A friend sent me the following quote which may be of interest to fellow traders on ET. "Did you know that a single two-second distraction can cost you 15 minutes of your day? When your concentration is interrupted, it takes up to 15 minutes to get your focus back."
I've heard this but it doesn't apply to all people. I remember having idiots talk to me about mindless shit before physics and calculus exams and still walked out with the easy A's. You're giving the pikers an excuse for poor performance.
There are hundreds of positions in Yoga. The whole idea of these positions is to still the body, whence the mind will follow. Only when the mind is still, can it be in full alertness. People complain that it seems like more and more kids have ADD or ADHD. Uh, well, yeah. Everywhere you go you are bombarded with information overload, and kids don't have the skills to know how to turn all this stuff off. Even adults don't know how to quiet the voice constantly going in their heads. Meditation is a skill probably everyone should at least have a passing knowledge of. Meditation is awkward for me. What I did instead is I got a membership at the Botanical Garden of Chicago. http://www.chicago-botanic.org/ This is one of the best emotional investments I have ever made. When I need to Zen out and regain my mind, this is where I go, in the company of a lovely lady, a friend, or alone. When I am in this Zen state, the outside world dissolves and almost nothing can break my concentration.
Nitro, nice place indeed. I am walking distance to the Gardens. The evening hours now until 9pm are great, not much of a crowd and the lights come on.
I have ADD. One of things that helps is Neuroprogrammer. The program SMR is particularlly helpful for quieting the mind. http://www.transparentcorp.com/products/np/. http://www.eegspectrum.com/articles/Articles/HelpToHyperactiveChildren/ Transcendental Meditation is very good too. I haven't tried this one but heard good things http://www.natural-stress-relief.com/stress/mantra-meditation.htm If you really like Neuroprogrammer you may want to try the Sirius Light and Sound Machine I haven't tried it yet. http://www.mindmodulations.com/products.html?gclid=CP2Y-fX3lKMCFQ4EiQodrQ3FsQ Good Karma to all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cape May zoo New Jersey is nice for this too. Beautiful!
mogul, Nice that you are able to walk there. I haven't gone at night yet, but I mean to. It is also kind of neat that you can bring your bike and ride around. The glass offices for the scientists is pretty neat too, you get to see them working.
'glycerine, Insight Medidation (Vipassana) is a great aid both to concentration and achieving nomind. In Vipassana one may have any number of concentration objects (kasina, the plural). When I am trading I make the one-second chart my kasina (singular).
concentration = focus = meditation = boredom ^^ all are the same, all are boring Good trading is extremely boring There are two kinds of boredom - hot and cool Hot boredom is extremely uncomfortable, you're just itching for entertainment in one form or another. When you deprive yourself of all forms of external entertainment then your thoughts and imagination becomes your entertainment. Cool boredom what you feel when you stop seeking out all external/internal forms of entertainment. It is refreshing boredom like a cold glass of water when you are thirsty. Concentration/focus/meditation is just boredom training for all of us that are addicted to infotainment/entertainment. Withdrawing from an addiction is going to make you feel extremely uncomfortable and requires a lot of patience for the discomfort to go away. No one would show up for a boredom training class so people use more exotic terminology like meditation, vippisana, etc. 99% of the information/entertainment out there and in the mind is junk shit containing highly toxic memes - cool boredom is the only immunity to it.
I have been doing some research on this subject, and it is interesting that meditation, and in particular the focus on breathing, is at the heart of the technique of achieving awareness, concentration, etc. (I claim that being exotolic in general will get you there also http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=204199 ) It is equally interesting that different levels of awareness by e.g. Buddhist monks, once they have focused attention by focusing on their breath and achieving a higher state of awareness, or what they call "open awareness". This is a state where they take in all that is happening around them without reacting or judging (good bad desirable undesirable) but simply noticing what unfolds around us. "Then, the way they direct this high awareness is through "wishing" for the end of suffering (compassion) and the wish for enduring happiness (loving-kindness). These forms take many different forms, including recitations of phrases (chanting) like "May I be free from suffering and the causes of suffering" eventually extending well wishing to all beings" http://www.amazon.com/Pictures-Mind...1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280704502&sr=1-1-spell I now believe that somehow this induced state can lead to very high level of awareness, either high moral concepts as above and practiced by Buddhist monks, or alternatively you can direct it as these people do http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showt...age=6&highlight=stop publishing&pagenumber=35 (scroll down to the post where I say "Naming Infinity: A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity (Belknap Press) (Hardcover)) It appears that there are structures in the brain that people can tap into to achieve this higher level of awareness, and then direct it in any creative way they want. Some people claim they can short cut all this simply by taking LSD, but that obviously has some terrible side effects.