The Flip-A-Coin trading strategy and lessons learned from it

Discussion in 'Psychology' started by NET, Dec 28, 2003.

  1. abogdan

    abogdan

    ...and you don't need negative posts for Neutrino to lose his "bet".

    JB [/B][/QUOTE]

    unfortunately, it doesn't work this way! Zeros are not a substitute for negatives because they do not reduce a DC component. Again fluctuations of post rates could be a better example because you can have negative rate of change (deceleration). So, can you predict the post rate?
     
    #51     Dec 30, 2003
  2. Turok

    Turok

    Me:
    ...and you don't need negative posts for Neutrino to lose his "bet".

    Him:
    unfortunately, it doesn't work this way!

    Actually, it does...read his post and pay attention this time. If you simply stop buying(posting) the price(posts) no longer continues to rise and he loses. All your mumbo jumbo won't change this simple fact.

    JB
     
    #52     Dec 30, 2003
  3. abogdan

    abogdan

    Well, I'll accept your argument if you show me one stock in which price only goes up or remains the same every trading day. I will do nothing else but trade this stock!
     
    #53     Dec 30, 2003
  4. abogdan

    abogdan

    Thanks NET! Excellent discussion!
    All the guys involved were making good points. Just for laughs, the question:
    Don't you wonder some time what it would be like to stop asking questions and be so sure in what you know? I think ignorance is happiness! I've met so many people who do not question. Most of them are politicians or religious leaders, some of them, however, become TA (trend) traders (another form of religion). You can not argue with them because arguing presumes that all of the involved parties have positive IQ.
     
    #54     Dec 30, 2003
  5. Turok

    Turok

    >Well, I'll accept your argument if you show me
    >one stock in which price only goes up or remains
    >the same every trading day. I will do nothing
    >else but trade this stock!

    C'mon man, trade what you see...not what you think.

    Neutrino does not need you to "accept" his argument in any way for the trend to continue and for his "bet" to pay off. He only needs you to keep posting. If you stop posting, he loses. (well, not anymore, I believe his break even stop may have already been passed and it's all free money from here).

    Not that much different than the real trading world. I don't typically try to determine *why* stocks trend upwards, I just know how to profit from it.

    JB
     
    #55     Dec 30, 2003
  6. Turok, an interesting situation is developing here, that is of being right versus making money.
     
    #56     Dec 30, 2003
  7. abogdan

    abogdan

    Axiom # 1 (Terminology)

    Sentiment

    A thought prompted by passion or feeling; a state of mind in view of some subject; feeling toward or respecting some person or thing; disposition prompting to action or expression.

    Inertia

    The property of matter by which it continues its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by external forces.

    Inertia Of Sentiment

    The property of emotion development process by which it preserves
    existing state of mind unless that state is changed by external event.
     
    #57     Dec 30, 2003
  8. jem

    jem

    I would like to see a definition of trend. I do not believe a persons inablity to profit from a trend mean trends do not exist. Perhaps you believe in sort of a particle vs. beam trend. It will be a trend if you do not put on a trade, but if you do put on a trade with the trend, the trend will end?

    Weekly charts of the dow since march. I suspect when we define trend in a dictionary, that chart should appear.
     
    #58     Dec 30, 2003
  9. abogdan

    abogdan

    I will try to make my point one more time using different examples.

    First of all, definition of the trend is quite simple:

    "Trend is the general direction of movement registered from some point in the past till present moment".

    It is not a question whether trends could describe movements in observed (historical) data the question is when do you know that the trend has been established and when do you say that the trend is over. When I say trends do not exist I mean that the probability of the trend to continue it self versus the probability of its reversal is still 50/50. You just said your self "Weekly charts of the dow since march …" meaning: General direction of the price movement in DOW between March and Now was Up. Please note the word "WAS". Now, tell me what is the probability for DOW to continue this trend for the next 2 weeks? I'll tell you precisely - 50/50. Believe me, I have fell in this trap many times. Everybody is a genius when analysing historical data. Sure you can show me on any historical chart those reversal moments but in real time any prediction that you make will exhibit the probability of 50/50. This is, by the way, the main tool that all the people who sell any technical analysis bullshit use to convince you. Let me expand on that.
    There is a very known psychological phenomenon called "positive associative memories". Without going to deep I'll use an example to illustrate it. Let's assume that I have predicted that the price of Gold will go up between now and two months from now. And, miracle, price of gold indeed went $10 up. In this case you will definitely remember my prediction and tell your friends that this guy knew something that we didn't. You will listen to my predictions from now on very carefully because of your "positive associative memories". On another hand, if the price of gold went down you will forget about my prediction and erase me from your memory. So, your memory, for the most part, consists of positive associations that will make you to believe those kinds of predictions over and over again!
    I'll tell you more. I have tested over 1000 different technical analysis indicators over more than 20 years of tick-by-tick historical data (for which I paid enormous amount of money). Do you know what was the average objective probability of their accuracy? You guessed it right - 50/50. I have used more computing power to conduct this analysis than you could imagine! So, you would say: "was it a waste of time and money?" No. Although the results were negative I have discovered something that gives us all some hope! That is what I wanted to share with you all in a first place.
    400 years ago people were convinced that the Earth was flat and they burned alive whoever thought otherwise (buy the way, it did not interfere with their abilities to grow crop and profit from it). 300 years ago people knew that the smallest animal on earth is Dicopomorpha echmepterygis till sir Van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope!
    2 days ago you knew that trends exist and they have more the 50/50 chance to continue. Imagine what you will know tomorrow!
     
    #59     Dec 31, 2003
  10. Turok

    Turok

    And with that... post #22, my friend Neutrino may now take his well earned trend following profits. Nice work (and a couple weeks early as well).

    Human behavior is rarely random.

    JB
     
    #60     Dec 31, 2003