Must-have trading book...

[Charlton]

Baked Beans are a bargain

His book only costs $10 on amazon.

Quenkish

Is that a recommendation or otherwise. Baked Beans cost less than a dollar !

Charlton

 

[Quenkish]

Quenkish

Is that a recommendation or otherwise. Baked Beans cost less than a dollar !

Charlton

I have never read the book Charlton, once read an interview with a top trader (can't remember which one) who recommended it though.

 

[Bigbusiness]

Socrates what a brilliant idea I have just had, why do you not write a book about all of your trading experiences and your views and opinions on life. :!:

Don't start him on that again. It will just end in tears, like the last time

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showpost.php?p=124786&postcount=120

 

[Charlton]

Darvas - a summary please

I have never read the book Charlton, once read an interview with a top trader (can't remember which one) who recommended it though.

Quenkish

Thanks - I hope that Baruch can enlighten us a little with a summary. OK - I could go and buy the book if I really wanted to, but a little persuasion would not go amiss. But as I said I don't just want a link I would like to hear some reasoning and I'm sure other readers would appreciate that also.

I have an open mind and ready to listen to all opinions

Charlton

 

[SOCRATES]

Socrates what a brilliant idea I have just had, why do you not write a book about all of your trading experiences and your views and opinions on life. :!:

Because anyone who knows about trading, knows it is not about sharing. All these discussions going round the houses about the topic as you read on these boards and elsewhere cannot solve the requirements people have to convert inabilities to abilities.

One may start with the idea it can be initially shared, and this is true but only to a certain level of understanding and achievement, at a very basic and rudimentary mechanical level which is a gradient which is manageable for most people, provided they have the right character, for starters.

Then later on pressure reveals whether the aspirant is suitable or not., and then only up to a mechanical level. But a mechanical level is very basic and limited. But that is not all there is, of course.

So far so good. But there is a gradient. And this gradient hides itself from aspirants, beacause again it is constructed to hide itself, that is why everyone is under the false impression that anyone can do this.

Now the gradient begins to reveal itself, it begins to slope upwards gently at first...

But then the gradient becomes steep, and then veritcal, and then inverts, and then finally levels off and becomes easier, and then easier still, and then very very easy indeed, so much so as to be embarrasingly easy.

So it can be a hell of an odessey from beginning to end, and for those with the wrong faculties, a fultile and impossible mission. They are only able to discover this for themselves afterwards, not before. This is because in the first instance they refused to acknowledge their own inabilities and / or succeeded in hiding them.

Now there are two main ideas to consider, the first is it requires a lot of work not only on the topic, but more importantly, on self.

The second is that in reality The Journey cannot be shared and also the END of the Journey, which is the attainment of absolute proficiency, is about survival of the fittest, and cannot be shared either, so none of it is about sharing.

There is absolutely no comfort in it at all, no respite, whatever you may think, until it ends.

This is made more difficult still because again beyond a very basic level, progress is self generated, self driven, self forced, and you have to fight every inch against your own natural and human propensities to make the progress. In this process you succeed in changing yourself, forever as well.

The progress required is not a properly lit and signposted route marked for our convenience. To the contrary, it is peppered with very well camouflaged and with very many nasty ambushes of many different varities,

A further complication is that this further progress which has to be self generated is an abstract concept.

No book that can be written can do it justice, not only because the frames of reference of the reader are apt to be so different, but also because because cloning of readers is impossible because writing about it or describing it is not enough, it has to be undergone, it has to be lived to be appreciated and understood. It is only then that it can be discussed among equals, and then often with difficulty to find the right words to express that which is so elusive as to be not possible to describe.

Therefore to try to write a proper book about it is pointless.

But it is possible to write any book about it for commercial gain, and that includes really silly books and writtten by really stupid people as well.

I am not interested in writing any book about it for either reason, or of even trying.

Therefore the book remains and will remain, unwritten, sorry.

 

[blackcab]

I hope that Baruch can enlighten us a little with a summary

FWIW here's mine: 1) price is range bound then breaks up or down into another range. From watching price, you get a feel for what the new range is likely to be and how price should behave within it if all is well. Set stop just below the range (assuming long). 2) Be single minded, focus on your method, ignore all external noise, punditry, gossip etc.

