The Journey from the Basement

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oatman said:
When I couldn't convince a colleague, for instance, to go short on a chart formation, I would hold the chart upside down in front of a mirror and ask them "would you buy this market?"
It was very obvious how some people were so reluctant to short.
They'd never run a short as far as a long position.
Yes, if you turn a chart upside down or if you turn it back to front, it
all looks very similar. Has it not occured to you that you are dealing with a
dimension whose effect on you depends on the DIRECTION from which
you persuade yourself to view it. ?

This is why it is imperative to remain open minded and impartial always.
There are great temptations to see in a chart what you want to see and
to ignore what you do not accept. It has to do with acceptance.

At a higher level you are able to avoid
this by recognisiing in yourself when you are in that kind of subsceptible
mode and to act above it.
 
Finirama said:
The process i use for continous self-assessment is keeping a trading log, which i am sure many do.

However, since Socrates posts, this has developed from a Trading Log into a TRADING DIARY and have learnt much, much more about my trading due to this.

So how are these different?

The Trading Log only noted the business aspects of trading.... the usual stuff like trades made, profit/loss, ongoing trading expectancy, risk/money management and best entry/exit signals. This embeds the pre-requisite mechanical knowledge required for intuition.

The Trading Diary is more detailed as it includes the above AS WELL AS MY EMOTIONAL STATE before, after and during the trading day and during trades. This allows me to analyse emotional patterns and bridge the gap to best trader practices by

1) Recognising what emotions i am/was trading with
2) Reflect to Realise the root cause of the fear so that i could then
3) Analyse how they affected my trades
3) Change my perception of the fear

My end day briefing concludes by me imagining the day through the eyes of a Star Chamber Trader and rehearsing any learnings from the day (e.g. could be something as simple as thinking aloud when you place a stop to re-inforce that you are in control of your losses, or saying good trade even if you got stopped out.) I stand at least 10 feet away and then turn around and imagine yourself in your old trading position doing what I was doing. What did I look like? How was my breathing? Notice any tension in the body. Notice the breathing. Then, i imagine a great trader in the same situation. What would that trader look like? How would he respond to the situation? Notice all the details of his posture and breathing. Lastly, return to your body of your model trader

I have also found that part of a true self-assessment is to discover what your true mission in life is and how trading fits into the equation. In my case, for example, i realised that i was trying to realise my life dreams through trading....i believed that it was this subconscious fear that caused my lack of ability to pull the trigger at a good trade or renter after a lossing trade.....i was subsconciously, in effect, trading my dreams away. I have now overcome this issue by changing my perception of the issue....mainly the re-stating the issue in another way.

As Scorates as mentioned before, this process of self-assessment is not pleasant, invloves continous hard work, though if you approach it in the right way for yourself it can be fun along the way and it is a journey definetly worth taking.

So if you have yet, i strongly urge you get on-board
Good post, Finny.
Yes it is not pleasant at all ~ and it is this unpleasantness which
in large measure prevents or deters fiercly inquisitive introspection,
very effectively I may add to the detriment of the individual who
aspires, but does not dare to dare.
 
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Socrates
Your arguments in 1380 are well put and faultless
I have lost count of the number of times I have wiped green slime off my lips.(how many toads - oops red herrings - oops indicators are there out there?)
Where do you get the patience, time, determination and selflessness from?
Well I have some ideas on 2 of these

1382

"There are great temptations to see in a chart what you want to see and to ignore what you do not accept. It has to do with acceptance." I am seeing that more and more now.
 
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Rognvald said:
Socrates
Your arguments in 1380 are well put and faultless
Thank you, Rognavald, and in addition, I forgot to include the other category of Duffer.

This third caregory really muddles everybody even more.

This Duffer who is a well meaning Duffer, and succeeds in delivering to the audience
what the audience truly needs, now goes and spoils his gift by succumbing to the temptation of on the one hand the pecuniary advantage to be had by trying to extend and add
what is not necessary and superfluous,and on the other hand subsequently succumbing to
the trap of giving the audience what it wants., thus rendering a gross misservice to his
own mission and the requirements of the audience, who are totally prisoner as a consequenc of their inabilities.

