I couldn't agree more. When it comes to having extraordinary mental abilities, the price is <b>far</b> higher than most people would even imagine. I'm reminded of "X-Men- The Last Stand", where some of the gifted mutants were willing to voluntarily accept the cure, giving up all special abilities just to be normal. "There is no genius without some touch of madness" ~Seneca
It's just what people remember...but yes I have met some real geniuses that are not autistic either...but in remembering one of them ...I recall his ability to remember "strings of information" through some sort of imaging...he was not autistic at all..He displayed absolutely no common sense either and was not at the mercy of a handicap. Baseball players have good eyesight...
I have seen a couple of documentaries on Daniel. It is insane what this guy can do with numbers. Everytime I see something about savants with these types of gifts I am truly amazed and it always stimulates my interest in learning more about psychology and the functioning of the human brain. The thing I often wonder however is would these unique skills have any application to trading? Clearly abilities such as pattern recognition skills serve a trader well but since I believe greatly that trading success is about risk management, discipline, and simple system execution I am not sure that abilities such as Daniel's would be a great asset. Prediction is of course the holy grail of trading but as of yet I know of no one who has that ability, save for Nostradamus (LOL). Is the ability to store vast sums of historical information a benefit as a 'short-term' trader?
good points AutoMate...your post said a lot but i just quoted two...Thanks Is the ability to store vast sums of historical information a benefit as a 'short-term' trader? I believe greatly that trading success is about risk management
The kid in the movie Mercury Rising was able to see patterns in seemingly random streams of data. I am really curious if they could see chartpatterns too...
Steve T. - yes I'm a big fan. Pekelo - I too have pondered how a true savant would handle the market. I think just as Daniel T. hates walking on the beach because 'there are just too many pebbles to count' I think he'd feel the same about the markets. Besides savants do what they do just for the sake of it, they don't seem to have any ulterior motives in mind (like money making or 'beating the markets'). And remember that autism is a disease, and most savants (Daniel T. being the only known exception) have really poor verbal and social skills.
Renegan, would the speed at which someone learns a new thing be any measure of intelligence? or.. simply a know-it-all....?