Compulsive Trading Disorder

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by cap'ncod, Mar 26, 2012.


  1. Just purchase them there dips. Eazy peazy lemon squeazy. I'll add this to the list of Necessary Trader's Talents: facility to become bored outta yer skull! Excellent!
     
    #31     Mar 28, 2012
  2. Thanks for the post. Reminds me of the beat poets, Howling at the charts!
     
    #32     Mar 28, 2012
  3. emg

    emg

    Here is an interesting article:


    Psychopaths In The Trading Room


    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/psychopaths-trading-room-143230600.html



    Such self-destructive behavior is more common than one might think. In many aspects of life, people's psychology gets the better of them. Short-sighted impulsiveness, resentment, anger and pointlessly excessive competitiveness leads to actions that benefits no one, at least nself-destructive behaviorot in the long run. This research project indicates that traders may be particularly prone to such psycho-traps.


    The Bottom Line

    Controversial as this study may be, it certainly provides food for thought. Trading behavior can be not only ethically bad, but also psychologically twisted, irrational and dangerous. The consequences for all participants and the broader economy can be severe.

    Trading should be a rational business activity, with the sole objective of maximizing profits though understanding the nature of markets and of the other traders. It should also be conducted fairly and ethically. There is no legitimate place for emotionally charged game-playing that undermines the efficiency and viability of the market processes for all participants.





    Don't this sounds like u SMALL TRADERS? there are plenty small traders in this site that are "self-destructive behavior."




    More than 90% of small traders lose! They just lose!!
     
    #33     Mar 28, 2012
  4. Brass

    Brass

    Well, don't I feel like a slouch. What kind of ROE are you generating from your trading alone?
     
    #34     Mar 28, 2012
  5. Interesting. You're really into the Trader as Psychopath angle. I guess you could extend this to much global trading activity generally. The sheer pointlessness of it and the way commodity speculation distorts world prices, causing disruption, high energy and food prices for many of the world's poor. The ethical basis of the whole industry and the spiritual harm it can cause the individual are linked in my view. I do not see Trading as 'rational business activity'. I do not see it as rational at all. I do not see it as a legitimate 'job'. Using these terms just propagates the myth that the retail trader can succeed at a game whose core function is to sucker weaker hands into the market and divest them of their cash. This is what the purpose of 'Trading' is. What else is it about? And the machine devotes huge resources to this very end. Of course all us suckers would stay away if all was laid bare but as I stated a mythology of potential wealth, independence and success has to be created and maintained through subtle propaganda for the machine to be fed with an endless supply of fresh, eager blood.
     
    #35     Mar 28, 2012
  6. heypa

    heypa

    Richard Kiyosaki would not approve. Not unless you ,bought his seriously over priced stock options programs with the sucker priced initial teach in.
     
    #36     Mar 28, 2012
  7. emg

    emg

    Here is another interesting article:

    Psychopaths on Wall Street

    http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/psychopaths_on_wall_street.html


    The headline-grabbing factoid in the article was an estimate that 10% of people in the financial services industry are psychopaths.


    Psychopathy is mistakenly regarded as an all or nothing affair: you either are a psychopath or you aren't. If that were the case, saying that 10% of people on Wall Street are psychopaths could actually be somewhat comforting, since it implies that the remaining 90% are not and so shouldn't cause us any concern.

    But there is good news. First of all, it is possible to screen out almost and full-blown psychopaths during the hiring process and after. Some of the key indicators are:


    -Glibness and superficial charm

    -Lack of empathy

    -Consistent decisions in their self interest, even where it is ethically questionable


    -Chronic, sometimes transparent lies, even with regard to minor things


    - Lack of remorse
    Failure to take responsibility for their actions, and instead blaming others

    -Shallow emotions

    -Ignoring responsibilities

    - Persistent focus on gratifying their own needs at the expense of others

    -Conning and manipulative behavior

    The only way to deal with a true psychopath is to get him or her out of the organization as fast as possible.







    According to the article, Financial Firms have a strict psychopaths job interview test. This is something SMALL TRADERS do not have because u are trading on your own and at home. U, small traders, don't even know if u are a psychopaths trader. Nobody is there to give u feedback.


    More proofs are coming
     
    #37     Mar 28, 2012
  8. emg

    emg

    Here is an example of a Psychopaths trader. Some of u have not seen this video.


    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NYeLrcWFitY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
     
    #38     Mar 28, 2012
  9. Brass

    Brass

    Is this performance art? Who would upload this onto Youtube or anywhere else? Regardless, I don't know if this behavior necessarily connotes psychopathy, but the fellow certainly exhibited unbalance. Mental instability does not necessarily mean psychopathy.
     
    #39     Mar 28, 2012
  10. I agree. It's just a regular guy who is being tortured by a huge losing position (huge to him and most other retail, that is). He's swearing and in pain but where's the evidence of psychopathy? To a lesser and alas a greater extent, we've all been there. Of course the market is a huge extraction device and my guess is many more people would have been positioned similarly alongside this guy and losing alongside him. It was probably key support or resistance on a longer TF and those who believed in wave theory, range theory, mean reversion theory, fractal theory etc etc and kept averaging in to their losing positions would have been fuelling the move. One direction, merciless, with no pull-back. A feeding frenzy for the smart money. They know where everyone else was positioned. Sophisticated microsecond predatory algorithms that requires huge resources to design, implement and configure will do a great job of tracking the retail mob down.
     
    #40     Mar 28, 2012