Trading Story: Trading Interviews, Tips & Inspiration For Newer Traders

Metaphors are very helpful things. Metaphors can really cement ideas into our heads. The best teachers are the teachers who can take an abstract, but real concept and give it some form with an accurate metaphor which aptly describes that idea. Some of the most well-known metaphors, also called ‘word pictures’, are: ‘beating a dead horse’, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, ‘elephant in the room’, ‘kicked the bucket’, or ‘800-lb gorilla’. None of these expressions literally mean what is said. These metaphors all point to something beyond themselves. Let’s take the last one, ‘800-lb Gorilla’. Chances are you’ve never seen an actual 800-lb gorilla in the wild. But if you did, you wouldn’t want to challenge his supremacy over the lady gorillas in his clan. No, you would want to leave that alpha alone to his harem and mosey on down the mountain. 800-lb gorillas do what 800-lb gorillas want to do. In the same way, some companies are known as 800-lb gorillas. For instance, Google – now called ‘Alphabet’ is an 800-lb