to upload skill. So think of it as like if you're t i if you're You know, the sweet spots a bit like finding the most functional technology or the the latest and greatest smartphone. Well the the s the skill acquisition or technical preparation phase is about right, what apps do I need and how do I get the most high performing functional software onto that so that I can

start to perform and be effective. So this is where I'm going to start dispel that 10,000 hours myth that I detest because it was just really bad, bad science. Like I I love uh some of these books written by journalists are just, you know, they're

They're amazing and I think they're really good gateway into human performance. But one of the flaws is that When you have journalists writing books about human performance, they're they inevitably are gonna be focusing on like attention grabbing headlines versus, you know, the the the the reality or the true picture. Um and this is a classic example of that. So the study that that statement sort of came from and was popularized.

was actually on one set of performers. Um, one individual, I think there were only about twelve or fourteen of them. So one of them actually their time to acquire expert status was 2,700 hours. Another one was like 27 and a half thousand hours. The mean time was actually around 11 and a half thousand hours. So it i the ten thousand hours thing's a load of bullshit uh uh uh in in that respect because

What we would do in human performance is go to the individual that did that in 2700 hours and be like, what the hell is going on there? Was it just genetics? Was it the guy was in his sweet spot, or was it there were certain mechanisms with the training that they were exposed to that others were? And and that's what we've done and that's how they should look at that. So I think it's a really negative message because the the reality is if it takes you ten thousand hours to excel

Um, you've you've got a really shit methodology and you're definitely not performing in your sweet spot and you're definitely not aligned with the principles that I'm about to talk to you about in terms of your training.

So it's not the time spent training that matters. It's the time spent training under the principles of what I'd call three dimensional training. That's the most important predictor of your development trajectory trajectory. So Mate, if it's all up with you, I'm just gonna crack through those and people what would be useful I think is as I go through them, if people sort of uh reflecting on like to what extent am I aligned with with said principle. Of course. Yeah.

So principle one. Start with the comprehensive foundations. And you know, to be successful, you don't have to do extraordinary things. You have to do ordinary things extraordinarily well. So for example, I'm gonna use a sport example here because I just it I think it hits the point. And that's that i in tennis, over I think it's over eighty-five percent of points are won through the first serve, return serve, and second serve.

If that's the case, then you'd better make damn sure that your training in terms of resources and effort is focused on those three huge levers. But the irony is well when you go to most academies, and I know this happened um I think at the LTA, when they did this assessment, they're like, We spend about a quarter of our time training on the

on on the the things that deliver eighty five percent of our results. So again it links to Peretto's Law and I think people listening to this podcast will know what that is. But the message is like what what does it take to win? understand where the the your big levers are in terms of um creating a winning trading strategy and make sure you're focusing there and you're not focusing on marginal gains, bits and pieces.

So that's number one. Once you got that right, we're gonna you we go on to principle two, which is essentially practice over theory. So again, like knowing a lot about pianos doesn't mean you can play one. It's what you can do, not what you know that sets you apart. So so try and make your training or learning, especially if you're you are a theoretical person and you enjoy

reading, if you want to excel as a trader, then you know, you need to be putting that theory to practice as quick as possible. Um so you need to swap that, recite, repeat, regurgitate. And you see this are a lot of like trading flaws where it's just memorize or recite, repeat a uh a certain strategy. And we need to swap that for like think, do and produce.

So again, using a different example, if we go to like chess now, instead of having the chess player memorizing opening moves, play them, simplified simulations in problem areas, you know, pausing to engage. uh have the you know discuss what's going on, forcing thinking, forcing the the performer to perceive the market or the chessboard in this context, um, and then have you know articulate your understanding of what's going on.

And and that's what's gonna fuse those neural structures in your brain that that ultimately skills built built up on. Um and it'll s you'll start sparking and lock in that that learning. Then then we sort of move on to principle three.

And that's it the and this is a really important one. Like it's on you. It it's your future, your responsibility. Therefore you take the lead in it all. Um and imagine if people are working independently, they're probably already quite good at this.

If you're in an organization you want to excel as a trader, then don't expect to just be given the solutions. You need to go out there and find them. When when you're fed the answers, um, given solutions, there's fewer breakthrough breakthrough moments that that fire and wire. Um, our mental structures, which is how our skills are stored in our brain. Um, coaches, trainers on on on courses, so on and so forth, they can explain it to to you, but they can't understand it for you.

