I’m So Mutable I Have to Change to Trade the Same ;)

[zdo 20]

I’m so mutable I have to change to trade the same

 

ie To trade certain edges/methods, “I” need to continually make inner adjustments to (largely unconscious) shifts in my own mental ‘styles’, to an almost tidal emotional backdrop, and to other seemingly random variations in brain chemistry and physical flow.

 

To boot, many many edges/methods (not nec same as ones above) are met with very very similar shifts to those mentioned above by the market itself...

[Tams 20]

I’m so mutable I have to change to trade the same

 

ie To trade certain edges/methods, “I” need to continually make inner adjustments to (largely unconscious) shifts in my own mental ‘styles’, to an almost tidal emotional backdrop, and to other seemingly random variations in brain chemistry and physical flow.

 

To boot, many many edges/methods (not nec same as ones above) are met with very very similar shifts to those mentioned above by the market itself...

 

I am not sure if I understand what you mean...

[zdo 20]

Back home for a few days then will be gone one more week… been on annual June break – almost 6 weeks this year Have netted about 4 hours of trading the whole time so take whatever I say re: trading with a grain of salt .

 

more on change... (not the kind of 'change you can believe in' btw )

 

For part of ‘my summer vacation’, we stayed a few days in a house on a golf resort. Late one afternoon a few minutes before dusk everyone was chillin’ alone here and there after dinner, so I packed my cargo shorts with balls, grabbed my new approach wedge, and went across the way down to the 12th green to practice short game. For a few minutes, the world fell quieter than silent. No faraway truck or motorcycle noise, no planes in the sky, no wind, no people – even the birds caught on and shut up. Just me and rich vibrant darkening green life all around.

 

For days I had wondered a little about the markets but had kept away from tv and hadn’t thought about the activity of trading. As I set each ball in the same place as the last and attempted to consistently repeat the ‘just right’ stroke, I had a similarity question about consistency in trading.

Is this consistent same same same same same … same … same how I go about trading? Hell No! In trading, I go same same same same same change new same new same… ‘Exchange traded’ markets are not a single regime game! It is a multiple regime game, with extremely variable ascendancies of the regimes. Sit still with one edge and you’re going to wait through some arduous times waiting for it to cycle back around again… oh the inadequacies of 'single factor thinking' in trading !

What thrives about same same same same in an environment that is the epitome of budhi impermanence ?

Now the ‘good’ advice on all forums is sorta the opposite – find a workable plan and never deviate from it … make trading a discipline of inflexibility. Didn’t work for me. The equity curve of my first 7 + years looked like drunken sailor and I was ‘trying’ real hard to go by the ‘38’ rules of successful trading or whatever. What has worked is developing my whole approach centered around knowing when to change.

 

 

 

PS Just realized this may attract some flames. It certainly would on ET, etc... Am sharing these thoughts not to dis those sticking with the 'same', but to let a noob know that is not the only way… an emphasis on something like Neural Chunking may take you much further than a freaking ‘plan’ ( and no, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a plan! )

Edited June 30, 2011 by zdo

[SIUYA 11]

.

‘Exchange traded’ markets are not a single regime game! It is a multiple regime game, with extremely variable ascendancies of the regimes. Sit still with one edge and you’re going to wait through some arduous times waiting for it to cycle back around again… oh the inadequacies of 'single factor thinking' in trading !

 

surely in day trading this is an attempt to circumnavigate that by speeding things up, plus context (I guess my version on regime change) is everything, as nothing works all the time.....often the edge people look for is just that learning to sit and wait is a good thing

 

.Now the ‘good’ advice on all forums is sorta the opposite – find a workable plan and never deviate from it … make trading a discipline of inflexibility. Didn’t work for me. The equity curve of my first 7 + years looked like drunken sailor and I was ‘trying’ real hard to go by the ‘38’ rules of successful trading or whatever. What has worked is developing my whole approach centered around knowing when to change.

 

 

But it can work for others, and my guess is that too often people either dont find a workable plan because they dont look, OR dont find a workable plan that they can live with that suits their personality, OR as it seems maybe in your case for where this might be heading require more that just a working plan to satisfy themselves?

