Note: This article first appeared on the TraderFeed site, 8/14/06


Trading is a crucible of life: it distills, in a matter of minutes, the basic human challenge: the need to judge, plan, and seek values under conditions of risk and uncertainty. In mastering trading, we necessarily face and master ourselves. Very few arenas of life so immediately reward self-development--and punish its absence.

So many life lessons can be culled from trading and the markets:

1) Have a firm stop-loss point for all activities: jobs, relationships, and personal involvements. Successful people are successful because they cut their losing experiences short and ride winning experiences.

2) Diversification works well in life and markets. Multiple, non-correlated sources of fulfillment make it easier to take risks in any one facet of life.

3) In life as in markets, chance truly favors those who are prepared to benefit. Failing to plan truly is planning to fail.

4) Success in trading and life comes from knowing your edge, pressing it when you have the opportunity, and sitting back when that edge is no longer present.

5) Risks and rewards are always proportional. The latter, in life as in markets, requires prudent management of the former.

6) Happiness is the profit we harvest from life. All life's activities should be periodically reviewed for their return on investment.

7) Embrace change: With volatility comes opportunity, as well as danger.

8) All trends and cycles come to an end. Who anticipates the future, profits.

9) The worst decisions, in life and markets, come from extremes: overconfidence and a lack of confidence.

10) A formula for success in life and finance: never hold an investment that you would not be willing to purchase afresh today.

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MANAMA: The Islamic finance sector is set to become a $2 trillion industry in the next three to five years from its current $1trn mark in spite of the financial slowdown.

Though the Islamic finance industry has enjoyed rapid growth over the past few years, a key challenge is to ensure that this growth is sustainable.

The 17th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2010), which will be held from November 22 to 24 at the Gulf Hotel, will feature high-level discussions and debates on building a new growth paradigm and ensuring continued success for the Islamic banking and finance industry.

One of the key roundtable sessions at WIBC 2010 will feature critical discussions on the evolution of the Islamic finance industry and re-configuring business models in the new global financial landscape.

"For Islamic finance to move from its current $1trn state to its deserved level of $2trn in the next five years, the industry needs paradigm shifting changes," said Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic finance and a keynote speaker at the conference Rushdi Siddiqui.

"We are observing and actively participating in interesting developments that will move global Islamic finance to that level - from bilateral to multiple liquidity, from fund registration to funds supermarket, from fragmentation to connectivity, from divergence to convergence, and from Islamic finance hub to transaction hub.

"The conference is an important event for Islamic finance in this context as it represents the global convergence of multiple stakeholders to create one interconnected transaction hub.

"As a knowledge partner, we look forward to sharing these insights and more at the WIBC 2010 event," he added.

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