...let me say at the outset that it is so refreshing to correspond with a person here who has the courage to post under his own name. Judging from the trading example you offer us for psychological analysis, you are a person of some repute. Making a rough estimate of your age, it would appear that verily you are falling off of the bottom of the actuarial tables, and I salute your longevity. At the very least, you are of an age, as am I, at which death is no longer optional.
But to your trade example. It is indeed a classic, and illuminates many pertinent aspects of trading. First, and sadly, it is rarely possible to trade people any more. Free agency, the demise of the studio contract system, the abolition of the draft, and the Great Emancipation have reduced such opportunities to near nothing. In my humble opinion this explains the attractiveness to, and the influx of, extreme sadists to the financial markets.
Second, your evident pleasure, undimmed by the years, of cheating a naive associate in a trade illuminates a little recognized benefit of trading. Before I started my trading career, I did not consider my own psychological makeup to be auspicious. But I remembered the NLP dictum "What can you do with a problem like that?", and realised that sadism is indeed an appropriate psychological position from which to approach the markets. I derive very satisfying petites morts from knowing that a profitable trade has screwed someone, taken food off of his table, and caused him to feel like a fool.
Thirdly, trading, much like ET, performs a social good because it keeps otherwise frustrated and potentially dangerous individuals off the streets.
Arthur (Art Deco), M.D.