That's pretty much it.

 

[Quenkish]

Because anyone who knows about trading, knows it is not about sharing. All these discussions going round the houses about the topic as you read on these boards and elsewhere cannot solve the requirements people have to convert inabilities to abilities.

One may start with the idea it can be initially shared, and this is true but only to a certain level of understanding and achievement, at a very basic and rudimentary mechanical level which is a gradient which is manageable for most people, provided they have the right character, for starters.

Then later on pressure reveals whether the aspirant is suitable or not., and then only up to a mechanical level. But a mechanical level is very basic and limited. But that is not all there is, of course.

So far so good. But there is a gradient. And this gradient hides itself from aspirants, beacause again it is constructed to hide itself, that is why everyone is under the false impression that anyone can do this.

Now the gradient begins to reveal itself, it begins to slope upwards gently at first...

But then the gradient becomes steep, and then veritcal, and then inverts, and then finally levels off and becomes easier, and then easier still, and then very very easy indeed, so much so as to be embarrasingly easy.

So it can be a hell of an odessey from beginning to end, and for those with the wrong faculties, a fultile and impossible mission. They are only able to discover this for themselves afterwards, not before. This is because in the first instance they refused to acknowledge their own inabilities and / or succeeded in hiding them.

Now there are two main ideas to consider, the first is it requires a lot of work not only on the topic, but more importantly, on self.

The second is that in reality The Journey cannot be shared and also the END of the Journey, which is the attainment of absolute proficiency, is about survival of the fittest, and cannot be shared either, so none of it is about sharing.

There is absolutely no comfort in it at all, no respite, whatever you may think, until it ends.

This is made more difficult still because again beyond a very basic level, progress is self generated, self driven, self forced, and you have to fight every inch against your own natural and human propensities to make the progress. In this process you succeed in changing yourself, forever as well.

The progress required is not a properly lit and signposted route marked for our convenience. To the contrary, it is peppered with very well camouflaged and with very many nasty ambushes of many different varities,

A further complication is that this further progress which has to be self generated is an abstract concept.

No book that can be written can do it justice, not only because the frames of reference of the reader are apt to be so different, but also because because cloning of readers is impossible because writing about it or describing it is not enough, it has to be undergone, it has to be lived to be appreciated and understood. It is only then that it can be discussed among equals, and then often with difficulty to find the right words to express that which is so elusive as to be not possible to describe.

Therefore to try to write a proper book about it is pointless.

But it is possible to write any book about it for commercial gain.

I am not interested in writing any book about it for either reason, or of even trying.

Therefore the book remains and will remain, unwritten, sorry.

socrates if you would convert your "journey to the basement" to pdf, it would be so helpful.

 

[SOCRATES]

Don't start him on that again. It will just end in tears, like the last time

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showpost.php?p=124786&postcount=120

I do not post here for your exclusive benefit, Bigbusiness, just in case you think so.

I post here for the benefit of an absolute minority, and not the majority.

Another reason that I post for the benefit of the absolute minority, is to demonstrate to them, by responses such as yours, what the opposition for us is really like.

I will remind you, in case you have some fanciful ideas to the contrary, that you are not included in the absolute minority as mentioned above.

Very Kind Regards to You However and Lots of Luck in your Endeavours .

 

[Charlton]

Am I missing something ?

FWIW here's mine: 1) price is range bound then breaks up or down into another range. From watching price, you get a feel for what the new range is likely to be and how price should behave within it if all is well. Set stop just below the range (assuming long). 2) Be single minded, focus on your method, ignore all external noise, punditry, gossip etc.

That's pretty much it.

Blackcab

Thank you for your trouble. I appreciate the summary.

It does not seem particularly earth-shattering. It sounds a little like swing trading within channels, or am I doing it an injustice.

May I ask if you have personally found it has added anything to your knowledge or your pocket.

Charlton

 

[blackcab]

May I ask if you have personally found it has added anything to your knowledge or your pocket.

