Those would all be great forums. Suggest them to Baron or the moderators? I've been around awhile on et and topics related to L&L, Trading/Business Plans in particular have been very popular.
You know that's actually quite profound. Most people get in such a rut. And I really think a lot of it has to do with health btw. I'm in my 40's and so many guys I know around that age are like zombies: they have no energy, no drive, no ambition. It's like they are just waiting for the end. What I'm getting at is that they are not tuned any more to those powerful "turning points and wake up calls" in life as they occur. They simply keep walking in the same direction. And let me ask this question: how often do you really know what you are doing in life such that it will last decades??? And are you really so friggin smart that you know the end of your life from the beginning??
Many thanks again SB for your valuable insights. I've now decided not to post on ET actively anymore. So long! "When we cannot see, we can't see what we cannot see. --- Barbara De Angelis (PhD; Psychologist) "
Most people lead unhealthy lives. One of the wonderful self-selecting organizations is the Sierra Club and its service project operations. Obviously, because they filter with med exams and med reports to qualify people, you get nice crews to work with. In all the service trips I ran, only one person cheated on the information that I know of. Doing air evacs isn't fun out of the wilderness. What is more terrific than this self selection, are the minds of these people. Not only do they luv to work and get the job done, they are very mentally active in all sorts of ways. In terms of the six common practices that are recommended for maintaining mental prowess, they always cover the bases. You ask: "how often do you really know what you are doing in life such that it will last decades???" It is always a very good thing when the answer pops up. Warren Buffett epitimizes this in his principal investment principle. By seeking to find investments with this characteristic, he assures that wealth will be built continually. Everything a person does lasts for decades. The mind epitimizes durability just as Warren Buffet's investments do. Thus his main attraction has alway been getting OPM to run his investment strategy based on durable value. So how do you wind up asking the question which is so obvious from anyone's personal history? All your life you build your mind through many different aspects of neuroplasticity. Everyone gets the consequences too. More of what happens unconsciously is what makes you what you are and have built over decades. At 40 you are 1/3 of the way into your most creative period of life. Today you get to become aware of the fact that everything lasts for decades. The 20's and 60's and 70's are similar. The bridge across includes the most creative period (30's through 50's). you get to the midpoint in 5 years and you can think about how everything you do lasts for decades as you get to the midpoint. You also ask: "And are you really so friggin smart that you know the end of your life from the beginning??" The nature of competitive plasticity is well established in late teenage when the giant shearing of the unattached synaptic unconnections occurs. In a localizationism sort of way the die was cast for what you are like at the end of your life long ago for you, about 25 years ago, in fact. By the end of teenage, the major "use it or lose it" event has already happened. In therapy, nowadays, it is common practice to tell the client/patient what is wrong with them. Most people don't have things wrong with them but they still do not know how they work. You dwell in this thread with what you know about and you don't deal with how things work and what the opportunities are to spend the time and energy to realize the potentials that may still remain. Being smart about living, as you have commented, is missing in ET. We saw the OP get a wake up call by two quotes from a book he may be reading. Let's say you examine how short term memory becomes long term memory. Then you get to see how what you do lasts for decades. Look at the susanah journal on price only and see her list of consecutive technique failures that led, over four years, to where what she is is now (actually based on decades of what she did) before she got to doing the journal. She has a spot in her mind that does price only by induction (the Black Swan causing principle) and it is surrounded by many locales of failed trading memories. She must see reminders all the time as she trades price only at this point. Any person coming into trading is almost like a clean slate. ET has no provision for the most significant tool a person uses to learn to trade and to trade as his learning permits. For the most part, the mind is an unknown around here. One N00b noted recently that he is focusing on reading about trading. He noted that up to last week he could only read 10 pages a day. He is really focusing now and has a stop watch and is making himself read 40 pages a day. A blind person reading using audio techniques reads at 340 words per minute using sound. This person can knock off three books a day. Learning to trade is a process; a process of building the mind. Odd trader closed off his mind and got a wakeup that he could not see what he couldn't see about himself. Then, he left in the sense that he is not going to keep starting thread after thread anymore. He now knows that improper learning and improper trading has consequences and, I assume, he figured out the consequences last for decades and fit into the category of damage.
Imo this is very old school: science is finding that there is no "giant shearing" of synaptic connections. Well, there is actually for those under 1) tremendous cortisol loads through such things as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and 2) those with diabetes and other rather extreme conditions. But the brain is incredibly plastic and so even where shearing occurs additional connections can be made from differing neuronal locations. Science has even found that older people can actually experience neurogenesis, i.e. they can grow new connections just like younger people but, of course, not at as rapid of a pace. But you've got to protect yourself from 1 and 2 above as well as Alzheimer's and dementia with a decent lifestyle. All the stuff that you know you should be doing: exercise, a decent heart-protective diet, low stress levels, keeping your weight down, not smoking, fruits and veges, etc. All of that will allow you to be productive well into the senior years. Remember: all the stuff that's good for your heart (excercise, a good diet, low stress) is good for your brain! But start now: don't wait until your hippocampus is a jumbled mess from Alzheimer's and your arteries are 90% blocked from the typical American diet and lifestyle. But keep your brain - it's all you got...
I think there are definitely physiological consequences of trading for the uninitiated. It is much like riding a rollercoaster, some people become acclimated to riding them (the junkies) and others will get a heart attack when even thinking about them. Those who are able to ride the coaster, do so because they either enjoy the rush, or have learned to master their emotions to the point where it is strictly a mechanical ordeal to make money. -Hedgefund Jim
What you wrote really hit home. My mood can be very effected by my trading. I've got to work on that. Any hints? I think it's a matter of confidence I would guess. Same as a athlete that gets in a slump: he learns that he can pull himself out of it. I'm pretty new, so I'm just now learning that I can pull myself out of any slumps with a few well-chosen techniques (which lowers the roller coaster ride...)
Quite frankly, the only way to remove the emotion is to experience the highest of the highs, and the lowest of lows so as to no longer fear or get a rush from either anymore. In essence, to become a machine. Same as any poker pro will tell you, if you get emotional, you shouldn't be playing. My suggestion is IF you have your back-tested system solid, and IF you are capitalized enough to endure significant losses, only then are you able to give trading full time a try. DO NOT FULL TIME TRADE if you are emotional and are trading with "rent" money, you will most definitely fail. I do not want to be a pessimist, I am just speaking from experience, and don't want you to blow your savings on a "hunch." Be absolutely sure, be well-capitalized, then go get 'em. -Hedgefund Jim