This is very tragic, and I have seen it repeated often. This category of Duffer does huge damage when in fact his intentions are honourable. But it is his inability to perceive
what is truly required in order for him to proceed in a correct manner.

Now, if this was not sufficiently tragic, what is even more tragic is that as a consequence of
the audience partly through its inabilities, partly as a result of miseducation, partly as aresult
of an inability to have correct yardsticks that would enable it collectively and individually to
give accurate and correct feedback, the Duffer continues blundering along.
Now what happens is that the Duffer is seen as innovative, clever, and so on,
which is not the case. This does not mean that adults have to be treated like children,
except in an environment in which they are not only children but, if left to their own
devices are apt to behave like naughty children, some of them very naughty indeed.,
and this is why there are elements who are also disrespectful and rude, etc.,

The tragedy is, that as a consequence of the audience not being prepared for this
scenario and in addition the audience persisting in applying their own life experiences
and in addition the audience not being prepared for ruthless and what they view as
unfair or cruel information shocks, and in addition there not being available a structured
alternative for them to be able to change themselves and in addition there being in place
a natural propensity to resist what is unfamiliar, uncomfortable, unusual, strange, odd,
alien, (all this in relation to their opinions as a consequence of their own life experiences)
and in addition a total refusal to change themselves before attempting any projects,
therefore as everybody accepts the Duffery, no one is encouraged to progress, like the example of the Rhino who remained immobile as he believed himself to be imprisprisoned
by solid walls.

This is not so. These are intellectual and emotional cobwebs that people are subject to ,
without even being aware they are subjected to ~ I am doing my best here to try as hard
as I can to raise the levels of awareness of the audience, because until the audience
is able to raise its individual and collective awareness and have realisations the path
to any further progress is not blocked, but they block it themselves. What actually serves
in large measure in addition to all of the above to trip them at athe final hurdle is Acceptance,
the lack of, that is.

I shall persist, I promise.
 
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Socrates

mmm, I thought you might say something like that - as Rognvald says above the argument is incontestable.

So far as I am concerned, I have over twenty five tears (I mean years! Was that a Freudian slip typo :D ) of mindset baggage to demolish. I was reluctant to do so, but you have persuaded me and the bulldozers have been levelling the ground. As a result I now feel like a totally naked rookie just starting out on the trading journey.

Nonetheless, I want to thank you very much for causing such an upheaval and for the tremdous amount of hard work and thought you are putting in to trying to help. All that effort on your part is not in vain and I'm sure many others (both contributors and lurkers) will agree.

Thanks again.

Jon
 
barjon said:
Socrates

mmm, I thought you might say something like that - as Rognvald says above the argument is incontestable.

So far as I am concerned, I have over twenty five tears (I mean years! Was that a Freudian slip typo :D ) of mindset baggage to demolish. I was reluctant to do so, but you have persuaded me and the bulldozers have been levelling the ground. As a result I now feel like a totally naked rookie just starting out on the trading journey.

Nonetheless, I want to thank you very much for causing such an upheaval and for the tremdous amount of hard work and thought you are putting in to trying to help. All that effort on your part is not in vain and I'm sure many others (both contributors and lurkers) will agree.

Thanks again.

Jon
Marvellous ! Thank you Barjon, this is the greatest gift you can return for my efforts,
which are to bring you higher in your awareness in order that you may become empowered.
 
Socrates your last posts have been absolutely superb - thank you for
taking the considerable time and trouble to compose them.

I hope you don't mind a mechanical intrusion at this point, but I think
I have an example of 'manipulation to facilitate accumulation' which I
would like to share, and also add my painfully ignorant observations
with all the benefits hindsight can offer. I suspect most of this is
wrong, but this is how I see it.

From 02:00 the instrument is persistently sold for four hours.

Between 02:00 and 03:45 the sellers are well in control, with volume
increasing as stale bulls and premature buyers, swiftly disillusioned, sell
their longs adding fuel to the down trend. The solitary green bar at
03:00 is on tiny volume suggesting no more than an iota of amateur
covering and virtually no new buying, which is confirmed by the
subsequent fall.

