Hey Everybody! Alright, sleeves up and onto the keyboard... I got all these PM's asking me where I am. I'm well, alive, happy and successful! I hope the same goes for all of you! I do still visit sometimes, to check out replies and see what's new. I gave up posting because it used to take a ridiculously large chunk of time out of my life! Pathologically speaking, I'd say I was a "forum addict" with all the quirks. I've devoted myself to a life of discipline and "no-mind" life in the NOW, so that I can perceive not only every opportunity in the NOW (future and past is illusion), but also appreciate every moment for the beautiful, unique thing it is. This forum doesn't help with that at all. Back to forum addictions - to me they're the same as phone, chat or SMS addictions - ways our mind likes to take control over our Being by keeping busy, and worse even, reinforce and inflate its own ego. This forum does a fine job of that - most people here have a huge ego (and moi the biggest ever of course), so everybody competes for the biggest willy, which is really just aggravating, frustrating, annoying, and most of all, distracting from trading. At some point, anybody who bothers to pursue anything material or egoistic with a vengeance, will eventually get it. When he gets it, he may (hopefully) realize that he's no happier than he was before, or perhaps even less happy. Ultimately, happiness comes from within, and the ego is the greatest barrier to realizing this. If you think all of the above is gobble-de-gook, then maybe you'll listen up if I suggest that this is the secret to exceptional trading, too. If you only exist in the NOW, you are free from past (fears) and free from future (prediction). You just do what you should be doing NOW. In physical terms, this process can be made visible by f-MRI scans of brain wave activity. The "executive brain" in the frontal cortex (think forehead) almost exclusively makes decisions when "in the zone", with little activity in the "animal instinct", limbic system, and formal-analytical (left) hemisphere of the brain. This results in better, more intuitive and less (past/future-)biased decisions. For more on this, read Ari Kiev and Eckhart Tolle. Must-reads for any trader, IMHO. Once you "get it", you'll never look back. As for myself, I'm feeling happier than ever, I'm devoting more time and love to my partner and my family than ever, and I'm busy enough to not get "bored", as I'm juggling 2 businesses at the moment, and working on new plans as I write this, as well as a web site and lots of other stuff. I probably don't want to be (day) trading much beyond 30, so I'm working on setting up my own trading firm, to give to others what has brought me so much joy and fulfilment. I've worked on several financial projects in the area over the last 2 years, including a futures trading firm in Sydney and an equities & futures trading firm in Europe last year, which enabled me to get invaluable knowledge about how to set up and run such enterprises - now it all just comes down to doing it. Unlike when I was a recluse "hermit trader", I now have lots of "real" friends and excellent ones at that, too, so please forgive me if saying this seems derogatory, but forum posting just seems trivial to me now. There are so many top people on this board, and I miss you all! Keep going ET, and I'll be around to lurk every so often. All the greatest joys, happiness and lots of love to you all! Scientist
Wow, that was quick! They can delete my post ribbing "Scientist", but they allow "IB TWS Programmers are Idiots?" Is Sci-boy an advertiser now? Gotta luv ET!!!
Scientist, Glad you are back. Can you answer the below question, please. Thanks. You previously wrote a post a few years ago on scalping stocks where it was mentioned: "In the stocks, you can watch the index depth, see depth shift to heavy ask, stock depth still heavy bid. whang in buy order limit at bid , should hit immediately, otherwise forget it." Does the above still hold? Thanks