New Machine With enormous thanks to Ellis for all his assistance and expertise, here are the finalized specs: Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 Yorkfield 45nm LGA775 3.2GHz 1600MHz FSB OEM EU80569XL088NL Motherboard: Asus P5E3 Premium/WiFi-AP @n X48 1600MHz chipset P5E3PREMIUMWIFIAPN Memory: Corsair 2x2GB matched pair DDR3 1600MHz 7-7-7-20 TWIN3X4096-1600C7DHXIN G Video card: 1 x Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 2xDVI fanless 43W HDCP PCIe x16 GV-NX86T256H Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 16MB WD2500AAKS Hard drive enclosure: GUP-Japan Smart Drive 2002C Optical drive: Samsung DVD±RW DL 22x 2MB LightScribe SATA black SH-S223Q/BEBN Power supply: Corsair HX620W CMPSU-620HX Power supply power cord: APC Power Cord, 10A, 100-230V, C13 to C14 AP9870 Case: Antec Solo quiet mini tower black 761345-18500-4 Case fan: 1 x Noctua 120mm NF-S12-800 Monitor: 2 x Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC 30-inch widescreen 2560x1600 black LCD 210-17465 Keyboard: Logitech Media 600 920-000031 Mouse: Logitech G9 Laser 910-000173 Speakers: Dell AX510 Soundbar 520-10703 Microphone: Logitech Desktop Microphone 980240-0914 Processor heatsink: Thermalright HR-01 Plus Heatsink fan: Noctua 120mm NF-S12-800 Fan duct: Thermalright orange 120mm Fan Duct for HR-01-775 Backside processor cooler: Thermalright IFX-10 Thermal material remover: ArctiClean Surface Purifier 2-PC-SET ACN-60ML Thermal interface material: Shin-Etsu 1cc syringe X-23-7762 Drive cables: 3 x 31" (79cm) SATA 3Gbit/s drive to motherboard latching cable, straight to right angle 30SR787YL Backup drive: Iomega REV 120GB SATA internal drive 34184 Backup disks: Iomega 120GB Disk 5 Pack 34194 UPS: APC Back-UPS RS 1500VA/865W LCD 230V BR1500LCDI UPS Power cord: 4 x APC Power Cord 10A, 230V, C14 to UK receptacle AP9881 Surge suppressor: 1 x APC Performance SurgeArrest 8 outlets with Phone, Coax & Net 230V UK PF8VNT3-UK Patch cable: Belkin High Performance Category 6 UTP Patch Cable 5 meters CNP6LS0aed5M Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition OEM 66R-00838 Productivity suite: Microsoft Office 2007 79G-00007 Software firewall: Comodo Firewall Pro Active antivirus / antispyware: ESET NOD32 Passive antispyware: SpywareBlaster OS optimizer: TuneUp Utilities Drive optimizer: PerfectDisk Backup application: Acronis True Image Home
Spent much of yesterday working, and thus far this weekend, have been occupied with housekeeping and various technical and interface issues. Amongst these was the decision to switch to TradeNavigator for monitoring, though I may well keep NT/Mirrus for execution. Even though Jack repeatedly advocated perceptual and experiential learning, and asserted that knowledge is not gained by reading, reading ANYTHING, I couldn't help plugging in a few searches to help fill the gaps in my understanding. Amidst my search, I came across an enlightening post by BA_trader from '04: ...I think a better way of saying "recognizing whats possible" is saying that Jack facilitates learning. He "reads" a person and then presents material that will mostly likely lead to the person making a step in gaining knowledge or an aha in their own mind. So he is making you learn. TEACHing is yesterday's newspaper. lol Again - it's a cellular automata kind of idea... knowledge of something is a continuum -- a closed system as he said. He looks at you and says "what place are you in" and he looks at "what is next door" in the continuum -- and he give you a little shove. When you "get there" yourself it really sinks in deep... you get knowledge that can lead to wisdom. Not facts... Perhaps recording 'the process of skill acquisition' was intended as part of a formal accelerated teaching aid. Aside from the copious translation and invention on my part, I feel that my lack of a systematic, methodical and analytical approach impeded the process significantly. It also seems that with the introduction of the YM, I reverted to the familiar and obstructive data-logging autopilot, rather than utilizing the YM for it's sole intended purpose, to act as an advance warning system at appropriate times.
My understanding of the purpose of this post (and the associated play-by-play commentary) is manifold: to enliven my mind to the fact that a tape is simply a traverse in miniature, ending on the climactic volume surge that would be called Peak Volume on a traverse level; to heighten my awareness of intrabar occurences on the bars that occur after sequence completion and signal change; and recognition of two distinct and specific windows of opportunity, which will gain much more relevance as tape-level trading usurps the current incarnation. Personal attention to 'lagging' habits. This connects with Spyder's admonitions to fully master Monitoring before progressing, as it both underpins and enables everything else. Certainty that the sequence has ended (and a faster one is not concurrently underway), enables unmitigated attention to be placed on the bar/s that will change the right side of the market - first on the YM and then the ES - and enables recognition of the first and second chances for timely action.
I have been harboring a belief that quite possibly the only way to learn the methodology is by doing the drills (learning to monitor). This belief of mine has been growing stronger and stronger after I was able to achieve some notable progress following the regimen of unbiased annotation practice. Since we are dealing primarily with visual recognition of patterns of price and volume, and there's more than enough evidence that the right hemisphere is tasked with with this particular process - it only makes sense to approach the learning with this orientation. Pattern recognition takes place outside of conscious awareness, therefore it is a pattern recognition process, not a reasoning process. A kind of pre-verbal understanding that yields insight may explain the repeated references to the "'know that you know'" state of mind. The pattern recognition process is neither inductive nor deductive, nor is it rule based. If one is lost in unfamiliar territory and then all of the sudden arrives at destination, it is only due to pattern recognition ability of the right hemisphere. The dominant (left) side of the brain then says "Aha!" as if it saw the answer provided by the right hemisphere for the first time. Which seems to be the sequence for insight generation, where incubation takes place outside of conscious (in our case the right side of the brain). Jack's references to neuroplasticity may be the missing link that allows one consciously regulate the unconscious process of pattern recognition. Whether one choses to log or not to log, the primary subject of our attention is the chart - and it seems that the only way to develop the ability to "know that you know" is to keep reviewing charts.
Thanks for the insightful comments, Romanus. To expand, I think we're dealing with a dynamic kind of pattern recognition, seeing things unfold, which is why Jack stresses the importance of real-time monitoring and references the three operators (spatial, movement and shape). He also mentions seeing and hearing the market's TELLS, and describes four adjuncts which facilitate this (largely unconscious) process: price annotations, volume annotations, the platform and the log. So in effect, while the absence of a log or the lack of comprehensive annotation may not seem harmful, by dramatically reducing the unconscious uptake of information, they may retard the entire process.
For a beginner, who makes decisions at the end of bar, IMO it makes no difference whether a static or dynamic chart is practiced on. But a real time monitoring is obviously a must for next step. So, since people often do things without knowing it - people are actually know much more then they think they do. The sequences, which develops inside 5 min bar certainly register in the unconscious even if not noticed consciously. As far as the annotations are concerned (including the bar coloring) - I believe them to be an integral part of patterns which brain has to be trained to recognize.
... I guess what you two are saying leads to the conclusion that too much annotating automation might be counterproductive, as it short circuits the pattern recognition brain training ... automation inherently filters out price and volume nuances ... anyway, there is an analysis part of this method that's more than just pattern recognition, and that can't be successfully done without the good understanding of the PV principle ...