 

Lets see where we go..

[jpennybags 11]

The game around the greens is one of finesse. I've seen those who can play a 9 iron from anywhere and do well… it's a matter of where you place the ball in your stance, speed and launch angle. Many adopt the 9 iron method; some are good at it… some aren't. Employing the 9 iron method works, it's easily taught, and you'll do no damage.

 

The best I've seen, and the most fun to watch, will play any club in the bag… whatever works. This comes from experience, visualization and creativeness. The simple task of getting the ball on the green with as little backspin check as possible and rolling towards the hole, will reward you more often than not, and speaks volumes about your game. Keep the same swing tempo, use a different tool to allow for speed, distance, and launch angle… your chances of failure are reduced. You aren't changing so much… the tool is.

 

For many, the 9 iron method is as close as it gets…I've never known anyone who was good at the short game who labored over what to do… they just step up and do it… regardless of the method.

 

This may have been absolutely no help at all… sorry…. I love golf metaphors.

[zdo 20]

Two types of change I’m talking about here. One is changes btwn systems. The other is changes within systems.

 

re: changes btwn systems. I don’t want to be putting off the tee. I don’t want to be driving or playing an iron on the green. And I don’t want to sit “waiting”

 

The ways I differ from forum and mainstream trading book and article paradigms has been coming up more and more. As I note them it’s helpful to at least take a measure of the disparities. “Waiting” is one of the big ones. It’s actually a whole ‘nother topic but I’ll discuss it here in this context a little bit. (btw I’m not that impatient of a person – no where near pathological or even maladaptive levels.) In all games you are forced to move / play sooner or later. Some immediately. In others all the time. Or you lose. Waiting is not productive. Often prudent - yes, but in the end, neither life nor markets ‘wait’. The very center of my trading approach is MarketTyping to know when to change btwn systems so I do not have to “wait”. Back to golf, I’ve driven off the tee. I can’t ‘wait’ instead of taking the second shot. In trading, we fortunately do at least have the choice to ‘wait’. But if I want a real score ie really play the real, whole game at all, I don’t wait through to take the next tee shot. I change clubs and take the second shot period. I change whether I want to or not, whether I’m ‘skeerd’ or not, whether … I have to change to stay the ‘same’ / survive and thrive. The idea is to put self in a game (and timeframes) where the activity doesn’t require much waiting for. Switching to surfing analogies - Put self in surf that has a good wave every 10 or 11 waves not once an hour and wait only maybe one more wave not until a whole bunch of convoluted conditions line up.

 

Now to the other ‘change’ at hand - changes within systems.

 

I like golf analogies too (but never let them turn into metaphors ). In this case, I just happened to be enjoying some golf practice when I had a trading thought.

In golf, basically I am seeking to develop four ‘biomechanically’ consistent strokes to the extreme. Yes, making / allowing certain compensations if ball lies up or down slope, etc. but still, developing a motor memory and consistently replicating the ‘perfect’ strokes. But in trading, I am making many more on the fly changes and adjustments within a ‘stroke’. But golf analogies fall down here, because for one the hole is always moving … tennis anyone?

 

re: 'waiting' within a signal. Wait but don’t wait too long (no confirmation BS, it has a ‘breath’ that won’t wait). In surfing, when catching a wave, wait until just pre break and go (again no confirmation BS and more it has a ‘breath’ – synch up with it… outcomes unknown…)

 

SIUYA, would like to get into the ‘regime’ topic with you a little bit - but time is up. Hopefully it will still be alive when I return in a week or so…

 

All the best…

 

zdo

Edited July 1, 2011 by zdo

[SIUYA 11]

zdo - when you are back from that other frustrating but somehow rewarding game of golf, you might be interested in this. A friend writes this blog - trading diary of a late riser - and he has just switched into writing a new one - I think you might find it interesting,

(personally I am not like him, but I find his thoughts and responses something we all have, and how we deal with them interesting)

 

Trading as therapy