So you have to do that hard work. You have to spend that time, you know, you're squishing your eyebrows squishing together, your blood pressure's going up, you're squinting your eyes. trying to sort of work out and internalize what's going on. Um when when you when you summon your own solutions, the the practice changes you. Um yeah and ultimately advanced skills can't be taught. They must just be discovered by you.

Principle four, we need challenge to change. So look, when you increase your demands beyond your current abilities, we create um what we call a performance gap. And it's exposure to this gap that's the stimulus to adapt to a higher level. So we call this like the adaptive zone. Um and you and you need to spend as much time as far into that adaptive zone as you can. That's the spark that's gonna activate your

genetic potential to uh essentially uh expand your capacity uh and have you adapt to a superior level. Um obviously if you're going to the point where you're hyperventilating, then you're in the panic zone and you've gone a bit too far, so come back.

But if you're, you know, if you're if you're training or you're listening to a lecture or if you're listening to this podcast even, but you're thinking about what you're gonna have for dinner or what you're gonna watch on TV tonight, like it the tr it's not making you better. So just end it. Um that's a key point. Principle five.

If it doesn't happen on the pitch, then it doesn't happen in practice. So again, unless your training reflects the specific skills that are breaking down during live performance. then it just won't make you better, no matter how long you do it for and and how hard you try. So you must identify the problem areas in your strategy or in your performance on a daily basis, depending on what style of trading you're engaged in.

Um, and then you gotta focus your areas there. Um, some people like to they get excited about certain areas, like the classic one in sport is is um the soccer player who likes to go in the garden practice tricks. It's like the problem is tricks don't win you matches.

So again, it's that linking it back to all what what's winning matches and then where are my obstacles there? Where are my skills breaking down in the market? Uh and and there's so many amazing ma metrics platforms you can use in trading. to get that that that the athletes or other people in the knowledge working world don't have access to. So that's a really important one. I'm gonna do that mate.

Principle six. Uh yeah, pr create uncertainty. So in most fields, elite performance is full of potential minefields. Uh you know, the c and the question here is, and I see this is again perhaps more relevant to individuals in um a fund or or trading house.

But like, is it reasonable for your to expect your traders to handle um huge market moves in or or or positions running against them in a competitive environment if they never experienced them i in training? You know, of course it's not. So We need to prepare and train in extreme conditions that to force failure in safe, controlled environments.

So that we teach ourselves or or the people we're we're responsible for coaching to deal with those emotions and challenges and failure that, you know, guarantee you're guaranteed to experience in reality and Jesus Christ in trading more than most areas. Um and and the product of that is that you're obviously less intimidated when you encounter them in the real world. So that so that's another really important one. I understand that's harder to structure if you're an independent trader.

But it's certainly not in terms of perhaps running through a um what you call it, a um I don't know if you are running through certain scenarios where you're historically looking back at events, uh if you're in do engaged in event trading for for example, go hard, go extreme and create pressure. Last principle before I take a breath is variability.

And this is a key point. Learning is not mindlessly repeating solutions. It's it's the mindful search for solutions, repeated over and again. So the aim is get it right and move on. Uh, adapt the problem. As soon as you found a solution, change the problem. And this forces you to adjust your skill to the changing uh situation.

Uh it forces you to perceive the environment, the market, it forces you to to to make decisions, engage in pattern recognition, look for opportunities, decide make you know, again make decisions under under restricted timeframes. And the and honing these um vital components of your skills and perception and decision making aspects is is so important. And and I think a good example for this is um

I uh I when I have my my uh old iPhone, when I was setting it up, you know the the thumb recognition? You know when you put your thumb on it, you've gotta like it swirls around on the screen. And it's like, well, if you tried to marry if you just did it once and you had to marry up your um your your thumbprint exactly every time to open your screen, like you just wouldn't be able to deploy that technique in

reality, it wouldn't work. And it's the same way when we just memorize, repeat, and we don't have enough variability in our training. We have a very specific solution for a very specific problem. And the reality is the market never presents in those exact conditions.