It was a light, easy read over a couple of lunchtimes but didn't add anything new for me. It made me realise I had traded Stanley Gibbons a few times using the "Darvas Box" method without knowing the name. A better use of time than most things, but not earth shattering.

 

[Charlton]

What can we learn from books ?

Because anyone who knows about trading, knows it is not about sharing. All these discussions going round the houses about the topic as you read on these boards and elsewhere cannot solve the requirements people have to convert inabilities to abilities.

Socrates
There is something about trading that is deeply personal to each of us. It is that something which distinguishes our strategy from another person's strategy. It is the reason why purely mechanical systems or guru-based alerts cannot be entirely satisfactory, even if they prove to be profitable, for most of us.

There are many people who are enticed by the promises of trading - independence and money primarily, who do not have the personality and ability to trade successfully. Some may acquire this through patience and learning, but these methods of acquisition depend on innate abilities and personalit characteristics in the first place.

[
One may start with the idea it can be initially shared, and this is true but only to a certain level of understanding and achievement, at a very basic and rudimentary mechanical level which is a gradient which is manageable for most people, provided they have the right character, for starters.

Yes - a web-based anonymous forum can only really share at two levels:
- a basic mechancial level - any deeper mechancial level requires much greater depth and volume than can easily be achieved or tolerated in this kind of medium
- a sharing of personal experiences - what comes to mind recently is a thread started by Tubbs, which I felt personally very drawn towards and, in dispensing my advice, I also gained from it myself. Prior to writing on that thread I felt a bit down, but was elevated at the end of the process
.

[
So it can be a hell of an odessey from beginning to end, and for those with the wrong faculties, a fultile and impossible mission. They are only able to discover this for themselves afterwards, not before. This is because in the first instance they refused to acknowledge their own inabilities and / or succeeded in hiding them.

Now there are two main ideas to consider, the first is it requires a lot of work not only on the topic, but more importantly, on self.

The second is that in reality The Journey cannot be shared and also the END of the Journey, which is the attainment of absolute proficiency, is about survival of the fittest, and cannot be shared either, so none of it is about sharing.

I know that you get a lot of stick on this site about these views, but there is an arduous process that one must go through to gain experience and tune abilities in the market. I don't believe that it is unique to trading, but nonetheless it exists. At the end of the process everything is easier, indeed natural.

No book that can be written can do it justice, not only because the frames of reference of the reader are apt to be so different, but also because because cloning of readers is impossible because writing about it or describing it is not enough, it has to be undergone, it has to be lived to be appreciated and understood. .......
Therefore to try to write a proper book about it is pointless.

Most books on trading can only really succeed on a mechanical level e.g. they show you a chart parttern that you might try to trade. Even at this level the chart pattern is a static example and you need to apply it, yourself, to live charts to determine how it works, what constraints there are and you need to learn it by heart and feel the emotions of trading it live. This is if the book is good. How often have you, after passing the newbie stage, felt disastisfied by the contents of a trading book or course. How often have you said to yourself - well I learnt one or two things, but I know most of it already. The mechanics of trading can be learnt very quickly, but the application of the techniques, the creation of a strategy, the application of the strategy and the development of oneself as a trader takes a lot longer.

This is why I reacted the way I did to Blackcab's summary of the Darvas book. He distilled it into just a couple of sentences. This was the essence of the book and I have just noted his reply to my post whereby he confirmed that it did not really add much to his trading ability.

Don't get me wrong - there are some trading classics e.g John Murphy that provide a lot of mechancial information, especially at the beginning, but they don't tell half the story.

Charlton

 

[SOCRATES]

socrates if you would convert your "journey to the basement" to pdf, it would be so helpful.

You mean Journey FROM the Basement I suppose.

I wrote it because I was encouraged by a posh bird who knows her stuff inside out and who spotted what I was saying in the first fortnight of my membership on these boards and to recognised the validiy of my statements which caused her immediately to sit bolt upright and take notice.

I then agreed to write the thread with the idea of it being the first of a series.

