yea, like philosophy will help you scalp the 1 minute chart...come on dudes...let's get back to highs and lows and EMA's
Humor aside, why do you do philosophy explicitly and think that you trade implicitly? You're out of the market most of the time and not in philosophy when you are avoiding attending to philosophy. This thread is in a psychology forum. What is the mix of actions in trading? What kind of trading actions are there? You get away from one thing to act on opportunities, you tell us. When you think at times when you are not getting away, you think about trading which isn't action. To come to any conclusions about this sympathetic behavior of yours, I must test the null hypothesis of where any parasympathetic behavior would fit into what you do. I looked at the example of the most intense mind change. It was revealing and my interest in your difficulties just dropped to neutral right away.
I don't have any difficulties in questioning my own beliefs or methods. You, on the other hand.... If only talking about sympathetic and parasympathetic could make someone a better trader. I'm not here to claim philosophy will make you trade better than any other field of study. After discussing it in here, I don't think trading should be approached academically at all. The mind set in approaching trading doesn't have to come from a field of study either. A monkey could beat the S&P 500. Psychologists are good at critiquing behavior. But when it comes to trading, only individuals can compel themselves to change their own behavior, not the online jibberish from someone who puts on the airs of a distinguished academic. If university degrees made better traders, professors would never leave their trading desks. With over 3000 posts, it looks like you've left the trading desk quite a bit.
Agree that probability and statistics are the best preparation for trading. If you are mathematically inclined, also sit in on stochastic processes to get the flavor.