Inventory

One thing that people underestimate in the trading game is inventory.  A lot of people have the impression that if you are light, with no positions and no committed capital you will be able to seize upon an opportunity when it presents itself.

Interestingly, every big trader I ever knew always had a position.  If they went on a vacation, they might pare it down, but when they got back the first thing they did was build inventory.  If you have inventory, you actually are more able to cope with changes in the market because opportunities avail themselves that might not be available to someone else.  You can roll a position.  You know the value of something so you can sell that call or put.  You can butterfly, or spread.  You can extend or shorten depending on the market.

A lot of trading lessons translate in a parallel way to startups.  Inventory does too.

What is “inventory” in a software startup?  It’s not like a product company where you build actual physical inventory and store it in a warehouse.  Inventory is more like commitment.  Commit to a destination and the path to get there.  Until you start walking it and working toward it, you cannot seize opportunities that present themselves.

Buffing up that last feature before you launch is probably not a good idea in software.  Launching earlier is better.

Only people in the market are able to make their own luck.  If you aren’t, you sit on the bench and opportunity just passes you by without you even knowing it.