The 03:45 bar is something of a weak climax, but not nearly sufficient
to turn the market, given the number of shorts that piled in earlier.
More contracts will be needed to turn this canoe round.

But from 03.45 onwards the Twig Bird starts to peer from her nest and
take a casual interest. Why? The volume now decreases as the price
falls, suggesting a dwindling group of sellers, yet still a lack of
enthusiasm by buyers.

Some of them have been burned once already by fighting the trend so
they’re probably telling themselves fearfully 'I must not fight trends
ever again' and stay well clear. The others, who matter, simply have more patience
and better timing. If there was real buying the volume would not dwindle
in such a manner. The instrument effectively 'falls under its own
weight' while the Twig Bird breaks alertly into a potter towards the log.

The green arrow marks a potential turning point by way of a doji on
higher volume than the preceding long red bar. Although the red bar is
long the volume is modest enough to confirm earlier suspicions that
real sellers are dwindling, while the few small fry panic. The doji's higher
volume and high close suggest the final sellers being absorbed, mainly by shorts covering.

Consequently, between 06:00 and 08:15 there is some further tentative buying and
sporadic covering by a portion of quite happy shorts. The volume increases but
the price does not increase proportionally. What is happening here? The
big shorts are not closing their positions; in fact they are probably drip feeding
premature new buyers (who liked the look of the doji) with yet more contracts. The big
boys want a little more out of this fall so they let the price increase very gently, subtly distributing to retail who anticipate a breakout up.

As a touching gesture they manipulate the price to just above resistance
at 08:30 (black arrow) so they can sell more to gullible longs who think
there is a valid breakout. Of course the breakout is not valid because,
for one, it is not confirmed by sufficiently savage volume. Is this
manipulation to facilitate distribution perhaps?

Anyway as soon as the breakout is seen to fail by the bearish close at
the bottom of the bar, there is a hurried emotional selloff on
increasing volume. The big boys are happy and ready to reverse.

And so they do. The bar at 09:30 is my favourite. It bears the hallmarks of an
astute Twig Bird winkling worms for all she's worth among the violence. A tick or two below
support is all that is required to hit the final stops and also, I suspect, collect a few contracts from premature shorts who short the trap, failing to recognise it as such. A clear example
of manipulation to facilitate accumulation. I almost laughed at the
beautiful trickery until I remembered how unfortunate it must be for the
counterparties who sold at the bottom at 1.2048.

The next green bar (vertical pink arrow) confused me, because it shoots
up on higher volume than the preceding fake-out bar, when I would have
expected the reverse to be true.

Perhaps the volume is higher, almost climactic, because finally the big
boys cover, at last happy with the size of their meal, and the sumptuous dessert provided by the cruel ambush, while wakeful Lesser Twig Birds quickly become aware of the nature of the trap and also open new longs. There will also be covering from those who unwisely shorted the trap. (Even the Frugi bird, who is usually emotional and
the last to realise anything of significance, managed to eke out a
modest worm here.)

There must be some new longs because the next 10:00 bar is also up, on
lower volume, up now being the path of least resistance as sellers
realise shorting here would be suicidal.

Howevever enthusiasm wanes as we reach resistance again and volume falls
off sharply with a bit of happy long closing but no selling, as the
players await the next move. This is probably more due to the daily
pattern of this instrument, as nothing much generally happens after 5.00
GMT anyway.

Forgive the length - quantity not quality is one of my few fortes, as
is stating the 'bleedin' obvious' I suspect. But if you don't try...
 

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I have some matters on hand at the moment and cannot give your post above my full attention as I would like to but I will come back to you later because there are several volumetric scenarios in it of interest and which merit some comment. BTW is that Topo Giggio on the moon ?

OK, here goes:~

At 1 pm the price is taken to its highest point and the volume driving it is huge in comparison to the previous bars. The next bar on lower volume, is a down bar closing below the middle.
This may or may not be weakness.. The next few bars confirm that weakness because of
their inability to penetrate higher still. They now drift sideways till about 2 oclock and the volume under them is very minor compared to the previous. The price struggles because there is no
demand to support an upmove. Now it begins to collapse, and a price waterfall ensues with increasing volume all the way down, until it hits the price level of 1205 and a quarter, stops dead and recoils, look at the volume under the bar, it is higher thatn the previous bar all of this
could be buying into a fall. If it were the price would spring up immediately, but it doesn't. Instead it begins to meander sideways and the closings nor the volume are conclusive.

