There is no war when you trade off volume and tick charts! Each bar is just a graphical representation of what is going through the elite trader's mind!
I play this when my trade is sinking (stinking). Adds lot of drama and emotion to the whole thing. This is a beautiful piece. It's a tear jerker, keep the kleenex near especially if watching the 9-11 or platoon versions of this. We are all equal in the end. What happened to the good ole days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3SHBFyDZM
This is exactly how I see it. Each day, each trade, each analysis is a battle. Read, "The Art of War" and apply it to trading and you'll become a much better trading. Don't fight unless the odds of winning are in your favor. Retreat with your troop intact and live to fight another day. Sound familiar? It's a war out there for sure!
You are trading against some of the smartest people/computers in the world especially in the ES. When someone asks what you do for a living you tell em you go mano a mano with the best of the best each and every day. Courage, Confidence and Pride.
No, I don't think of trading as a war. Because there is no enemy. The only enemy is the trader self. Viewing trading, or anything as a war, will invoke the wrong thinking and make you fight where you should relax. Hmm, I don't even think a good general should view war as a war.
Take the flip side of this perspective, all those smart people and computers interact to make one market and the collective actions and repeated patterns of ALL those people are what produce profitable opportunities. So you arent really battleling anyone in particular rather trading the ebb and flows of one mkts collective actions. I used to think of trading as battle too, but if you actually think of who you are really battleing (one giant market vrs little old you), there is no way to win! Better to think of it as particpating with the markets natural course. Sorry to get all zen and shit, this is just how I see it.