What's your market metaphor?

I have often thought of Golf as a metaphor for tradng. "Each hole is a new fresh start" "Play within yourself." "You can tell alot about a person by the way they play golf". "Don't look at the leaderboard". etc etc

Substitute the word TRADE where necessary and you can see the parallels.
 
May your longs stay up and your shorts go down

(If I recall correctly, this was in a holiday greeting card from Alexander Elder's company.)
 
Quote from daniel_m:

What are some of the metaphors* people have for the markets and for trading?

*Eg, 'All the world's a stage' (Shkspr)


For example, the latest one I've adopted is 'trading is a game'.
More than just a slogan or a catchphrase, that statement is really quite representative of how I've come to view trading. I don't see it as 'serious' or as something I've 'got to make money at'.

I see it as a game being played between all the market participants, whether they think they're part of it or not, in which there isn't, and can never be, a 'winner'; although some of the players can certainly 'be winning' at it.

I know it's easy to write this stuff off as 'mere semantics', but I really think delving into such (usually subconscious) thoughts can yield some interesting information (for oneself).

As an example, if you're name is Hitman, you might describe the markets as 'Trading is war. It's a battlefield out and there and you've gotta slay them all if you want to emerge victorious. This is it, do or die. One shot. It's all for the princess'. I think it's pretty obvious that someone with that type of concept of trading would probably make his decisions quite differently (and thus likely expect and reach different outcomes) than someone for whom 'Trading is like a walk in the meadows, each trade being like stopping to smell the next new flower you find.' (Silly, but it makes a point.)

I'd be interested to hear what metaphors others have, especially some of the 'old timers' who may not post so much anymore, but I'm sure are still lurking (like me). So rather than get caught up in the latest bout of worthless mr.market or gekko mania, maybe take some time and try thinking (and share your thoughts).
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Ecosystems, definitely. In my earlier days, I used to perceive the markets as a battlefield - Sun Tzu´s "The Art Of War" left a lasting impression.

But one day, after reading an interesing trading-related article, I understood that sitting in front of my screens and unconsciously having the mindset of kill or be killed wasn´t very helpful.

So I further developed some thoughts that started to blossom after I read a pretty interesting article ( http://www.hardrightedge.com/wizard/ss1.htm ).

Aren´t the markets indeed just like a, let´s say, forest?
You´ve got the ants, playing the big numbers game (= statistical arbitrage), you´ve got the many grass eating mammals which tend to live and move in herds (= benchmark oriented mutual funds) as well as the eagle flying high above all and striking only when all odds are in his favor (= daily pattern oriented trader) or, of course, the larger predators, who are hiding and following their prey as long as it takes and when opportunity comes, hit it without mercy (= certain Hedge Fund strategies)
 
Quote from Riskmanager:



Ecosystems, definitely. In my earlier days, I used to perceive the markets as a battlefield - Sun Tzu´s "The Art Of War" left a lasting impression.

So I further developed some thoughts that started to blossom after I read a pretty interesting article ( http://www.hardrightedge.com/wizard/ss1.htm ).
More...

great article....i think alot of new traders gravitate towards the 1 and 2 min timeframes for the thrill of it, only to eventually discover these painful truths :)
 
Words are limited : they are just proxies for thoughts. Words should be put aside when one really want to go deep into some concepts or just for getting a better intuition of some abstraction. Then images analogies or metaphores can be good instruments for substituing to words because they are richer vehicules for imagination. Nevertheless some people will be extreme and take these metaphores for truths and this then becomes mysticism. So metaphores must stay metaphores and not more.
 
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