Sunday 20 November 2016

If Steve Jobs Had Addressed QVM Traders



Steve Jobs made many famous speeches and has been quoted many times but his speech to Stanford University graduates in 2005 could have been written for QVM Traders.

Possibly the single biggest difficulty for traders is uncertainty about our future. We are constantly asking management "What are your plans?", "What is going to happen in the next few years and how can I best prepare or how will I be protected?" 

Unfortunately it is difficult to get definitive answers to those questions. Plans are still being evolved, and a market renewal has many unknowns, particularly in the middle of a retail revolution. Traders have unknowns, management have unknowns and city designers have unknowns. We are all entering into a brave new world of uncertainty similar to Steve Jobs as he embarked on re-defining personal computers with the Apple Mac.

Here is his advice to university graduates at Stanford on preparing for the future - 
You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
Because believing the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will make all the difference.”


Sometimes we need to trust that genuine effort,  professional application, and perhaps an element of luck will help us achieve great things. There is no shortage of talent amongst traders, management, or city planners as we work together for a successful outcome. In 10 years time we will be able to look back and say "So that is how the dots joined". In the meantime we can only trust.