Just before 10 the price drops again to the 1205 level, only this time it penetrates deeper and then recovers. This does not indicate a strong market. At htis juncture, it indicates
an undecided market. You have to be careful. Now up till 11 the price lifts and starts to go
sideways again and the spreads are narrow. What will happen next ? not sure.
It is better in circumstnces like this to stop and watch until you are sure and to do nothing
until you are.
 
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No it's Small Clanger, a naughty but charming creature of the 1960s. :)
http://www.clangers.co.uk/home.htm

This might be Topo Giggio. The similarity between them is, er, a little unremarkable if I may be so bold. :D

I await your volume analysis with patience and great interest.
 

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Ah, yes I now remember them on TV. They went round making sounds between themselves no one else understood, yes , very apt, Frugi.
I ventured to ask because La RTI, (Radio Televisone Italiana) , the Italian Television Network also about that time promoted a little mouse just like him, but he didn't make sounds, he spoke in a tiny little voice, but everybody understood him, thanks.
Now look above as I am about to nibble at the chart you have posted.
 
Oh ! And Frugi, BTW, weren't these Clangers....weren't these the ones that lived on the moon ?
And was not the moon made of cheese with lots of little holes the Clangers sat in ?
And weren't these Clangers made of felt, and didn't they communicate with each other
through a series of whistles ? Can anybody else remember ?
Quick ! Before the buffoons appear and interrupt and spoil everything.
And weren't these Clangers very popular as a childrens' programme for adults ?
And does anyone remember if was BBC or ITV ?
 
OoooH ! Frugi ! I have just looked on the website ~ how exciting to see them again !
 
Attention all darksiders !
Have a look at the Clangers Website.
Here those of you who are very young will meet these delightful creatures for the first time.
Those of you who are older will be pleased to renew your acquaintantance with them after so
many years absence. They behave properly and are well worth studying. Very nice, they are,
all of them.
 
Frugi
Was interested in your analysis.

What struck me was where you talk false breakout.
The 9.45 bar is at a lower low than the 6.15 bar and the 10.00 bar is higher than the 8.45 bar - so no real decision yet
 

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Frugi

You are still waiting for Skim's knitting aren't you?:LOL:

Socrates
It may have been BB2 but it was definitely b&w in our house


My fav was Magic Roundabout - same sort of vintage and much too clever for kids - like most good stories for little kids in fact!:cheesy:

i.e can be taken at many different levels - any parallels with trading perhaps?
 

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The Iron Chicken was my favourite, and I distinctly remember a sort of colander device being constructed as a helmet, so one of the clangers could pick up radio waves from outer space! :LOL:
 
Socrates I'm glad you like the Clangers as much as I do. An upstanding community of well mannered creatures who were happy to explore their terrain with an extremely open mind and had scant time for status or material possessions, except of course the sustaining soup and blue string pudding tirelessly provided by the maternal Soup Dragon. I have all the episodes on video and I believe they are still available, if you are interested.


Rognvald though I wait in hope for a second Clanger to join our household, I realise that Skim has far more important bears to knit for infinitely more deserving people, so would not wish to force the issue

I'll get back to you about those breakouts... :)

Q oh yes the Iron Chicken was superb :)
 
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frugi said:
Rognvald though I wait in hope for a second Clanger to join our household, I realise that Skim has far more important bears to knit for infinitely more deserving people, so would not wish to force the issue :)

Pink wool, pattern and knitting needles are ready and waiting for the next batch of bears to leave our shores. When I've waved the bears off, I'll rustle up a Clanger. You never know, I may just finish him in time for Christmas! LOL
 
Skim,

Yippee roll on Christmas! Nice one.

:LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :p

I will send the cost of the materials to a charity of your choice if you are agreeable.
 
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