Dear sirs, What parallels can be drawn between music and trading. As any of you who have read my posts know, I have been direct access trading for about 2 and 3/8 days now but what the hell, So I figured the first thing to do was get my gear set up right. I come from a music background and in that field you are usually better off with solid gear, than a strong knowledge of what your work may entail for that day. So, I got TCNET, esignal, and MBNavigator which, is the interface to MBTrading. I set this stuff up on 4 PCs . I still run scottrader on the fourth. Using Scottrader is like listening to the Ramones compared to these other softwares. I like it better. It makes you feel like the kid who wore Sears jeans. But, like I said I've only had this stuff for 2 days now. That may change. After I set all this stuff up, I chopped the bases off of all the monitors so that it would look more like the trading desk that I saw on the Bright trading website. Because in my neighborhood, you could never see a trading room in real life. You could only see them on the internet or in some magazine that you can only get at the good bookstore. So now I'm surrounded with 4 PCs and a TV set. This set up is reminds me of when I was a drummer and set up a 14 piece fire engine red [Neil Peart] drum set with to Zildjan cymbals. I would step away from it and stare it down with my arms crossed every five minutes just to make sure it looked right. It also has about 30 pieces. My trading setup is more like the keyboard setup Rick Wakeman used with Yes in 74-75. Perhaps if I wore a long white flowing robe?....Nah that's Stupid. I've got to get some more clocks. So, where's the art in this? In all the trading books I've read, at least once you hear someone say that "Trading is an Art Form." Like what? It has a physical manifestation. Money or, the Destruction of Money. Is this the result we are to observe as Art? Or is it in the reading and subsequent analysis of the traders performance culminating in the execution of trade. Or watching someone else trade. Wait, I know this one. Put them in a theatre trading forex at midnight on a Thursday night, Serve drinks at the bar, and call it like a horse race while viewing the results on ceiling high television screens. That would be Rad. What elements of Art forms can be drawn upon to enhance ones trading technique? In music there are for example many blues and jazz musicians who would say "I don't know anything about that technical harmony or jazz analysis. I just play what I hear. And they sound great. Are there traders that just trade by feel? the flow of the markets and what-not. Like snowboarders of charts Thank you DNA 9
put your sweet eyes a little closer to the monitors and let's pretend that we're together all alone I'll tell the trading gods to turn the jukebox way down low And you can tell your charts there with you they'll have to go You can't say the things I want to hear when you're trading If you want me answer yes or no Honey I will understand
Trading is very much like music. It is an art form in that it can be taught and learned to a certain degree, but ultimate perfection you are either born with or (like 99% of the population) you aren't. It can consume you and fulfill you like good music, but most people will never experience it the right way. You might have heard that 90% of all traders fail miserably. Well, we all know that 90% of all humans fail miserably when it comes to music. That's because there is so much crap out there, and most people just do what everyone is doing. They poison themselves with "music decoys" such as hip hop, heavy metal, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson or the Backstreet Boys and never experience the artistic aspects of music. Just like most peole who want to trade are not creative, but just look at the same old indicators and make half-assed decisions thinking something like "it's been going up all day, let's just hop onto it and buy" or "it's been going down all day, it can't continue to decline forever, let's buy" or "the price just touched the B band, stoch looks oversold, and the MACD confirms it, let's buy". You might be able to make money in this way, but you won't understand why trading is an art, just like you can live your life without ever experiencing music and still not miss music because you flood your brain with Rap or Nsync, convincing yourself that music is part of your life, since that's what TV calls music.
you are flat out ignorant. i'm sure you have heard the phrase, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." why are you ignoring it? i've been playing guitar, bass, and drums for almost 10 years. i consider myself to know what's going on when it comes to music. however, i still respect that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. since i have experience playing multiple instruments, i feel i have a better sense when it comes to noticing particular guitar riffs or drum beats over my friends that don't play instruments. i may be more knowledgeable when it comes to music, but it still comes down to opinion. my friends that don't play drums may not appreciate a drum beat, but it doesn't matter, they like what they like. i like what i like. for you to trash a type of music, for example, heavy metal, is downright absurd. for the record, i like all types of music, but for some reason i don't like country much. although i personally don't like country, i will not say country listeners are "poisoned" and their music sucks, like you just did in regards to heavy metal. i will like anything if it is good IN MY VIEW. BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, you can't argue with it..period.
it is true some opinions are more important than others. if you were sick with a cold, i would consider a doctor's opinion to have more weight than someone who is not a doctor. a guitarist's opinion should probably have more weight when discussing a guitar solo over someone who does not play guitar. HOWEVER, it is all relative. someone who does not play guitar will still like the music he likes. the guitarist will like music that he likes. it is all relative which is why beauty is in the eye of the beholder. lobster, you are so flat out wrong to say one musical group or style is "poison." i'll control myself and hold back the insults.
While it is true that it all comes down to opinion, in this case there is physical evidence that certain types of music make people aggressive, depressive, unhappy, and dumb, whereas other types make them happy and more intelligent. For crying out loud, it has even been shown that plants grow better when you expose them to Bach. But I would be the last person to try and tell people what type of music to listen to, AS LONG AS NOBODY IS FORCED TO HEAR IT. There should be better laws when it comes to noise pollution. I don't mind putting headphones on when I listen to music, even though I have evidence to support its beneficial effect on living beings. What I don't want to listen to is the neighbor's stereo or peoples' car stereos. That should be punished just as severely as pumping carbon monoxide into someone's home or flooding the streets with petrol.
i don't agree with everything you said, but at least you're not as close minded as that other guy... p.s. as for that bach statement... uhhhhhhhhhhhh