I tried at first in various ways to bring to the audience a central core of an idea to focus upon. The original intent was to explain it in plain language with detailed instructions as to how to attain the correct mental state required in a series of graded steps.

I was, at that stage, naively prepared and disposed to reveal and explain everything.

I found that the messages did not land.

I then tried different formats.

Finally the format of presenting axioms in the form of allegories seemed at first to have some response, but this response became progressively more argumentative and off the path I intended.

Therefore instead of completing the whole agenda that refers to the development of a persona created specifically for trading, I was obligated not to take the discussions any further and had the thread closed.

This also caused me not to include the 7 keys crucial to unlocking the ability to develop the persona as a series of carefully structured steps, and instead reducing the thread to discussing the persona required but not actually explaining the process of how to attain and develop it.

For these reasons the thread is incomplete, and remains unfinished.

The fact that it is incomplete serves to stimulate some readers to averse responses to it and a few who are able to glean from it useful insights to react favourably to it.

I am not disposed to do any more work on it, nor to include the chunks missing out of it, nor to provide the 7 keys to unlock, nor to progress with the other proposed threads as sequels in graded information, nor to convert it to pdf format at all.

This eliminates the risk of the keys, which are very valuable, being plaigarised and misused.

This is because the membership of this website has taught me a very valuable lesson that I have been made to learn, and that I am grateful for.

This is another reason why I remain on this site. I continue to learn, but not in the way you might think I am learning, or what might fancifully be thought I need to learn at all.

What I have learnt here has nothing to do with trading but to do with the behaviour and conduct of people, which I find horribly fascinating.

Once trading has been fully mastered there is nothing further to do, but to press the right buttons at the right time, which is tedious and sometimes boring and predictable, but to be able to observe people is an entirely different proposition altogether.

It could best be described as an Anthropological Study and not as an Infromation Gathering Excercise like nearly everybody else is doing, whether consciously or otherwise, whether ethically or unethically and whether effectively or not.

I therefore regret to inform you I will not convert anything to pdf format, sorry.

 

[sp1]

Must have books eh?

These are the points I would like to share.

We are all unique and so is the reality we all have. But my reality has been changing quite alot over the recent years.

I believe that I can only operate because my reality developed to be at an extreem of the distribution of realities.

I dont actually know any one who agrees with many aspects of my reality. I communicate with those that share segments of my reality through books and texts. It is those books and texts that represent "ideas". Its those ideas that are closer to being "Must-haves".

Stock operator has plenty of ideas. As mentioned it give more as you grow.

If you want to develop your reality regarding one aspect of the fundamentals read "Mystery of banking" by M.Rothbard and follow the train of reasoning it may develop for you.

Another book full of leads to interesting ideas is How the world really works By A.b.Jones

Both these books have flaws in my view. And this brings me to a general point,that I find it really interesting to read in all peoples work thoese areas where the author has missed curcial avenues to develop or propagates untruths and gets things wrong (ie where our realities conflict). There is a whole class of books that have a lot of chaff with the wheat but they were helpfull to me..like the usual path of Mamis, Niell, Magee, and many others from Fraser Publishing I have only read 10 from this Publisher yet. But i keep buying them cos they provide raw materials, for the process of my development.

This brings me to what Socrates mentioned, that it is a way of developing that comes from a frame work of ideas that is even more the "Must-have". I know people who have some of the ideas i have but it has not dveloped in to the said driving motion for them to empower them self.

Then there are the great multi level books that Socrates has pointed to. In other threads.

These are multi level because like socratess' posts they dont land till you are ready and they continue to open vistas of ideas as you work and develop your self.

Finally there is the essential book to my life the one that started the process of changing and questioning my reality. It is a book soo powerfull and soo awsome that it has turned the order of things upside down for the time that its author predicted it would. Its ideas were revolutionary...indeed it's author claims it to be perfect. Weather it is or not a a matter of your reality.

In my reality the authorities know it to be the book of perfect laws. And either they cover the truth to maintain the order of things or they know no better. I choose not to openly say what it is because most pay attention to the messenger and not the message.

 

[blackcab]

I choose not to openly say what it is

The bible?

