Some of the premises of the OP are incorrect. When humans do things that put their survival at risk; then they protect themselves. What I did not cut from DM's post is correct. It is possible to work through to the granularity of markets and find that they contain no noise nor anomalies. Finally, you can consult the Behavioral Finance web site and determine that events are the basis of trading (the independent variable). Humans have some faults that must be examined to be able to work effectively to understand the workings of markets completely. Markets are not intellectually complex to understand completely. As in any system like a market, science is how the systems analysis is done. To understand mindfulness do not deal with Mark Douglas's orientation; instead focus on the works of Zinn. Start with learning to maintain a daily meditation regime, period. It is possible for any average person above fifth grade to become an expert at taking the market's offer*. Fear, anxiety and anger are simply symptoms of your mind telling you that you do not have perception. Perception (100%) is the sum of sensing (10%) and inference (90%). Inference comes from long term memory and to be an expert your mind must be fully differentiated and containing the associated inference in an wholly organized manner. Your mind knows how to go about the process of becoming fully differentiated in any subject area. Enjoy the process it is a wonderful trip. * For example, in ES, taking the market's offer from 09SEP10 to the beginning of OCT10, made it possible to compound one contract to forty contracts (@30points per contract) during that period during RTH's by doing 12 turns by not holding overnight and continuing each complete trend from beginning to end. As DM says, there is zero emotional component with a fully differentiated mind.
You and I will land on very different positions here. One thing I can appreciate is you objection about my spelling. For what ever reason, my spell check does not work on this web site. And being a true former resident of the Okeefenokee Swamp in south Ga., spelling was never one of my great attributes. I have been witness to a number of traders who have arrived at a state of mind where a sense of calm authority prevades their trading. As they watch set ups, as they evaluate set ups, as they pull the trigger, as they are in the trade, as they win or lose in the trade -- they maintain this particular state of mind. A sense of vigilence is particularly part of the state of mind as they enter a trade and are riding it. But it is vigilence, not a form of worry or fear, that is in charge of the alertness required of being in the trade. When they leave the trading room, they can move out of this particular state of mind. But while in it, this is necessary. Rande Howell
There is a high probabilty that you are incorrect. Anyone who does betting should take my side of the bet, mostly since it is proven. There are phone numbers of majors posted in ET who will attest to that. How can you sharpen your judgment a conclusion capabilities? First, try to get over your past failures. Second, get on an airplane and observe or ask others who have done this before you. Third, ask some of those who have observed me at tradersExpo. Forth, ask some people who I have traded for under POA's. Fifth, check out the SEC citations for insider trading that were withdrawn. Sixth, check out about six years of journals of successful traders who have taught myapproaches to others on ET. As to who made me an authority, you certainly are one of those. thanks.
RH, Keeping your head â while all around are losing theirs Remaining calm, cool and collected â under fire Remaining productive â under pressure Goes by a lot of descriptions Any suggestions on how to createâ¦, growâ¦, and utilize this skill⦠And/ or how to turn it on/ off â at will As you can imagine I have my own thoughts on how to do this⦠but what the heck do I knowâ¦. Thank You Sir RN
Mostly I agree with what you have written here .... without a robust systematic approach that is directly linked to price, a Trader has no chance of maintaining consistent profitability. Yes I agree that there are those who believe that they have a good robust system, but their knowledge of how price performs is so incomplete their system does not stand a single chance of maintaining profitability and will destroy them in the end. Didn't I read in your posts that your systems only remain profitable for so long before they require a replacement and at the wonderful age of 67 you are still leaping out of bed at 3am with a mind crammed with magnificent new ideas for systems hungry for coding and back testing. DM, you wrote... "I have panic attacks in public places for no good reason, but I never have them when I am trading. Perhaps because I don't understand people. But I do understand trading." Doesn't the above paragraph highlight the conundrum. I was fortunate [or not as the Reader might decide] to have been baptized at a youngish age by a Coach who had a profound effect upon my life, and no the Coach did not teach me how to play the game [the equivalent of building trading systems] he used other people for that task. It was as if one day I was relying upon my natural abilities alone and the next day I was pondered the thought of what it takes to really master my game. The first step was to find the fun and joy in everything I did, because without that nothing is worth doing or acquiring. And so I created that principle belief of fun and joy, and it has always stayed with me. So I ask you DM, do you want to continue to be the great systemic Trader that you are, who is on full alert at 3am, who is always changing systems, who finds a reliance on vodka normal, who suffers panic attacks in public places ......[ I pulled this info from your posts] Do you follow tennis ... Watch Andy Murray playing the other 3 or 4 top seeds. Andy has the correct build for modern tennis. His stroke play and serves are wonderful and so top marks to who ever taught him how to hold a racket, move around the court and hit the ball [the equivalent of a trading system] But Andy's attitude is all wrong for beating Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal on a consistent basis. He permits his own frustration to defeat him and since this frustration remains evident in his press interviews it is probably a fair assumption that it spills over into the rest of his life and he carries it 24 /7. Andy now has a monumental task ahead of him to change his attitude compared to a few years ago when he was an up and coming bright star of the court. Now he knows he can be No #1 but he is looking through a glass door and he alone holds the only key. His frustration fuels his temper and his temper fuels his frustration. In short Andy has allowed himself to become a victim of his own thought pattern. The ransom he must pay is ... he must change his behavior and in order to achieve this, Andy must first rearrange his thought patterns.
This is what I have done as well. I used to hesitate to trade many of my setups because of "over-thinking" the trade and imagining the potential loss instead of the potential profit (the invisible hand). After enough experience and confirmation of my edge, now putting on a trade when one of my setups appears is like that fun anticipation when you're about to get on your favorite ride at the amusement park. "Oh boy, got my buy stop a tick above resistance, and here it comes!"
jjf wrote ""And so I created that principle belief of fun and joy" There is so much power in that simple statement. In simplicity is the greatest beauty, joy, and power. A life full of abundance, or lack. The choice is ours.
I like you. Don't know you. But admire that you ground your assessments in observable assertions. It keeps you out of the virtual world of ungrounded claims and counter claims. Thank you for being part of this conversation. Maybe we should talk. I will be speaking Tuesday morning at 8 AM at Traders Expo in NYC. I will also have a booth there. Would like to meet you. Rande Howell
Lots of the "invisible hand" is lies that we believe from abusive and evil people.. the trick is to brush them off and continue with a good plan in hand... The moment I detect that somebody is not supportive or is opposed to what I want to do I drop them like a bad habit.. same goes for the psychologically sabotaging folk... dropped like bad habits every one...