So you must like that thumbprint, what your iPhone had you do was sort of adjust your thumbprint, take it off, put it back, and that it would sort of these red swirls on the screen. And and what that was was your phone was almost mapping your thumb as a skill. Um, therefore, whatever angle it comes at you, um whether that's a trade in the market or your thumb on that uh phone, you're able to unlock it and uh and and engage to to create a a result.

There was a obviously a lot of really awesome tips in there. Uh one of the things which really stood out to me and I quite liked was the tennis statistic you gave right at the start there. Yeah. Can you just repeat that? Do you have that handy? Yeah, so so this is a approximately this is approximation, but I think it's it's roughly that in tennis over I think it's over eighty five percent, at least eighty um percent of points are won through the first serve.

The return serve and the second serve. And the message is that if eighty six percent of the results are coming from those things, then you know, approximately you're gonna wanna you wanna you're gonna wanna like if I'm going in and I'm assessing someone's skill acquisition program, one of the things I'm gonna look at is like Okay, well are you spending your time and resources on those things that when you When your results. Exactly. Yeah.

So is it your entry? Is it your exit? Is it your trade craft? Like what depending on your start of uh trading, there'll be certain parts of your trade flow process. that are break that that have a disproportionate effect on the ability. You know, if you maybe perhaps for you it might be if you get your entry right, then it's just no worries from then. So then God, make sure you get that right.

Rydyn ni'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd. Yeah. It kinda reminds me of like this idea that it's like we find something which kind of works and we have some success and and it I I think it's like almost a natural human tendency to then want to find something else. Instead of just doubling down and trying to see how you can do that that thing that you've discovered, how you can do that even better.

Whatever you're into, I I I mean I've seen it in trading. So much of this, like it's very, very rare that a trader's success is built on a on one or two extraordinary things. I swear to God, the majority of successful traders, whether that's like, you know, hedge fund world or like um a derivatives trading world.

Y most most people that excel at the top that I've met or worked with are the people that master the basics and don't make big errors. It's the errors that kill you. And you I don't know whether you're into football or s like rugby.

Again, the best team the teams that win tend to win World Cups or Six Nations, it's not the ones that have that one moment of genius. It's it's often the one that doesn't make that one big fuck up. Um uh with regard to the the the foundational uh principles of that craft.

So let's step forward again. Uh principle number three. So three, yeah, I'll be quicker with this one. Yeah. So theoretically, right now, in our journey, we've done this right. We've got this individual burst of potential.

And then we've had their their technical preparations second to none. You know, they've been line with all those principles we've just been talking about. Like they're ready to deploy their technical ability, right? Now, the next thing that can come a a cropper here is our ability to access our technical ability when it can.

Now, essentially at this stage, it's time to deliver on your sweet spot and all your skill acquisition. And in trading like most elite performance environments, you need to do that on demand and under pressure. You know, you can't predict when things are just gonna crash or move or that opportunity that's there and then gone forever is gonna come. You just gotta be able to deliver everything you've got in the tank in that moment. So that 10 years of work can come down to 10 seconds.

Um so we're not focusing on getting better anymore, but just delivering on what we've got. Um and one of the things that outliers do is flick the switch, regulate their emotion, and fight the urge to panic. So the good news here is that you can control your emotions because you create your emotions. Uh your emotions are built by you, not built into you. And In essence, you can develop performance routines that that act as these switches we can uh we we can flick.

And the simple formula there is really that your thoughts plus your actions equals an emotional state. So if you can manipulate your thoughts and the actions you engage in, you can um you you can dictate the emotion you experience. Now obviously when it's time to deliver on demand under pressure.

Um, I would describe that as uh well in sports psychology we'd call it like a bluehead state, a flow state. So you wanna feel confident, you want your your brain flooded with uh super sick, so that like an andide, serotonin, oxytocin, you know, the brain just giving you all those good chemicals that that that create this like chemical symphony of indestructibility.

And and that's where you access absolutely everything you've got in the tank. And that's when you sort of get lost in the moment. Uh and and and just it's it's that to be honest is almost what elite performance is all about, like trying to get into that state. So I guess the message here is that emotional control is a skill and like any skill, you must invest methodology, time and energy to develop and maintain it. And I go into a lot of depth about this in the book because it is

It is a more complicated subject, but in essence, it's also not rocket science. It's you manipulate those thoughts, you manipulate those actions. Thoughts plus actions equals emotion. So if you're in a d in an emotional state that suboptimal for your decision making in a trading environment, then just l write that formula down and go through well, what's going through my head there? What am I thinking? What am I doing?