 

[SOCRATES]

Socrates
There is something about trading that is deeply personal to each of us. It is that something which distinguishes our strategy from another person's strategy. It is the reason why purely mechanical systems or guru-based alerts cannot be entirely satisfactory, even if they prove to be profitable, for most of us.

There are many people who are enticed by the promises of trading - independence and money primarily, who do not have the personality and ability to trade successfully. Some may acquire this through patience and learning, but these methods of acquisition depend on innate abilities and personalit characteristics in the first place.

Yes you are perfectly correct Charlton. That is why I say from time to time that traders are born, not made. this serves to infuriate some people because their belief structures that they hold dear are so strongly embedded that they view anything that contradicts as a personal affront, instead of taking note and striving to modify.


Yes - a web-based anonymous forum can only really share at two levels:
- a basic mechancial level - any deeper mechancial level requires much greater depth and volume than can easily be achieved or tolerated in this kind of medium
- a sharing of personal experiences - what comes to mind recently is a thread started by Tubbs, which I felt personally very drawn towards and, in dispensing my advice, I also gained from it myself. Prior to writing on that thread I felt a bit down, but was elevated at the end of the process
.
The question is, that trading is not about sharing, it is about competing.
Because it is about competing, it is what it is.
Now what happens is that everyone has to start somewhere.
None of us are born knowing, we all have to learn, but more importantly, we all have to learn to teach ourselves to learn. Now this is not an easy obstacle course. But, finally, there is an end to it when total proficiency is attained. Beyond this total proficiency and additonal to it there is a question of the development of personal and individual edges. The attainement of an edge over and beyond total proficiency is priceless. This is why edges have to be guarded jealously, not through selfishness, but because in the end analysis this is about the survival of the fittest, and not the weakest. This arena is not designed to accomodate the weakest, cruelly and inexorably it is constructed to accomodate the strongest.

I know that you get a lot of stick on this site about these views, but there is an arduous process that one must go through to gain experience and tune abilities in the market. I don't believe that it is unique to trading, but nonetheless it exists. At the end of the process everything is easier, indeed natural.

I get a lot of stick on this website, and to me it is like water on a duck's back, I assure you, but if you read carefully all the argumentative, rude, impertinent, irrelevant, contradictory, offensive, derogatory, malicious, inept, etc., comments, you will never read these comments written by real killer traders, they are written by newbies or individuals who are not successful, are themselves struggling, or know very little, or by persistent stalkers and habitual troublemakers. The well informed and knowledgeable do not behave in this way. They observe and do not make public comments. They are willing to confide, but out of public view. These are the members that matter to me, who are likeminded and proficient with whom it is a pleasure to discuss and exchange ideas, but in private.

I agree wholeheartedly with what you say. It is one hell of an odessey. But the great majority do not see it that way at all. They are apt to consider it is not relevant to them. Therefore very few persist to the very end, and those that do, and succeed confirm what you say, that, in the end analysis none of this is madly difficult, even though the route may be one hell of a route.
Then on the other hand there are people who are content with mediocrity. I personally, and I can speak for my group, are not interested in mediocrity, but instead in the pursuit of absolute excellence. For this reason, the majority of them are members, but never post.
I get a lot of stick from them also, from time to time, for persisting in the way I do with this lot in here and wasting time, until I explain and illustrate to them the responses, to allow them to get a reality on which part of this firmament they currently inhabit.

Most books on trading can only really succeed on a mechanical level e.g. they show you a chart parttern that you might try to trade. Even at this level the chart pattern is a static example and you need to apply it, yourself, to live charts to determine how it works, what constraints there are and you need to learn it by heart and feel the emotions of trading it live. This is if the book is good. How often have you, after passing the newbie stage, felt disastisfied by the contents of a trading book or course. How often have you said to yourself - well I learnt one or two things, but I know most of it already. The mechanics of trading can be learnt very quickly, but the application of the techniques, the creation of a strategy, the application of the strategy and the development of oneself as a trader takes a lot longer.

