The Tao of Publias II

[Publias]

This thread will be an ongoing attempt to verbally express my trading experience...

'Trading truth is existential; NOT intellectual' ~Koppel~

Mere linguistics will never do justice; for what one express with the use of words will always be immeasurably less than what one can experience. Try and keep an open mind, heart, and spirit.

'The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon itself'

Most of what will be written here will be my own words, but from time to time I may draw from a multitude of different sources to help express my truth. Some of these quotes will be easily misinterpreted, so if something does not quite make sense to you PLEASE just ask me where I am coming from instead of attacking/arguing. Feel free to post away in a constructive manner, but keep in mind that this is a verbal expression of my actual trading experience and as such arguing it would be ludicrous.

THIS IS MY TRUTH---------> Publias

 

[Publias]

[color=light green]~Microscopic Monetary Performance~[/color]

'Attachment, the great fabricator of illusion' -- Simone Wiel --

Attachment to micro-level monetary performance is nothing more than a manifested absurdity! This absurdity defies the very nature of the game, but ironically is in complete and utter accord with the human condition. The wise trader will see the folly in this action. He will transcend profit/loss and detach himself from the micro results. In this way he will obtain true clarity and an impenetrable centeredness within the realm of the present moment (trade).

THIS IS MY TRUTH
Publias

 

[Publias]

~Responsive Like an Echo~

"Matters of great concern should be handled lightly;
Matters of small concern should be handled greatly!"
~Hagakure~

"Handle the difficult while it is still easy;
Deal with the large while it is still small!"
~Lao Tzu~

In a game where uncertainty and chaos appear to be the only constants, it may be a good idea to have a plan. While 'she' may be indifferent, her force can be devastating! This force will manifest itself in the form of wrath to the participants with a lack of healthy respect! Do not try and react to her, respond to her. If you have a plan and are resolved before engaging in action, the difficult can be handled lightly. Forewarned is forearmed!

THIS IS MY TRUTH

 

[Publias]

~The Feminine Market~

"He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fisherman, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman."

THIS IS MY TRUTH (Expressed by Earnest Hemingway in 'Old Man and the Sea')

 

[Publias]

~The Grim Phantasm FEAR~

'I shall perish,' said he, 'I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate this intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect -- IN TERROR. In this unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR...'

If you are having a hard time "pulling the trigger" then you have to take a deep look inside to figure out what exactly is perpetuating this 'agitation of the soul'. I can almost guarantee that if one looks deep enough he/she will find that the root lies much deeper than just the potential loss itself. One will never be able to trade to the fullest of their ability if they have not yet learned to accept risk.

THIS IS MY TRUTH (Expressed by Edgar Allen Poe in 'The Fall of the House of Usher')

 

[Publias]

~Transcending the Duality of Victory & Defeat~


'If defeat has more to teach us than victory, then perhaps a defeat is a victory unto itself?'
~Miron Stabinsky~

Over the years I have learned to truly embrace my fallibility as a product of the human condition. Our existence is undoubtedly imperfect and there is simply NO getting around this. Instead of merely getting 'kicked in the teeth' and moving on, I have instead learned to use it as a strength. I transcended the duality of victory/defeat and now accept both as one more step along an endless journey toward mastery. If you take the time to listen to what she is telling you, this 5 pts. can save you 50 in the bigger picture. Like our own Qwiktrade says "Great traders are much like hockey players in that both have no more teeth left"

THIS IS MY TRUTH

 

[joeinverso]

It was great talking and seeing you Sunday.
That night I read this in ‘The King Within’ By Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette.
Like to share with you,
“The choices we have to make in life are really acts of self-sacrifice the potential for the sake of the actual. Take for example the artist (you can drop in trader as well) before a blank canvas. Until he dips his brush into the paint, the canvas offers him a pure white potential. Almost anything can happen. As soon as he begins to paint he has begun to sacrifice his options. The nearly infinite possibilities for subject matter, color, texture, and technique becomes finite. Limitless Libido is taking on finite form.
As he makes his choices, partly consciously, partly not, he experiences a sense of loss, because he does lose some of the vast, ecstatic, intuited imagery that inspired him. He selects against expressing everything. He sacrifices the whole of his creative Self for the purpose of realizing a fragment. Also, he allows the charge of creative life-force that has built up within him, demanding expression and release, to drain out of him.
Here he is like the sacred king who touches his foot to the earth and loses his concentrated life-force to the material world.
And yet, not only has the artist (trader) provisioned the world and pushed forward the whole of creation, he has also been provided for. He is transfigured by a fresh upwelling of ecstatic life-force through the incomparable experience of empowerment that any successful creative achievement brings.”
I see you as an artist.
Joseph

 

[Adonias]

Originally posted by darkhorse

So here is what I am saying: seek serenity and objectivity, sure. But do so through real understanding, not artificial conditioning.

Originally posted by Publias

In short Dark I AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY that to embrace this wisdom and the apply it to the market without the sweat and tuition that the game demands is futile to say the very least...

There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things, and because it takes a man's life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.

Ernest Hemingway

Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit

Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdues both intelligence and skill

Cicero

Well, the average guy might not be a million-dollar trader, but if he stands there for five years, he would have to pick it up. It is just like a job. You don't start any job and feel comfortable in the first six moths... You don't need any education at all to do it. The smarter you are, the dumber you are. The more you know, the worse it is for you.

Tom Baldwin - The Fearless Pit Trader

"What is true of archery and swordsmanship also applies to all the other arts. Thus, mastery in ink-painting is only attained when the hand, exercising perfect control over technique, executes what hovers before the mind's eye at the same moment when the mind begins to form it, without there being a hair's breadth between. Painting then becomes spontaneous calligraphy. Here again the painter's structions might be: Spend ten years observing bamboos, become a bamboo yourself, then forget everything and - paint."

Zen in the Art of Archery
Eugen Herrigel

Spend ten years trading...

Adonias (Negotiator)

 

[Publias]

Hey uncle thanks for dropping me a line... It was VERY nice to see you also

Great quote and I must say this is an astounding display of 'self-sacrafice' on your part! Good luck with your upcoming show.

PEACE, health and good painting...

 

[Publias]

'The warrior, no matter how well trained in the techniques of his martial skills he had to break through the superficial layers of his ordinary reasoning, his habbit-ridden mentality, to the deeper center of his true original self.' ~Winston L. King; Arming the Samurai Psyche~

'However well a man may be trained in the art, the swords-man can never be the master of his technical knowledge unless all his psychic hindrances are removed and he can keep his mind in the state of emptiness, even purged of whatever technique he has obtained. The entire body together with the four limbs will then be capable of displaying for the first time and to its full extent all the art acquired by the training of several years. They will move as if automatically, with no conscious effort on the part of the swordsman himself. His activities will be a perfect model of swordplay. All the training is there BUT the mind is utterly unconscious of it.' ~D.T. Suzuki; Zen and Japanese Culture~

THIS IS MY TRUTH (Expressed by Winston L. King & D.T. Suzuki)