you ride on the highway, which lane?

Quote from stevegee58:

OMG, I must be one sick puppy. I've reflected on this very thing while driving up and down 270 (near D.C.) every day for the last 8 years.

I made some observations of traffic patterns that I also believe are analogous to the markets.

1) People seem to blindly cut across the road for the so-called "fast lane" regardless of volume. By strategically staying in the right lane in the right areas, I end up way ahead of the fast-laners.

2) There's a stretch of 270 where the road narrows from 3 lanes to 2 (the right lane disappears). The herd is either already in the "fast lane" or moving left to bail from the disappearing lane 1 mile in advance. I stubbornly stay in the right lane all the way to where it ends with few if any cars in front of me. I end up in front of 90% of the herd this way and lop 5 minutes off my commute. (Yes, people think I'm a dick doing this. I call it "traffic arbitrage".)

3) Every year when the new school year starts, 270 and its feeders become literally gridlocked for about a month. During this period I have several back ways I take to work and completely avoid the gridlock. When this period is over, I return to 270 and the traffic is gone. I have no explanation for what causes this, but nonetheless I observed it and anticipate it every year to my advantage.

Conclusion:

The herd mentality on the highway can be observed every day. It's unwavering and unthinking. There are strategies that can be employed to exploit the herd mentality to my advantage.

All I need to do is apply observation skills to the market and find similar herd movements to exploit to make money.
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You've mirrored my experience over years of commuting, I found that trading can be very similar, you have to know your route well then it's all sooooo easy. Reacting to other traders, unless they are the big rigs of the market, is not good, best you just know your route and get behind the big rigs if they are making the best time and jam past them when they aren't.
 
Hmmm. That brings up a whole 'nother analogy. It seems like I'm always in the wrong check-out lane at Target.

I came up with what I call the "short line theory". The short line looks tempting because common wisdom says there are less people to check out so you'll get checked out sooner. Wrong! The short line is shorter because people have repeatedly bailed out because someone is 1) paying with a personal check 2) trying to do a return/exchange 3) arguing about the correct price on an item.

Go to one of the long lines. Those are the lines where things are moving smoothly. Go figure.
 
I'm with you except for one thing...

If I change lanes to ANY line, then progress wil slow down dramatically and become "the short line", to suck in more victims. :p
 
Right. In exasperation you finally bail out of the short line where the problem is. Then no sooner do you change lines but an old lady in front of you in the new line pulls out her check book. And the slow, short line suddenly breaks loose.

God I hate shopping in stores. I'd much rather shop online.
 
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