We have a club of trend following traders here in LA and Orange county. We run Ed Seykota's Trading Tribe Process(TTP) to help each other to develop skills to deal with emotions, developing insights and better feeling the flow of trend. We have been running the meetings for several months and everyone likes the idea and the method. It's a process like a group game and role play and very inspiring on helping us understand what trend following really means. We help each other to develop his unconscious body language and reveal emotions associate with traders' subconscious body languages. It helped the trader to be aware that when he engages trading, he is not alone, he relies on his subconscious mind(we call Fred) to execute his plan, Fred is like another self, or a companion, which includes trader's habits, emotions, etc . And in most cases bad communication with our Fred creates poor trading performance. We started having success stories in trading and life by applying TTP principles and skills. Please contact me if you are interested. It's free to attend meeting. Thanks. Vincent
Yes. Did you see us before? Here is the link. http://www.meetup.com/The-Trading-Tribe-of-Orange-County/
I read a very interesting piece about "fred" a while back , probably the best description of what ego is all about and all of the facets that go unnoticed by so many on the subject.
It's good to know about something. But it's more important to be able to do it. and repeatedly do it until it becomes a habit, a well designed emotional response or thinking habit. That's all what we do in the TTP meetings. We practice, practice, practice. To gain ability to solve internal conflict. Not just stay at the level of "heard of" or "know about" some good psychology technique, or trading or thinking habits and not able to pull it off in real time application. Its only purpose is to help us to gain abilities, not just knowledge. The only purpose of this well designed process is to help the member gain the ability to face and accept reality and pain quicker than untrained mind, to make hard decision quicker, instead of avoiding the painful decision until it's too late and being forced to accept. Practice of TTP also help members to become more receptive and sensitive to the flow of the trend, either it's market flow or life flow, be a good receiver of other people's emotions and less sensitive to other people's opinions. It helps the trader to build more intimate relationship to the market, family, and friends. Simply put, TTP is not a theory. It's a process focusing only on improve real time application skills. Every member in our tribe immediately got the idea of TTP after our first meeting and started to like the immediate change to their everyday life. We become easier to accept whatever happens in trading and life and much better align ourselves to follow the flow of market. Of course, better trading performance.
A year ago, I was looking for a tribe in Southern California and there was non. Ed encouraged me to create one. It takes time to find friends to share same perspective, but you will find some eventually. As Ed says, "To the committed, a world of support appears. All manner of unforeseen assistance materializes to support and propel the committed to meet grand destiny." If you are committed, resistance will become your new support. TTP does not tell you any insights, but by practice, it helps you to find lots insights by yourself.
I'd much rather be TF'ing full time and living to the hills of Tehachapi. I'm just here soaking up capital from the local aerospace co.
I've always found Ed's approach to be a bit too existential for my taste, but it is interesting how much it has caught on around the world. I agree self-awareness is at the top of the list, but perhaps achieving this notion does not require the... theater... that one may encounter with his approach. I'm of the opinion that almost all of us are born "addicts" in the sense of being addicted to bad behavior as it relates to trading markets, with the exception of true narcissists and psychopaths (who I believe make the best natural born traders). So assuming you are not naturally gifted(more likely cursed) in this endeavor: If you want success you have to break the addiction, and there is more than one way to do it (some more effective and resistant to "relapses" than others). I'm more from the camp of the market will break you, you will find your weaknesses through the pain, and then it is up to you whether to choose an enlightened path (which is essentially give in to the market and become an extension of it for better/worse), or quit. You will lose some (or perhaps a lot) of humanity in the process. I think someone who has been taken apart piece by piece by the market under live-fire conditions, seen the abyss at least once, and has seen 10+ years of action is probably a more robust individual than the person who goes the existential therapy route trying to avoid the full individually-experienced pain/"hard way", but this is purely my bias given I went the former route
The key element of TTP is to encourage the practitioner to actually experience the pain instead of avoiding it. If you have read about its method you won't miss it. It is not a therapy at all. It's a emotional workout process taken place in a group form. I agree with you that you need to experience actual street fight to be a good fighter. I also traded for 8 years and know what you mean. But there are many ways to train a good fighter, and you don't always have to pay the hard price. TTP is just one of them. I am not against other approaches at all. It's very hard to explain if you have not really done it. And the beauty of TTP is, you don't only benefit to be on the "patient" side who is taking "therapy" from other partners during the process. You will also benefit a lot as the listener(or receiver as we call it), or probably even more. I am the chief of the tribe and haven't got chance to be on the hotseat(the "patient" side), and I already picked up a lot AHHA(sudden understanding or insights) by just being the listener(receiver). I am using a separate post to include some of the rules we find out to be followed in the meeting as a good listener(receiver) during the meeting. Think about it if you are a listener and you are required to do this. Think about by practicing it regularly, how it will transform you into a better listener to other people's feeling, or a better listener to the markets trends.