Jonathan Hoenig makes some interesting points here. An excerpt:
“…most of the artistic world is subjective. One person’s trash is another’s treasure. But trading is just the opposite – it’s unabashedly objective. Numbers don’t lie. You’re either in the black or not. We’ve often pointed out that the only reason to invest in anything is to make money. Talk is cheap and performance is the only thing that really matters. So it might surprise you that, on a daily basis, I don’t keep precise tabs on my fund’s monthly or year-to-date performance. At any given moment, I’ll have a general estimate of where I stand, but as a rule I try and tune out the exact score. Why? If performance is all that matters, why would I avoid following the exact return? The answer is because trading is like chess, not weightlifting. It’s not an endeavor that’s won or lost in one day depending how hard you flex your financial muscles. It’s a finesse game; it’s strategy. So you think and play for position, looking to set up exposures that are likely to unfold slowly over the next six months…not 60 seconds.”