Giving newbs "tools" and then telling them to trade using their "tools" is like giving a first year art student a chunk of marble a chisel and mallet and instructing them to chip away everything which does not look like the model. ITS INSANE.
Its only insane if the newb likes to jump ahead and start tinkering with all the gadgets and gizmos before they have the foundational stuff firmly in place in their minds. I have read the thread and I know the guys who like to skip around before they are ready and you can tell from their questions and responses that they definitely should take several steps back. Just because tools are there doesnt mean everyone is ready for them the second they are distributed.
Steve makes a great point. We set up a syllabus for a period of time. It comes to an end soon. The idea was to build from a substantive core and add constructive shells. To become a trader cannot be rushed for one reason: a trader must experience the market in a variety of conditions at each level. We slowed the process down to accomplish this as everyone saw this year. Trading involves knowledge, skills and experience. The knowledge is not very complex nor sophisticated. It is very learnable simply because there is not much to it. A core and five shells; each have the usual names accorded the common trading sakill levels. Most traders automatically assess others by skill level from their statements about where they are and what they do. It seems that most traders do not learn in a purposeful manner. They actually usually rise to gaven lvel and simply repeat on that level over and over. There is a psychology behind SCT. It involves several major themes that have not been emphasized. I am posting them here as a guide to those who want to take the time to either understand PVT and SCT better or for those that do have a profitable method and simply want to compare notes. The template for trading PVT and SCT is the same. It came from purposeful learning about markets about 50 years ago. In 1934, a year after I was born granville and Dodd wrote about the P, V relationship. I wish I had learned it from them but I learned it more from observation. The Boolean template shows that Volume cycles twice as fast as Price. Psychologically speaking, this provides a framework for the mind to develop the necessary knowledge for trading. I feel it is solid supportive and comfortable thing and I have grwon over 50 years to count upon it on any fractal in any market. This proves out the basic tenent that the market sequences. Many other things follow suit. By knowing that the template is a logically based relationship of price, it is possible to construct a basis for monitoring in a pschological way that adds to the support and comfort. I chose to seek the essence of the P, V relationship to deeply tap into knowledge that was the basis for the theorem that states the relationship. It was not complete and only expressed the dynamic of the market. I added a corrolary to deal with that. The dynamic, however was the definition of how money is made. The psychology of PVT and SCT is to make money. A strategy could do this, but a psychology is better. That is why the forum exists near the top of the list in ET. The P, V relationship dictating that the market sequences in a P and V realtionship yields the mathematical approach required and the units of observation of the independent variables. Knowing thse things, again, provides more psychological support and comfort. I must use Boolean Algebra which has it's unique algebraic rules and the units of the independant variables are vectors comprised of unit change per unit time. Thus i have the comfort and support of knowing the magnitude and direction of the variables and I have a mathematics that tells me "I know I know". Because of the sequences (caused by the few combinations possible), I know before the event as well. At this point, the market is giving me a lot and support and comfort, psychologically, are joined by one other psychological aspect: confidence. From a housekeeping viewpoint, it was easy to use (annotate) "containers" for the vectors because the annotations displayed the P,V relationship and the corrolary all of the time. This is a great psychological aid and it reinforces support, comfort and confidence. Luckily for me, in 1957, my charting of Price and volume automatically included annotating simply and rapidly out into the future on my graphs. Price and volume subsequently filled the containers or simply "broke through" the container as the market "informed" me. I learned the value of hand drawing my charts daily. What I learned was that my mind was doing a drill over and over. Later, when several support tools were invented for trading and when several new instruments were invented, my mind taught me some additional things. Today what my mind does has a name and how it got this way also has a name. When it happened there were no names, however. Because I had a computer and was trading at 50 times the equities money velocity, I had to be more precise in my observations and decision making. More accutately I had to be more precise in my monitoring and my timely actions. The analysis and decsion making were unconscious except when I was narrating the markets for others live. This activity also engenders support, comfort and confidence psychologically speaking. The MADA is a drill just like that of the 50's. Annotating the M part is a drill. The cummulative effect is sports memory for me and those who do SCT by going through the mind building. Going through the skill levels just adds money velocity to the capital. Being in the market all of the time is a consequence of the knowledge that to make money you have to be in the market. This is not a difficult concept. The psychology of the PVT and SCT is such that support, comfort and confidence are the modus and this is congruent with being in the market all of the time. It is not a possibility for a follower of the Conventional Orthodoxy to understand or consider being in the market all of the time. The neuro plasticity process done by the mind is working for all traders all of the time. It is the drill aspect (routines as I call MADA), and annotating) of trading that engenders the neuro plasticity result. It is working negatively for others as well. You can see that I have noted that neuro plasticity has affected a lot of these other people. Some actually, every day, are triggerd by a thing that must seems nonsensical to others. For them it is a very tough situation. I automatically put them on ignore at this point. I recommend that everyone else does too. Their unhealthiness is not our concern. Tools for trading are important aids that enhance money velocity. They also have great psychological value. I use non P, V tools: OTR, DOM amd S/S are a few. There are many others. A condensation of the many levels of trading is found ona 25 inch long chart that was posted often starting a few years ago. I suggest a drill with it using colored ball points. It was the sweeps chart on three levels as a combo of nine tables. The core was coarse P and V. You could get all the way to Expert using it. It makes a very strong psychological point. the market gives you information. IT is the foundation here, of course. Traders, on the other hand, use the psychology of their beings to make money. IT is a synthesis process where the whole is built from small Legos. streams of different independnet Lego building. Trading works the other way. It goes from a simple coarse core of boundaries roughly seen and gradually works to a consumate and seamless continuous trading of unbelievable and astonishing levles. It is all in the mind and unconscious as a consequence of innumerable reps that allows the neuro plasticity to work it's marvels. The envelope of all of this is the psychology of trading PVT and SCT that originates from the market/trader template. The psychology is what rules building the mind: support, comfort and confidence. Unfortunately, the Conventional Orthodoxy follws another path. The maintenance requirement for these people's minds is well documented. Steenbarger is a typical published repair methodology person. I have noted several others in the past. I haven't taken the trouble to explain the psychology of CO consequences and I am not starting now. Someone else can articulate that if they wish. The psychology involved in trading is the catalyst for making progress in knowledge and skills. The experience is a purposeful learning process. Experience takes time simply because the market only gives you so much each day. Two or one month of days is required to experience the variation and distribution of the market's price and volume cycles in the ratio of one to twoo, respectively. Fortunately, the residence time on each level of purposeful learning is the bottom line. I enjoyed a brief outing yesterday (Labor Day) at a hosted BBQ. The people there had had the experience of the above. I particularly enjoyed the comments of a former librarian and a few of her associates. She and her husband both do both PVT and SCT. They simply enjoy making more money than their professions provided. The former librarian and one of her trading pals are gong on a trip together to refresh themsleves. They can and are doing anything they want. There is no glass ceiling for women they tell me.
Ever wonder why all the student loan outfits went out of business? Why every financial aid office is teaching SCT? Why? Because by trading $20000 for a week, $100000 can be generated, which takes care of the annual tuition/fees/etc for just about any educational program on earth. Jack said so. Read it right here on ET
Anyone that spends this much time on the internet defending a method isn't making a red cent or they'd be out enjoying the kind of lifestyle this business can provide if you do it right
Too bad you havent learned to do it right, otherwise YOU'D be out enjoying yourself instead of on here whining day in and day out.