1. Mark expects traders to be a machine. Van expects traders to trade mechanically. It eventually comes down to the same thing. It's a matter of being or doing, but what we do is who we are so it's more a philosophical matter. 2. I think this is one misconception about intuition. When most hear about intuition, they tend to look at some super-natural sense or predictive mind that you have. Just like driving, you tend to drive without analyzing things like how you first start driving. Intuitively, you identify the dangers and how you are driving and act accordingly. Very close to that. The talent part comes in with how fast you can adapt and how fast you can identify danger. Even though you're driving, you keep the specific focus that you're looking for in a broad sense, looking for irregularities. For example: You see a yellow or red light. You expect all the cars going your way to flash the brake light and slow down. - This happens most of the time. Once in a while, you identify an irregularity... a car that doesn't slow down without a brake lamp. It triggers your awareness. Simple stuff, I think this comes into trading intuition also. Not that I'm saying this is the only form of intuition but one of the aspects of intuition.
Here is a great discussion about Mark Douglas and Van Tharp--- Some great posts from WD Gann, one of the brightest lights ever on elite trader. peace surf
In my opinion, Van Tharp's best insights were contained in the interview in Schwager's "Market Wizards" and Mark Douglas' best insights were contained in the interview he did for Wizetrade (you can find that on Youtube).