Quote from bone:
I have yet to meet a hedge fund manager or commodity trading advisor who places much gravitas in all of these standard platitudes regurgitated from the much cited and published "masters".
I am not suggesting that they would disagree with any of it - my impression is that their performance and accomplishments came from their own sweat equity and intelligence and competence in terms of reading and understanding markets and position management.
I'm not seeing the stuff sitting around on desktops or coffee tables or prominently stacked eye level in a nice bookcase.
I mean, I'll spy a copy of "Modeling Financial Time Series with S-Plus" by Zivot and Wang - but no Jack Schwager or Edwin LeFevre or Jesse Livermore or Mark Douglas.
Well of course success came from their own sweat equity, intelligence, competence etcetera. Where else would it come from?
As for platitudes etcetera... to each his own. Some people like trading books, others don't. Those who see no value in revisiting old wisdom for a few minutes each day can self-select out and not pay attention to this thread.
I personally started this project because I get a lot out of these old tomes. I enjoy going back over the texts. I like the mental thought processes they stir up, the old connections they dust off. Like a professional basketball player shooting baskets in the gym, remembering the John-Wooden-style fundamentals.
I intend to become one of the greatest traders of my generation. Someone has to take the mantle from the current crop of greats, who are mostly at or beyond retirement age.
Is it about the money? No. It's about the game. I love the game, and so I look for every edge I can find. And that is why I love the old books, and new ones too. I love going over this stuff, even after being immersed in markets for 15 years, because my passion for trading is insatiable. And because I know the extra edge it can bring me.
That little extra edge, that extra sharpening of the razor blade, can compound into a major difference. Not to mention that, with some of the newer books and ideas -- and even with some of the older ones -- there is the potential to come across an insight, methodological innovation, or psychology adjustment shift that doesn't just incrementally improve performance, it radically enhances performance. Sometimes you just aren't "ready" for a breakthrough until a later time, after you've worked on a batch of other things. I've gotten major "a-ha!" moments from books on the second or third go-round, that I totally missed on the first.
So yeah, some see platitudes and boring bullshit. Which is fine. Others will see great value, and perhaps extract that value on their way to making millions. Or tens or hundreds of millions, or even billions.
Follow your own path, seek out what has worth to you, and who gives a fuck about what's said from the side the road.
p.s. Never read Zivot and Wang - but I'm sure that, when the time comes, I can hire a guy to explain it to me.