Yes, agreed, absolutely.
What is more, many of these individuals who are writing books ought not to be writing anything at all on the subject. This is because their knowledge base is very small, very limited. You only have to look deeply into what is written and how it is written or explanained to arrive at this conclusion immediately. But I get the impression, and it may only be an impression, but I have ths gut feeling that some of these individuals write books because they themselves are learning. Then they write them in the hope someone will come along and put them right. The same applies to some individuals who post on these boards and endlessly reply to questions with questions. This is a posture that does not make sense in the case of someone who really knows what he is talking about. Insofar as I am concerned, if I am asked a question, then I give an answer. If the question is an inappropriate one for any reason, then I say so. If I do not consider it appropriate or prudent to give an answer to a question on a sensitive trading matter in a public forum then I say I am not willing to answer it and the reasons why, or, the question is answered, but away from public view, if the questioner is worthy of it, by PM. If the topic is highly sensitive, then I confer with my group, who then give me their views as to whether the question merits a response or not. I respect and often rely on their well grounded views and subsequetly always act in accordance with harmonious concensus arrived at.

This is why I reacted the way I did to Blackcab's summary of the Darvas book. He distilled it into just a couple of sentences. This was the essence of the book and I have just noted his reply to my post whereby he confirmed that it did not really add much to his trading ability.

Don't get me wrong - there are some trading classics e.g John Murphy that provide a lot of mechancial information, especially at the beginning, but they don't tell half the story.

Yes I agree.
Charlton

.

 

[frugi]

I found that the messages did not land.

Socrates,

Perhaps that is because, for some individuals at least, it takes a long and often painful relationship with the market before what you were saying in that thread really starts to make sense. I don't mean that in any derogatory way, either to reader or writer. All I mean is that for the majority I believe there are some stages of development in this profession that simply cannot be done satisfactorily in reverse order. That was/is certainly the case for me. As you know, at the time you wrote it, the thread sailed pretty much clean over my head, because I did not have the experience to open the relevant doors of perception through which to attempt to assimilate it. Returning to the thread now is a disconcertingly new but considerably more rewarding experience, for which I thank you, if a little late.

I wonder if trading changes more in one's personality and methods of perception than might be comfortably admitted; or perhaps I was simply younger, ruder and even more ignorant then than I am now.

 

[sp1]

The bible?

Interesting name for a book.
Bible from the greek word Biblios meaning Book.

Interesting that the preachings of Prophet Jesus was known as
the Gospel.

I'm personally not that current on when the book we collectivley know as
the Bible got its name.

But I have it on good authority from a man who dad was a Church Minister
that the term Bible came into use later.

He related to me that another text predicted the appearance of the
trinity idea and that the book of these people would be called the "Book"

This was done in the said text by reference to "People of the Book" and
"Do not claim that God is three".

The author of this text predicted that there would be a branch of
monothiests whose book would be Biblios and that they will claim
the trinity (on the face of it this contradiction is absurd. And all
the more imporant that it actually happened, we have a branch of
monothiest who claim God is three and thier book is called the Bible
from the Greek word biblios meaning book).

According to the source, these predictions in the said text are hundereds
of years before the trinity appeared in the time line of what today we
call the Bible.

It is easy to claim this is coincidence but I have read somany things from
the said text that have later come to pass that even if I give each a 50%
probbability then the resulting chance of them all being proven right is
not satisfactory explained by coincidence.

 

[SOCRATES]

Socrates,

Perhaps that is because, for some individuals at least, it takes a long and often painful relationship with the market before what you were saying in that thread really starts to make sense. I don't mean that in any derogatory way, either to reader or writer. All I mean is that for the majority I believe there are some stages of development in this profession that simply cannot be done satisfactorily in reverse order. That was/is certainly the case for me. As you know. at the time you wrote it, the thread sailed pretty much clean over my head, because I did not have the experience to open the relevant doors of perception through which to correctly assimilate it. Returning to the thread now is a disconcertingly new but considerably more rewarding experience, for which I thank you, if a little late.

I wonder if trading changes more in one's personality and methods of perception than might be comfortably admitted; or perhaps I was simply younger, ruder and even more ignorant then than I am now.

