Dealing with FOMO and feeling boxed in

I’ve noticed that everyone trading every asset class/product/industry seem to have FOMO/feel like they are boxed into their niche. Examples of friends:

  • Power trader thinks they only know ERCOT and can’t pivot
  • FX trader thinks they just have surface level exposure to other parts of macro and is stuck trading 3 month EUR
  • HC analyst has hard time transitioning to Fins
  • HFT friends think they have little economic understanding of what they trade / only know how to optimize execution
  • I trade macro RV and am tired picking dealers off on tiny mispricings

    The more people I speak with, the more that I’m starting to think that this is a fairly widespread phenomenon. How do you deal with what-could-have-beens? Is the solution to just put your head down and get really, really good at whatever the path you’ve gone down?
2 Comments
 

Every time I thought I understood a strategy or product area outside of my own and tried to venture into it, I have been humbled. Over time FOMO is replaced with learning to stay in your lane, and choosing to hire / partner when you need to diversify (investing is a specialist skill, management is a generalist skill). 

In this field, experts make money and tourists are P&L donors... 

 
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