And and this is where you'll look at things like your body language, your breathing pattern, um a and there's certain sports that master this. Um but yeah, you and then you can By learning about those um how you work here in terms of well look, where are those moments where you do keep it together and you're great? Well what are the thoughts and actions going on there? And then how can you create that routine um

So that you've got this steps, series of steps that act as a each one acts as like a small win. And the great thing about routines it just it They leave no time for you to get caught up in the moment. Because as soon as you become aware that you're in a suboptimal state, a strategy could be as simple as three, two, one, like, you know, a distraction countdown, I'd call that. It could be slam the table.

State change, stand up, check my posture. So shoulders back, chin high, eyes up, take a few deep breaths. And then go back to the problem. It could be as simple as that. It could be go for a walk. It could just be ring a friend. Like you can make these as um deliberate or vague as as you like, again, based on your personality and what works for you. But the key thing is you can control it. Um And you have the option too. And that's what outliers performers do. And a lot of them not consciously.

But the good news is you can consciously intervene and take control of that and build that skill. We just tend not to focus our effort on building that um emotional control skill like we might uh a a technical skill.

So one of the aspects of this principle you've outlined here uh is executing, right, under pressure in the heat of the moment. This is probably something a lot of tr a lot of traders, uh I guess maybe newer traders struggle with more than uh experienced traders, but maybe still to a certain extent. You know, when they they see something Yeah. They see something, they sort of know they should act on it.

uh but hesitate and kind of miss that opportunity. Yeah. You know, they struggle to execute is really what it comes down to. Yeah. Yes. How would you what are some tips you give to someone? Obviously it's something you could work on over time, but like where would you start? Absolutely. So I would start at the foundation of our of our pyramid or iceberg with Concordo.

Because again, there's a reason this comes third. And that that reason is that if you are performing um goals that are leveraging your strengths and you're sincerely interested and they're aligning with your values, and you've had you've had the adequate technical preparation. It's very unlikely that this is gonna be a big issue. And this is almost we're getting towards the marginal and marginal gains, but we're all we're not quite at the surface of the iceberg yet, but we're getting closer.

So if you do those two things well, if you have trainings designed to expose you to those situations, you should be inoculated to them. The most simple way to deal with this is like, look, if you perceive that the if the challenge is taking you into that panic state or what I'd maybe call as like a r a redhead and you and you you're feeling starting to feel frustrated or anxious, frustrated or anxious or even angry. Um the best thing to do is just break the problem down.

Just literally whether that's reducing your size, giving yourself more time, um, changing your expectations, reducing them, um, but deconstruct the challenge. you know, break break what's a one big overwhelming thing down into a much smaller thing. If it's because you've got seven positions on, just have one or two. If it's because you've just started uh applying the same strategy but within a different uh asset class or derivative that you don't understand as well, then reduce your size.

I think position size is really important there. There that would be my top one. D does that help, Aaron, or is there anything anything more specific I could add there? No, I think that's fairly specific.

I guess uh the next part is the tip of the iceberg, so principle number four. Well, I'm not gonna get at the tip of the iceberg'cause the tip of the iceberg is just all that be positive, be motivated, no pain, no gang, wake up at four o'clock stuff. So we already know that. You guys uh you know, whoop bands, all that stuff, which is again, is great, but only never at the expense of

what what what I'm talking about here. So the last one before we hit the iceberg is again, you could just describe this as continuous pro improvement slash innovation. And and this one for me is really important. Like the reality again, so we think of our journey, we've we're pursuing the right goals. We're technically b we've been technically prepared. to deliver. We're psychologically prepared to access our technical ability on demand under pressure.

We do those three things right, we we would have had some success, like no danger. The the issue then becomes We've worked so hard to achieve success. Let's make sure we sustain it once we finally have it. Like no one wants to be the one hit wonder, but so many are. And and that's because we have these inherent biases that Once we almost get to the top of the mountain, um set in and they can be destructive for us.

