Quote from bubba7:
It is a monitoring setting where so many things can be going on and they are continually digested as "okay". This is the opposite of Scientist's stuff. The only focus is on "flaws" as an advent. Once you turn over the flaw card, you act accordingly. For experts, the action is two fold usually: the relaxing overature of taking profits and the secondary action of beginning the creation of another stream of profits.
It is like two worlds. going with the flow continually (shering jobs with the market) or setting up continual fights with the market to beat it being controlling and supressing your feelings to engender personal discipline.
What was being suppressed anyway; where was there a fight needed? Patience often is called for. We need patience because making money is slow each day; 26 to 28 points on only 5 contracts is only a 1,000 bucks an hour. 13,000 for two days.
Dear Brother Bubba,
As much as I honour and admire your posts, I have to strongly disagree with your notion that this is the opposite of "my stuff".
I think exactly the same thing - For example, to quote you: "It is a monitoring setting where so many things can be going on and they are continually digested as "okay" - Is exactly the way I look at the market.
I just try to go with the flow - I try to realize what exactly is going in the market at any given time, and I adapt. When the overall trend in my timeframe doesn't appeal to me, I go down to a smaller timeframe, or even scalping.
But I always go with the flow, and never try to "fight" or "fade" the market, since I'm aware that the market is much larger than me - And all the other professionals out there, which many traders regard as their "enemies".
There is no such thing as "enemies" in the trading world, at least not in index futures, for example. Everybody, no matter how big, has to follow their big master, the market, the underlying, the whole, and play by its rules. All we have to do is follow - and never worry about our living.
Another quote of you said: "For experts, the action is two fold usually: the relaxing overature of taking profits and the secondary action of beginning the creation of another stream of profits.".
Well, this is precisely the way anybody should look at trading. But to get to this stage takes long, long time bubba.
Until a trader actually gets to the stage where he can continuously follow this cycle, he will first have to survive in the world of trading over the whole of the learning curve, without losing money - The only way to achieve that is to first train himself in a scary amount of discipline, suppress feelings, abide by strict, self-given rules of targets, stop-losses etc...
There is no other way. To get to the mental stage of feeling and reading market flow and being one with it, which is what I can clearly read and recognize from your descriptions, takes a long long time and a lot of market exposure. Most traders are washed out of the game long before they get there, so they must learn the rules and trade by well-tested systems first - be they discretionary or mechanical. No way around it.
I like to compare this with Martial Arts - In the beginning of my Karate training, for example, I had to follow strict discipline and rules for years - I had to learn all the forms, all the tactics of combat, how to block and how to fall properly. There was no way we could avoid going through this. Every Karateka goes through this. And none understands WHY all this happens, for a very long time!
Eventually, I got to the stage where insight came into my mind. I learnt not only HOW, but WHY to do these forms. I was standing in our dojo and 7 dan (blackbelts) were asking to perform a kata.
I performed the kata to the most of elegance sought in these forms. The next second, the dan would attack me - all synchronously - But I was continuing my kata, blocking all of them with a clear, peaceful state of mind and concentration. I was attacked from several directions, but instead of offering resistance, I just followed the flow, and I did neither lose balance, nor get hurt. None of the dan could reach me, since the kata was internalized so well that I had to endeavour no resistance, no fear, no anger and no question. I didn't even have to deviate from my performance of the kata itself. A small mission was complete, and ever since I understand the true meaning of kata and Karate itself.
It is the same with trading, bubba. In fact, Martial Arts are as close to trading as anything I know of. It is about living a peaceful and balanced life by knowing not only how everybody else fights, but by knowing to fight so well that we don't have to.
Until we can gain the privilege of truly understanding, we have to just learn and abide, and follow discipline in order to stay on track. There's no way around it.
To assume that every, particularly starting or non-seasoned traders can understand all this, is arrogant and granduous, to say the least. No to mention to accuse me of opposing this perception. This is exactly what I was talking about.
And by the way, capturing 26-28 points an hour sounds like a great gain, however I sincerely doubt that you can make these returns, no matter how well you can follow the flow of the market.
Unless you're trading the Mini-Sized DOW, of course...
Otherwise, I will greatfully ask you to be my mentor, since you'd obviously be aware of so many things nobody else is aware of.
Sincerely,
~The Scientist
