This morning my eyes were blurry from staring at screens the day before. It got me thinking random thoughts, as I often do on sat morning. Could the blind trade? What if one day I go blind or any of us suffer some unrepairable damage to the eye. Could traders still trade. My thought is yes in two parts. First there is the trader that has seen price action and charts and will know what to look for. In the case of being blind, it would be hear or feel. Some device would have to be made to represent the bid and the ask in an audible or tachtile form. My thinking was a machine like a mouse but with bumps, that would represent number values. Then combining and audible tone when a print goes off, nothing to annoying, a light chime. When the print goes off at the ask the chime is higher, and as it goes off at the bid the chime has a lower tone. This also serves to(depending on the sounds position in the selected scale of notes) depict short term price momentum. I thought about this for a moment, and knowing that when one of the five senses is gone, the others get hieghtened. I wonder how well with this setup a visually impaired person could learn to trade. They wouldn't see the montage games, and wouldn't have to watch the P&L fluctuate. Could that be an edge psychologically. Could a trader that can not detect a pattern visually be more attuned to an audio pattern? If so, would the trader even need to be blind in the first place? Well thats my thought of the day.
Probably could be done back in the days of the ticker tape, where you could literally just listen to it.
Good point.. I guess as markets become more fragmented this will become less and less pheasable. Though I personally feel regardless of market adaptaion, the market discovery proccess will find the price of the real pools of liquidity and price level. Just might be more pauses and shakes to get there. This brings us back to the idea of scaled tones, to denote the spacial position of price mentally. I still can't help but feel it can be done, and if therefore is possible, can be taught patterns to the blind.
I've had this thought many times before. Techincally, the other 4 senses would have to kick in somehow, with hearing being the predominant one. Smell isn't going to be too useful. Taste even less so. Regardless, losing your sight would be an enormous disadvantage. 100% of my information processing is sight related. It would be devastating to me. Of course, the 6th sense wouldn't be lost! And that might be the most important!
A few years ago I had some technology that I was showing to a research group at Stanford. They were developing tools for the blind and other disabled computer users. They had tablets with raised 'bumps' so that you could feel lines by running your hand over the tablet. You could only detect major lines, shades of grey & colors are out of the question. I was very impressed. I am sure the technology has improved since then. Also, I was playing around with some text-to-speech api to monitor IRC chat rooms without taking my eyes off the screen. It would be 'easy' to modify my chart program to say different price levels when a key is pressed and to constantly read bid-high-last. You could have a different voice for each indicator and as many key combinations/indicators as you want. I think a blind person could do scalping by relying on sound info, or trade a SpyderTrader volume breakout system where the research is done the night before and although there is chart reading trader discipline and prep is more important. Trading based on Market Profile and major S/R levels might also be very doable. Just some thoughts....
Of course, the 6th sense wouldn't be lost! And that might be the most important! It could be hightened.