It's nirvana......I surpassed being the village idiot many months ago. By definition i'm a total moron. When they say ...." trade what you see...not what you think "....i don't have to worry about the latter.....i don't think about much during a given day. :eek:
OK, In all seriousness, let's not be irresponsible to people that may think that this thread is completely serious and are starting out on their trading careers. While I do not believe that intelligence is necessarily a correlator to trading prowess, I do believe that technique and attention to detail is. Also, we should distinguish between trading intelligence, and intelligence to be able to come up with models that work. I have found without exception that, most winning traders have parents or mentors that are successful traders. The ones that have figured out on their own have gone through a great deal of trial and error, blown a few accounts, and hit upon a technique that works only through herculean perseverance and/or luck. Jose Raul Capablanca, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Raúl_Capablanca the great Cuban World Chess Champion and perhaps the most natural chess player in the history of the world, was once asked if it took any great intelligence to play chess at high levels (believed to be a measure of great intellect). His answer was a resounding NO. That is my .02 on the subject. nitro
Of course he's a trader. He's more long term now, but he started out as a trader, and when asked, said he'd still be able to do 50% a year if he wasn't bogged down with too much money to manage.
C'mon nitro, only an idiot would think your most generous thread contribution is totally serious. The gold mine of helpful facts already presented here would please almost any trading newbie. The Basic Trader Kick-Ass Quotient Qualifier Manual alone is an educational bonus for both of you. It's enlightening and thought-provoking threads like this which help keep people starting off on their trading careers out of the overly emotional and scurrilous ET Polecats & Righteous Forum.
I don't know but I think over analyzing, trying to model the market extensively and be too demanding when you test a system can be counter-productive. When I look at my personal trading experince, I think that simplicity is rewarding in this game, and you don't have to go neural whatever... to be profitable. Personally, I'm not that intelligent. If I'd like to trade options, it would need at least a year to understand their basics and whenever i go to the wilmott's forum, i don't understand half of what they say and I have an answer for 1/10th of their brainteaser problems... but I'm profitable. Perhaps, it's luck ... but I think one of the key is to be able to sustain large losses and still relying on what you decided to trade. Trading requires an intermediate IQ but a lot of work and discipline.