I agree wholeheartedly with what you say.

This is because, whatever anybody says, the route to perfection is a tortuous and very long one.

The length and difficulty of the route is directly propoportional to the baggage that the individual already carries having acquired it as a consequence of life experiences in the ordinary course of living, that is simple.

Some individuals carry very little baggage and others carry more and some carry a lot.

This baggage load is beyond the aegis of the carrier to control. It is a consequence of all sorts of things some beyond the control of the carrier and some not.

But the amount of baggage constiutes very real obstacles to progress, even if these obstacles are invisible intangible and in many examples difficult if not initially impossible to identify. This is because much of it is deeply rooted in the subconscious.

The preservation of life mechanism in human beings is very protective towards any subconscious and conscious knowledge gained by experiene that it CORRECTLY or INCORRECTLY views as a threat to life, and ultimately to its authority to preserve life.

This preservation of life mechanism does not reason. It acts. It just acts in the only way it can to preserve life.

These actions get in the way of evolving as a trader, because in order to evolve, these actions have to be rendered ineffective, and the whole preservation of life mechanism reviewed and re wired.

This re wiring is possible in some individuals, but very very few. In most people a mechanism in parallel has to be created which is not tainted by this "protective" agenda.

But what happens is that this ingrained protective agenda serves very well for everything EXCEPT TRADING, curiously, the reason is that trading is irrevocable, finite.

The mechanism cannot cope with it. It also has inbuilt tamper proof elements to stop interference with it, otherwise its existence and authority would be compromised, and this is part of its root core of its mission and hence its existence.

What happens is that for the purposes of trading, and for trading only, the preservation of life mechanism is not utilised because it it deactivated.

Therefore when in trading mode one is not human in a humanistic sense of having feelings or emotions and so on, but instead devoid of all feelings like a sort of alien being.

The ability to snap into alien being mode and back again into humanistic mode is a skill.

This skill takes a lot of effort and time to master. It is invisible to any observer. It does allow one to be sort of two people on command, at will, by choice, as and when required, instantaneously, so yes in that respect once the ability and skill to do it is mastered, everything changes.

You can never be the same again, which is true.

But I am very pleased that what I have imparted to you in the past is serving you well. May the progress continue. I am very happy for you. Well done.

If you can dare to change yourself then it is within your power to change everything.


Kind Regards,

 

[frugi]

DB,

I find the majority of the thread's wandering like that of a drunken seamstress quite harmless and acceptable, but if the majority of its readers or the other mods disagree then it can be split in two, though once again this is likely to spoil the natural flow of discussion and remove what some might see as valuable content.

Of course if you would like a thread confined specifically to a list of book titles, you have the advantage of being able to start and moderate one in your forum, to your heart's content.

I might also point out that "Bertie's pontifications" are not the only off-topic posts present, by any means. For instance several of your jibes (minus one which was too close to the bone) also remain unmoved, though future ones may well not as they are becoming rather repetitive and starting to elicit complaints.

The membership is surely aware by now that the two of you do not see eye to eye and it would make a glorious change if you could both please agree to disagree and leave the petty insults untyped.

Thank you.

 

[SOCRATES]

Talking about books, while we are at it, the only book I rate is "The Remininscences". It is absolutely required reading in my circle above everything else.

I have an early edition in hard copy.

On the back flap I have, in pencil, annotated interesting paragraphs with their page numbers.

I treat it as a textbook, because every time I pick it up I find a chord that strikes.

it is a most wonderful work, and the thing is, the more experienced you become, the more it reveals to you in terms of what can best be described as "associated inferences". This is because although it is written in conversational style, it is an alladin's cave of very meaningful concepts untainted by the passage of time.

I have 8 copies apart from the master copy. I have them lying around all over the house and pick one up from time to time at random to have a look. Invariably I never succeed in shutting it without having derived a meaningful realisation of some sort or other.

I will add that a realisation is something you probably already know, but is suddenly consciously revealed as the consequence of having a meaningful recognition of it.

It is and remains, a true masterpiece, and has everything for everyone whatever their level of proficiency.