omg ... Jack ... Hershey. The man. The legend. The one who almost toppled Soros. The trader who beat Icahn playing poker before Icahn was ICAHN. We here at ET are truly blessed to be graced with the presence of Mr. Hershey.
Fellow Traders, Did I so something wrong, I am new to this forum and each of those people I listed have been very kind to me. I have fun with "newwurld" on the JCP forum because he is a option writer and I am a day trader of the same stock. Jack Hershey's wisdom and altruism are contagious, I started to volunteer for a food bank in Santa Barbara thank's to his gentle prodding, I think there are a bunch of us who are superstitious traders! NoDoji's is a sharp trader from all his posts, I have gleaned some great information. Surfer's posts are fun to read and with a trading office over the Hudson River, that guy must be doing something right! When the strange post about a Job for Goldman Sachs (Innuendo was it was Goldie) Surfer exposed the poster of the spoof job and warned everyone it was probably a con. Surfer has no problem blasting a poser who is trying to trick the board, bless the Surfer! I like "Pikichu" too, reading through Pikachus posts is educational and real deal stuff! Sorry, I know there are many great traders on Elite and I am trying my best to track down these giants and professionals and learn from their posts. Happy Trading!
Having say 1 or 2 collaborators does not encourage group think. Group think occurs in large crowds not small groups - by definition, a 2 person team cannot have a majority to overwhelm the minority. So your logic is flawed to assume that being an individual is the only way to avoid group think. Secondly, if you are not an independent thinker than you are unlikely to be able to speculate well anyway. So even in a team of 5, 10, 50, 100, you will be able to resist group think just by the nature of your personality. Of course, you then run into the problem of getting other people to accept that your view is better than the consensus - but that is the beauty of trading, results are the ultimate proof. It is one of the only fields where you can prove someone wrong beyond the shadow of a doubt, regardless of who they are or how many people support them. So no, group think is not a serious problem in trading, and even if it was, the solution is small teams, not being a lone wolf with all the problems that entails (lack of a critic to evaluate your ideas and biases; lack of cameraderie; weaker discipline and motivation; narrower set of skills and talents; less man hours to bring to bear on any work etc).