> Other commodity traders, more well-versed in the theory of commodity trading, scoffed at Joe’s lack of what they believed to be “essential knowledge”. But while these academic style traders (many of whom went bust) obsessed over semantics and theories of what caused lumber prices to change, Joe did what he does best: trade lumber. It appears that knowing the origin of the term “green lumber” is irrelevant to becoming a successful green lumber trader, no matter how much theoreticians want to believe otherwise.

Uhmmm... I'd describe what happened there as lucky. I find the argument that understanding what you're trading is unnecessary pretty difficult to take seriously.