Um and and then in you know, it's often referred to as what we call like post summit peril. So uh again when it comes to death rates on Everest, the vast majority occur on the way down. And the point there is that by the time we sum it, we're exhausted. The temptation is there to just bask in our glory and take in the view at the top. And the risk is we switch off mentally. We start to take shortcuts, cut corners, and and as a consequence

In climbing, more people die coming down than going up. And There's two biases in particular that make this difficult for us. The first one is what we call like continuity bias. So this causes us to assume that the future will resemble the present. And the effect of this is that we downplay the real risks we face, um, when threats what threats exist, when they might strike and how significant they can be.

And and uh Jesus Christ we've had a few of those in the last few years, whether that's like, you know, did uh did the US predict Trump, did y the EU predict Brexit, did any of us predict Covid? Yeah. Yeah, and and the reason we didn't is is because of this continuity bias. Um so that can be a killer at the top.

Um and then the next one that compounds is the illusion of personal control and where so many people go wrong and and I think it's sad to say, but I think there is a lot of this in in particular in the hedge fund space, there's this We downplay the role of randomness in our success. And we end up thinking that, you know, we've achieved success and it's all down to our pure genius. And we sort of ignore that.

fifty percent tailwind we had because the market was just perfect then. And and the problem is that again, just like the continuity bias, it makes us complacent. And when we're complacent, we're vulnerable, like we're there for the taking. Um So we need to do something about that. Uh I guess a key point there as well is also that with these biases, the damage is slow and silent. Like you get to the top, everything's going well, and then

when these biases set in and they start impacting our behavior, it's not like it affects us overnight. It's again sort of that exponential progress where that the or that exponential breakthrough or that takes us to the top can sort of spit us out the bottom just as exponentially. It's like a drop of arsenic a day. And then suddenly over a year, two years, whack, we just suddenly crash and and the results aren't there anymore. And and then we panic and

uh bring in a a an improvement consultant or or st start waking up early or working harder for longer or just sack someone. The reality is that those problems were symptomatic of s stuff that happened years ago.

Um so what we do about it, uh I think the best mentality here, this there's four sort of things or principles we can we can align with, or or set especially our mindset at least anyway, uh align our mindset with. And the first one is that although We must strive to be number one.

Never let ourselves get there. So and I think what good organizations do or or individuals, they have a sort of a clear vision that even when they're at the top, we'll keep them in second place. Um and and the vision sort of Uh my favourite one here is is probably um G B rowing. So the the great British Olympic team rowing teams make the boat go faster. I mean that acted as a brilliant vision. It's not something you can achieve.

Um, it's it you can always make the boat go faster. So that's that's sort of how a vision might keep you in second place. It it acts as that North Star. So the closer you get to it, the higher in the sky it looks. And that is that s when you know, when we're in second place, we've got that hunger, that drive, that adversity and and it and it stimulates that that pressure we need to to drive continued progress. So I think a clear vision is a really good one.

Um, that's like personally I like for me, uh you know, it's my job is to accelerate excellence. You know, that's not something I can achieve. There's always ways to optimize how I do that. Step two, I would say, is to and this is where so many people go wrong. I think we we again it's another bias we have, but it's we like to jump to solutions. And this is why the reason to reasoning by analogy is such a a problem. We have a problem and then we see the advert.

Oh wow, like bulletproof coffee'll solve all my problems. So then we we jump to that and we're always looking for that s silver bullet that will wish away our problems. Instead, what's really important is to Develop a comprehensive understanding of that, what it takes to win, and then constantly evaluate where you are in relation to that. And before you start engaging in techniques and, you know, development interventions.

Which, you know, any organisation in the world, th there's always a million and one things you could do to make it better. The key is again to be maximally responsive to change and pick the right thing. And this is why that firm re under uh firm understanding of where you are now.

um, in terms of what it takes to win and what generates results for you is so important. Because the rule then becomes, well, look, if if what we need to do to innovate and stay ahead of the rest isn't obvious, then The rule there is that we don't understand the problem well enough. And it's way better to say, I don't know, and spend time doing this uh understand piece than it is to just jump to solutions.

We need to understand the the problems and and what holds us back so well that the the solutions fall in our laps. So that's the second thing. And then Thirdly, It's like setting a target. We need to constantly set targets that the end of the improvement cycle isn't goal achievement. The end of the improvement cycle should be setting the next goal. 'Cause we set that next goal. Um and even if you're at the top, you gotta you know, you gotta reflect hard.

raise the bar and and that might mean fighting to find competition at some times. And you've seen in elite sport how teams like the All Blacks or or the British Olympic team Um, particularly maybe the the the cycling team that's dominated.

you know, they're not comparing themselves to other cycling teams or the All Blacks aren't necessarily comparing themselves to other rugby teams. They're comparing themselves to other to the win percentages of other elite sports teams in different sports altogether. So they're no longer like, are we the best rugby team in the world? We're like, well, where are we in the terms of our win rate as a sports team?

