Traders' Coach (Woman)

Quote from chessman:

The conscious mind is only 3% of the brain, the vast 97% is the unconscious which largely remains untapped. Focusing is a technique that allows a person to systematically access that 97%.

This is probably beyond the scope of this thread, but if you listen to Paul Tudor Jones speech he recently gave at the NY Merc where he brought up the subject of savants you will understand why many consider Flavia's work so important.

http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/SavantSyndrome.htm

All the best and Happy Holidays
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thanks, chessman. very good and interesting points. coaching and consulting in trading is only for the few who want to take their game to the next level. paul tudor jones, probably the best trader/ money manager of all time, hired a coach to help him with several issues in his trading. michael jordan, without a doubt the best bball player ever, has a coach. i guess if one is happy eeking out a living from the market, or earning 100k or whatever from a slave job--- coaches / consultants are irrelevant. however if you are at the top of your game and want to push the envelope of success--hiring an expert is the way to go. skilled and highly educated coaches like flavia are for already profitable traders / money managers looking to break into the next level. yes, if you dont have a master grasp of the basics and beyond, a coach will not be of much use. if the people making the negative comments knew the level of trader who seeks out this type of guidance, they would be quite surprised and quickly silenced. the mediocre will never understand what its like living on the edge of your capability and wanting more.


happy holidays,

surfer :)
 
Quote from marketsurfer:

if the people making the negative comments knew the level of trader who seeks out this type of guidance, they would be quite surprised and quickly silenced. the mediocre will never understand what its like living on the edge of your capability and wanting more.
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Or, not to put too fine a point on it, anyone who questions the assertions made about "Flavia" is by definition a mediocre trader. And anything which a famous trader endorses must as a matter of course be of substantial value (just as doctors once endorsed a given brand of cigarette over another).

Steve's points are well-taken. If "psychological" issues are preventing one from "going to the next level", it's unlikely that the issues themselves are the sole culprit, and believing that they are so can simply postpone the inevitable.

Examining, for example, one's fear of losing money > fear of being wrong > fear of loss > fear of death blah blah may or may not be a "good thing", but it need not have anything at all to do with trading success if one has not taken the steps which steve enumerated. All the control and focus in the world isn't going to be of much effect without a plan which has a statistically significant probability of success.
 
Quote from bbmat:

on the point that those counselors do not seem to make a trader profitable (and whatever someone else tries to tell you, isn't profitability the most important in trading?).

I am very skeptical of those coaches. Who says that Soros or Buffett ever relied on that woman for their trading/investing style or psychological mindsets? Was it that a small trader who visited her booth at a trade show in Las Vegas heard that from her (her name was Flavia, right?). Why didn't that guy walk up to the booth of Soros or Buffett to ask them whether that was right ;-) (or is it taken off the book by Buffett who never wrote that book but was interviewed by a professional writer who did all the book writing for him and therefore added some mysticism? Or do you guys also believe all the stories you would read in books by the R. Stones or other rock stars that were entirely written by someone else who has not experienced such stories first hand?) From having spent about 60 seconds on her website I rather get the impression that Flavia was the one who interviewed or consulted Buffett for her new book, not vice versa.

I believe that the most important thing to trade profitably is the right view of future market development (being more often right than wrong) and an EXCELLENT (I cannot overstate this) knowledge and insight of statistics and statistical models. Working on emotions and mindsets can be very deceptive because how do you want to quantify such things and who can prove that one mindsets is wrong and the other is right? Of course there are classical cases in which ones emotions block ones trading style.

In summary, I am afraid that without proper knowledge of statistics and without a real strive for an original opinion on future market developments, no coach in the world will make that trader become profitable or return to profitability. And I am relieved because I think that possessing such qualities, even some bad emotions will not make a trader lose it all, because if one adheres to statistical models and probabilities and sets up risk parameters BEFORE each trade (setting up=really executing on them not setting them in ones mind), emotions have got a hard time to come in between.
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while i'll agree with you that "winner take all" by wm gallacher is one of the best market books ever written, your blatant disregard for the psychological aspects of trading is disturbing. quant system ( which you seem to be advocating ) or no system-- psychology plays a critical rule. when your perfect quant system is experiencing a drawdown-- psychology is critical in regards on how to handle the situation.

i can only ascertain, based on your posts, that you have never managed significant capital--either your own or others-- in a direct , final say capacity. if you did, you would understand the role psychology plays in this game.

best,

surfer:)

by the way--buffett was never mentioned in any capacity in regards to this topic.
 
Focus... blaaahhhh...

Over-focus leads to blindness...

Over-focus leads to ignorant bias...

Over-focus leads to neurotic confidence....
 
I think that if you are not a profitable trader, then a trading coach is worthless. You would need a mentor to teach you how to trade first (or learn yourself). Now if you are profitable and only desire to be the best, a trading coach would be awesome. So many people forget what they are capable of and let their own fear/greed get in the way. All top athletes now days have a performance coach. They try to find out the weak spots of a athlete (physical, mental, etc.) and help them break through plateau's and barrier's. As a former top athlete myself, I had many mental stops similar to trading. If trying to beat a course record (without competition), it would take lots of focusing to try and keep a great pace and proper time splits. Man was created in God's image, but we also have the weakness of flesh. If you can conquer that weakness then you have no limits.-
 
... Leo Melamed used to say that you were either a trader or you were not.

He meant that some people can handle trading and some just dont have the personality etc. to excel in the business.

Over time I have come to agree with this position.

I have watched legions of so-called "Traders Coaches" do nothing more than extract dollars from their clients for services that really are based on common-sense.

IMHO if you need a traders coach to be a good trader then you dont have the stuff necessary to make it in this business.
 
steve cohen, from SAC, manages 4 billion dollars and works with a trading coach. as i said earlier, coaches are only for those who want to excell, all others need not apply.

enjoy your weekend !

surfer :)
 
Quote from marketsurfer:

steve cohen from SAC manages 4 billion dollars works with a trading coach. as i said earlier, coaches are only for those who want to excell, all others need not apply.

enjoy your weekend !

surfer :)
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How come coaches still find time to moonlight outside their own trading?

enjoy your weekend !

nononsense
 
Quote from marketsurfer:

steve cohen, from SAC, manages 4 billion dollars and works with a trading coach. as i said earlier, coaches are only for those who want to excell, all others need not apply.
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And don't have the knowledge or skill to do it themselves.
 
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