Why systems aren't the only importance in trading

I stumbled across an interesting tweet this morning that came from Assad Tannous, the founder of Asenna Capital and much revered trader within the trading community having accumulated a wealth of experience through personal encounters in financial markets and offering pearl's of wisdom he learnt from his time as a novice most of which aspiring traders face frequently.

Today's lesson came from a common fallacy accepted by new traders that leans towards placing a considerable amount of priority on developing a trading system while neglecting to recognize the importance of the other remaining aspects involved in trading that all play an important part in ensuring long term success.

I couldn't agree more with the statement as I can often recall going on a frantic search in finding the "Holy Grail" of systems that would generate me returns every time I decided to participate in markets only to be disappointed by the living with dogmatic results on most occasions.  

If trading is..
15% system,
15% risk management,
70% psychology,
Why do most traders spend 99% of their time working on developing systems.

— Assad Tannous (@AsennaWealth) November 14, 2016

But here's the thing, our expectation on markets to perform consistently and profitably over time can be no further from the truth and because we take up these unrealistic presumptions we constantly find ourselves falling into the trap of either tinkering with the existing system by making it more complicated or heading on a renewed mission to find a new one that coincides with current conditions that simply goes "broke" after the market changes appearance.  

And while trading systems form an integral part of the entire trading process, being able to acknowledge it's effectiveness under certain pressures when active holds a greater value to your success as a trader than mindlessly executing a system that can't cope 3/4 of the time.

A trading system provides the structural characteristics of a trade with the goal of promoting organisational flow which allows you to observe your trade performance in an analytical manner, helping you to easily identify areas of improvement.

Risk management should remain in place at all times as an acknowledgement on the part of the trader recognising the markets ability to transition from a favourable environment into a climate that becomes indifferent to rules, reason and return in quick succession.

Finally, psychology is needed to help the trader better cope with these transitional periods, requiring the bulk of a trader's energies in understanding that probably the greatest source of emotional instability is produced from that which we are not in control of.

Processing emotions properly assists the trader in freeing up the pressures of having the feeling of restlessness interrupt the normal course of placing a trade which becomes distorted in not realising the control over the system and risk management.