Um, and I think that's another good mindset to have. So we need to swap out that if it ain't broke, don't fix it for if it ain't broke, here with a sledgehammer, set a goal, s stretches us. Um, that will uncover obstacles, establishing that performance gap we talked about in the in the skill acquisition, moves us into the adaptive zone.

Um again switches on our psychological firepower uh and we can drive drive innovation that way. And then finally, the final step there is like we've got to run experiments, just experimentation.

So once we've got our target, we need to sort of start experimenting our way to success. So There's a lot of certainty. We can set our vision with certainty. We can understand our problem with a lot of certainty. We can set a target with a lot of certainty. But when it comes to that experimentation phase, Suddenly it's like we're we're working in the realms of uncertainty. We're we're working in the dark. Um, and this means that, you know, essentially we need to

To to make a plan. And again, the rule is, as the saying goes, a uh a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. And the reason is that as soon as we start experimenting and taking action according to the plan, the learning or innovation process, whatever you want to call it, begins. And that action we take provides us with a reaction. And that means we can stop telling people about our plans and start showing them our results.

And this stage will im will mean failing. And you know, that's not good or bad. It's just data that that helps guide the innovation uh innovation. So that the the message there is just learn from it. Uh if the experiment's successful, then wicked, celebrate for a moment. Um, but just remember that the the end of the improvement cycle.

is um is not success, but that transitional period to the next improvement plan. There's no single point where learning ends and we're left with just excellence. It's a fluid, continual process with no finish line. And uh yeah, we just need to keep at it.

And there we go, Aaron. So if you do if you do those four things, then you you get a the the probability uh you know, the more more you align with the principles of discussed there, the higher your probability is gonna be of um success over time. Right. And I mean there's of course other areas we could go into, but I think just running through these four principles which you've outlined is is just hugely beneficial. So I think we'll leave it there and not overwhelm the audience with uh

any further information. So to wrap this up, you do have a book coming out, which I've uh sort of referenced a couple of times throughout our chat here. Um when is the release date? When's that actually coming out? So the book is um available for pre-order in the next twenty-four hours.

So by the time you're hearing this podcast Yeah, if you listen to this podcast, the book is available for for for pre order and it goes into obviously a lot more depth of the of the principles we've talked about, along with a lot of other aspects that that that really do drive um elite performance. So yeah, that you you you can order that at your local bookstore, Amazon, so on and so forth. The title's accelerating excellence. Um my my website's James A King dot com.

Okay. And do you have a is the release date scheduled? Like it'll it's up for um a pre-order. This is on the pre order and it will be released in uh inside two months. Okay. So what are we March now? So March, April, May. Hãy subscribe cho kênh La La School Để không bỏ lỡ những video hấp dẫn Okay. Brilliant. Um and just folks listening, I'll put

Uh if you just want a direct link to that book on Amazon just for your convenience, just go chatwithtraders dot com slash James. That'll redirect you straight to accelerating excellence on Amazon. Uh, James, if you know, folks listening want to find out a bit more about yourself or follow along uh with things you're doing or just uh connect with you online some somewhere is um where where's the best place to go?

Jamesaking.com's my website, James A. King on LinkedIn, Instagram at James A. King underscore. Also, if there are Uh any talented traders out there who have a three year track record and are are are interested in professionalizing their approach to trading, I'm I'm still working closely with Claymore Strategies on Project Thor, where we're looking to identify uh talented traders. Um so if anyone has uh uh is interested in that, uh feel free to get in touch there at um info at projectthor.co.uk.

Okay. And I'll also throw in the mix here. Uh we've previously done a podcast a couple of years back. Uh episode one hundred and thirty three. Uh we're worth your time to go back and listen to that. And uh James, I appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you, Aaron. It's great chatting. Um I I appreciate I've bombarded people with information here, but I I hope it's useful. You've reached the end of the This episode of Chat With Traders. And zero high.

If you'd leave a race